‘It’s misery:’ N.S. women fight province for out-of-country health coverage

Two Nova Scotia women are seeking a judicial review of decisions made by the health department to refuse out-of-country coverage for their surgeries.

Two Nova Scotia women are seeking a judicial review of decisions made by the health department to refuse out-of-country coverage for their surgeries.

Jennifer Brady is a single mother living with lymphedema, a progressive disease that causes lymphatic fluid to build up, leading to painful swelling. She acquired the condition three years ago after cervical cancer surgery to remove her lymph nodes.

To help ease the pain, Brady said she pays out of pocket to wear costly compression stockings day and night and sees a massage therapist for manual lymphatic drainage.

“I’ve been doing everything I can to manage the symptoms, so that’s referred to as conservative therapy,” she told Global News. “All of those things I was doing and none of them were actually working to stop or slow the progression of my disease, so it was continuing to get worse.”

In November, she got a blood infection — a common complication from lymphedema — which landed her in the emergency department for five days.

“Within hours I had a really high fever, my left leg in particular was super swollen, very painful, red hot, and just red looking at it, and that put me in the ER with IV antibiotics,” she said.

“That brought me to surgery, needing surgery as something that was actually going to address the underlying disease and not just manage the symptoms.”

The problem is surgery for lymphedema is not offered in Nova Scotia, and in order to get funding for out-of-country health care, a referral by a Nova Scotia specialist is required, according to the province.