Is medicine a viable option when you have several years of rock bottom grades?

[yubwam]

Story time:

Lifelong BC resident, at a BC university. 

Started university in a non-science program with no interest in medicine, right around the time I started university started developing peculiar neurological symptoms, had trash grades my first year (<2.0) because of this. Started second year, had to drop out because neuro symptoms got significantly worse, was told there was a good chance it was MS. Tried to do school again for second semester anyways, didn't go well, dropped out again except I ended up finishing 1 class with a 51%. Was then told I don't have MS, started to recover slowly and feel better, started third year taking some science courses because I became interested in it, pulled off 3.0 GPA third year although I was not taking a full course load. Then after that became interested in medicine, now achieving >3.9 GPA.

To summarize: 

First year: <2.0 GPA

Second year: Basically dropped out except one class with 51%

Third year: 3.0 GPA with not full course load 

Fourth and fifth >3.9 GPA

So once I graduate I will have 2 years of excellent grades one year of average grades and some rock bottom grades prior to that, overall GPA maybe ~3.2.

Is getting into a Canadian Medical school even a possibility for me or should I pursue something else? Is there anything I could do to make this more likely ie grad school, extra year? Would it be possible to twist the bad grades due to medical issues into a good thing? What about getting into schools in USA or elsewhere? 

[indefatigable]

Sounds really rough and nice work turning it around!  Good news is you definitely do have a chance at med school in Canada.  Basically, you should take a look at your GPA via appropriate calculation - e.g. UBC drops the equivalent of the lowest year after a certain number of credits.  Non-academics are very important there, though.  Outside of your IP province, you could take a look at Ontario and maybe AB schools - if you write and do well on the MCAT Western would be a good possibility and depending on ECs Queen's. You would need to calculate GPA via OMSAS tables for Ontario.  

To answer some of your questions - I'd say an extra year possibly depending on your calculated GPA, for example for Ottawa.  As has been discussed on this forum multiple times, generally improving uGPA is better than grad school, but in your case a MSc could help at UBC - non-academics are very important and grad school will count for your GPA there.  

I'm not sure about the medical issues and explanations, but I think some schools do allow for this, although I'm far from an expert.  

I'd suggest focussing on Canada initially and then seeing where you are after a year or two.