english?

i'm on the waiting list for vsg at Sacre Couer with dr. atlas.  I'm just wondering how bilingual things are...I am an anglophone,with some basic understanding of french (just what they teach you in ontario schools).  I can read and understand french forms and what i can't translate i just do a search online for.
 Usually i can get by ok at appts or at the Gatineau hospital - but sometimes there is some confustion.  like when i recently broke my elbow, the admitting nurse had no idea what an "elbow" was - arm? wrist?  she kept pointing. and for the life of me i couldn't remember ever learning the french word for elbow.  

 Anyway, i'm just wondering - I know montreal is very bilingual - but will i run into any problems with french only forms - like nutrition guides - or french only nurses in the OR?  is everyone else here on this forum totally bilingual?

Hi Cloudless and welcome to the forum. Don't worry, many people speak english in the hospital. When I was there, there were 2 english speaking patients in my room, and the nurses spoke english with them. The nutritionnal meeting pre-op was in french, but you can have the documents in french or english. And by the way an elbow is a " coude"

Bye
Diane

Welcome to the board Cloudless. I went the private route in Montreal and the nurses were bilingual. Ask at your hospital if they have english preop meetings ahead of time. If they don't they may suggest another meeting at another english hospital. Just a thought.

Thanks for the welcome - I'm loving that there is finally activity on the qc forum...i've been lurking on the ontario forum, but really wanted to hear some info from patients with the same surgeon.

Anyhow, thanks for the info on language and the suggestion for the nutrition class.  i'll definately keep that in mind.  :)

 

Hi cloudless,
Welcome to the board.
I`m bilingual and I`m still pre-op but we have the same dr.  I don`t know about the staff speaking in english but maybe you could call them and ask??? 
Do you mind if I add you as a friend so we can exchange about our surgery or should I say upcoming surgery? 
Good luck
Anne