Jolene Janes
February 6, 2026
This is just my story and the start of my journey to bring awareness to our severely broken system. I am now unable to work, continue my education, or even exhibit basic executive functioning, due to my physical and mental state.
I apologize if the formatting is off, this is my first time “blogging”. I will edit if it needs to be.
I am writing this to share my experience with the health care system in Alberta, starting with the experience of my mother’s death, on October 18, 2023. I have never publicly shared this experience, although I did contact a few lawyers, who gave me advice but ultimately said it was an expensive, potentially losing battle. My mother was living with me to help me with my busy life as a mom, and to help financially.
The morning of October 18th, my mother woke me between 5 and 6am. She said she couldn’t breathe, that something was wrong, and she was scared. I jumped up and took her, in my jeep, to Red Deer emergency. My children were still in bed, and I let my ex know I was leaving. On the way to the ER, she said “I’m scared” at least 3 times. The common opinion I’m sure I will hear – you should have called an ambulance. I was in my jeep in less time that it would have taken me to make the call. Mom was still in her slippers and nightgown, didn’t even have socks on. We got to emerg, went into triage. Explained her shortness of breath, chest tightness. They checked her levels and gave her an oxygen tank. In my head, and probably my mom’s, this was being thought of as something respiratory. I honestly thought, that although this was serious, she would be okay.We waited 6 or 7 hours. I don’t know the exact times, but if I went through my messages from that day, between myself and my brother, myself and my dad, phone calls and texts to my manager at work, I could time everything pretty closely. They finally get her in and hook her up to an ECG – one thing I remember clearly, is the doctor saying “Oh my, you’re having a big ole’ heart attack”
Fact – when you are having a heart attack, time is FATAL. Your heart, is literally being damaged, every second that goes by without medical intervention. If any doctor wants to challenge that, give me a call.
The staff then got her into the ICU room immediately, and called in their cardiologist. She needed urgent transport to Edmonton, just had to wait (even longer), for ambulance transport. I stayed until the ambulance got there, the paramedics or drivers, or whoever they were, were extremely compassionate. I should have called an ambulance. Me and my aunt followed up to Edmonton, and got to her in her room. The nurses there told me, that she tested positive for COVID. Almost a full day into this experience. So me and my aunt had to wear head-to-toe gown and masks, to spend what I know now, as the last moments with my mom. If I had known she was going to die, that would not have been how her last moments would have been spent – in fear, and not even able to see our faces.
While in the room with her, her oxygen levels dropped again. They rushed us out of the room and said they were rushing her to surgery for a stint. Didn’t even say goodbye.Me and my aunt waited, and the doctor came out. Mom’s heart stopped before they got her to surgery, and they tried to resuscitate, but she was gone.I called who I needed to call, and now me and my aunt had to drive back to Edmonton, it was late and I had to go home without my mother, and tell my 2 children what happened to their grandmother, who had just cooked them dinner and gave them junk food and showered them with her love the night before. It’s even harder to hear stories like this when you humanize these people, isn’t it?So, with that being said, I will now write about my own health journey, with everything escalating over the last 14 months or so. My symptoms, as it currently stands, are:
Heart palpations
Tightness in my chest
Feeling like I’m not getting enough air when I breatheSevere
cognitive decline – my working memory is severely poor, and my executive functioning is diminishing.
Social Isolation. Not nurturing friendships or attending 12 step meetings.
Sweating – when performing simple tasks, and severe night sweats.
Uncontrolled stress response- something as easy as approaching a yellow light triggers a stress response that makes me dysfunctional, sweaty,
I don’t know who to blame, because I’m not on the inside. I wanted heart testing. I wanted my Cortisol checked. And I was entitled to it.
Before the negligence of my doctor, I was an active mom of 2 with 2 jobs, and a 90 average in her college courses, as well as an active member of my city’s recovery community. Now, I have left both jobs with medical notice, and have had to quit school. I am very angry, and very unwell.I am 37 years old, and have had symptoms of heart problems/blood pressure problems for some time. I am a recovered alcoholic (3 years), and even in my drinking times, I remember waking up with heart palpations, sweating, feeling like my heart was going to explode. Sounds like a typical hangover, maybe it was. I saw many walk-ins, and have tried so many anti-anxiety medications, I couldn’t even keep track. Upon getting sober, I still had anxious symptoms (heart flutters/tightness/light headedness, shortness of breath). I assumed it as anxiety and kept going. My mother died in October 2023, she had a heart attack and Red Deer Hospital neglected to run an ECG for 6 hours, and she died. I should have done something, but I was struck with grief and ill myself. So ill, that I requested an ECG from a walk in doctor shortly after her death. ECG appeared fine, I kept going.
In summer of 2024, I went to a Medical Clinic in Red Deer to meet with a new family doctor. My usual symptoms that I had been living through, were getting worse. I told the doctor I was feeling light headed and fatigued and having a hard time keeping up with my life. He sent me for basic bloodwork, which all came back fine. He then said that he feels it’s a mental health problem, and referred me to a psychiatrist. I met my psychiatrist shortly after, and instantly felt comfort in his care. He helped me get off medications that I had been put on during my addiction, that I did not need to be on. I went from being on 5 anxiety medications, to one ADHD medication and and mild anti depressant. I feel good about that, because I always wondered if it was the mix of meds causing the symptoms. Things were okay, but I was still fatigued all of the time, still feeling chest tightness.While I was working with my psychiatrist, my symptoms got even worse. My fatigue had turned to exhaustion, and my cognitive function had declined so bad that I left my second job (serving in the evenings). This was at the end of October 2025. I went into his (my psych)’s office one day with symptoms of a very intense panic attack, and he saw me right away. I had done some research on IV Ketamine therapy, and me and my psychiatrist agreed that it would be beneficial for me to try, for my treatment-resistant depression, and in hopes it would help relieve the anxiety-symptoms and the exhaustion. I went back to the family doctor, to get him to sign off that I was physically well to go ahead with treatments. He wrote the consent with no concerns. The ketamine treatment was done in 8 sessions, was scary, but effective – my depressive symptoms that had been untreatable lifted, and I feel worthy again.
But the symptoms persisted. Me and my psychiatrist were both happy with the results from my treatments, but I was still unwell. But I kept going.
In the last year I have had ongoing bladder problems – I first went to my doctor before the Ketamine treatments. He ran a standard urine analysis, and treated me for “overactive bladder”. The UA came back fine, except for low specific gravity. During my ketamine treatments, I got a bladder infection so bad that I went to my prescribing pharmacist for antibiotics. Once it cleared, I went back to my doctor because I was still having issues. He ran the same UA he had already run (and got the same results), and sent for ultrasound. Ultrasound came back with nothing on the bladder, just a small cyst on my kidney. He did not offer to refer to any specialist.. just said that I may have to be on “a low dose antibiotic for life”.
Just this past 2 weeks, things have gotten very bad. On Monday January 30, I had a mental breakdown at work and left, because I can not handle the job’s demands anymore. I cannot function any more. I have been at this job for almost 10 years, and when I am well, the job is second nature to me. My memory is so poor I have forgotten to pick my son up at a playdate, and I am no longer able to continue school. I cannot organize my life at all – the bills are piling up, the house is a mess, and my brain feels like it’s completely melted. At this point, I have also started sweating for no reason, such as going up a few stairs to the bathroom, and my sheets are soaked every morning from night sweats. I went to a walk-in, the doctor there was nice and i had seen her before in the past, she listened to just a few minutes of my story, took interest in my mom’s heart attack, and ordered blood pressure monitoring.
This past Monday, the 2nd, I booked an appointment and went back to the family doctor. I brought my aunt with me, because I needed to be able to keep track of what’s happening, so I can figure out what’s wrong. I started explaining my worsening symptoms, and he cut me off without even listening – he didn’t even hear the new symptoms, the sweating, heart flutters. He was annoyed and harsh, and he said “You have illness anxiety, and you need more Ketamine”. I told him I had been doing my own blood pressure readings, he vaguely glanced at them and said “that’s not high”. He said he would send me for what I came in requesting (heart test, lung test), and WHEN that came back negative, he wasn’t doing anything else for me. I asked him to add on Cortisol, because it was suggested to me that the stress I am under could be an adrenal issue. He rolled his eyes, and added it on reluctantly. He then looked at my aunt and said “She has illness anxiety and she needs her psychiatrist” – he didn’t even check my blood pressure at this appointment. He was harsh and dismissive, and pretty much told me he was not helping me any more. I went home and cried to my partner, “What if I am crazy? What if all this time, all these people who have been affected by my shit, it’s all in my head? Im such an idiot.”
I booked in with my psychiatrist and saw him Wednesday. I told him what was said and how I was treated, and he was not impressed. Firstly, he said “Ketamine will not fix anxiety, it’s meant for depression, and your depression has improved greatly”. He agreed that he will not treat me for any kind of anxiety until I have my test results. He also got in touch with a colleague right then and there, to get me in to see her in family medicine.
My blood pressure monitoring (which was ordered by the walk in doctor after talking to me for only 5 minutes) was yesterday (Feb 5). When I arrived, she did the test run on the machine. The first reading was an alarming 159/102. She redid it just to be sure, the second reading was 138/101. I took the machine home, filled out my symptom diary, and brought it back. She looked at my diary and said she was going to put a rush on it. So now I await these results, with no family doctor to direct me on what’s next. During this week I also learned that pain in the armpit can be linked to heart problems. I was sent for a mammogram by my doctor, then dismissed as crazy at my next appointment. I also learned that the longer hypertension is untreated, it can do damage to your heart and kidney. There was also a result with my cortisol, that I requested while being ridiculed by my doctor. I dont have a doctor to discuss that with.
I am angry and scared, as is my family. My life as I knew it is over, I have no job, quit school, and will likely end up on AISH. Please help me if you can, or point me in the direction of someone who can. CUPE labor board has been in touch lately also, regarding my mother’s death. They want me to share my story of her death for their fight to fix the broken health care system. I am scared that my issue has gone untreated for so long, and still untreated as the results of my blood pressure monitor haven’t been uploaded. I am scared, that the same thing that happened to my mom, can happen to me.
We are all Human 
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