I’ve
travelled to more than 30 countries, eaten exotic foods, interacted with some
crazy animals, and taken some very iffy modes of transportation but other than
a bit of a toe infection in China and a nasty food bug in Cuba, I have never
actually had the need to visit a health facility or be transported to one via
ambulance – until I decided to visit Northern Ontario!
For
five or so years I have been writing about my travels throughout the world. It
is true that I tend to leave my native Canada to seek out new adventures but I
have been neglectful in not posting about the amazing country in which I live!
Throughout
the winter of 2015 I had been consumed with completing renovations in my home
of sixteen years, which was vintage 1960 in décor and design. Bringing the old homestead into the twenty
first century had taken up much of my time and money so when I looked at my
options for getting away I had to scale back quite a bit. The best thing that
any budget traveller can do is sponge off of family and friends! Luckily for me, our very close friends and my
neighbours from childhood had given up Southern Ontario for the great north
many years before and now lived next to Algonquin Park right by Golden Lake. Other members of my family had visited
over the years but I had never actually made time to take advantage of Marnell’s
hospitality. This summer I decided to join my sister-in-law, Cindy, my niece
and my niece’s boyfriend in a week-long stay. My sister and her daughter were
already there.
Now,
the weekend trek up to cottage country is a unique Canadian experience and has
to be approached strategically to avoid getting stuck in the mass exodus of the
population of Southern Ontario all escaping the concrete jungles every Friday
afternoon. We opted to leave on a Sunday
and so our drive up the 400 wasn’t that bad. We took the route through
Alqonquin Park in the hopes of seeing some wildlife but basically we just saw
lots of trees. After five hours and three pit stops we finally made it to
Deacon and Marnell’s little corner of paradise.
Marnell has a homey little house next to Golden Lake and since her
hospitality is legendary she has parked several trailers on her property to
accommodate her many summer freeloaders guests. The first order of business was to crack open
the forty pounder of rye, the two-four of beer and settle ourselves in some
lawn chairs next to the bomb fire for some reminiscing and catch up. Sitting by the fire and taking the occasional
dip in the lake to cool down (and to pee since taking off my bathing suit to
use the inside facilities seemed like too much of a hassle) pretty much became
the routine for the next seven days. I
did want to see some of the wonderful sites in the area so I forced myself
away from Marnell’s little resort every day to explore the surrounding
countryside and towns.
One
early morning, okay not so early, but drinking by the fireside every night
lends itself to a good lie in the next day…Michael, the quiet and very nice
boyfriend of my niece, and I decided to take a little hike up a trail to get
some photos of some beaver dams and take in the views from the top of the
mountain on which they were situated.
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| Walking up to the Beaver Dam |
After
climbing over many rocks, fallen trees, beaver dams, and whatnot we made it to
a stunning area of beaver paradise without much mishap. Unfortunately, on our
way back down we stopped for a minute to get our bearings, so as not to become
a sad statistic of northern adventurers lost in the bush, when I felt a sharp
sting on my backside – literally, my backside. I quickly brushed away whatever
nasty wildlife had attacked me and seemed to see some sort of large waspy
thingy angrily flying away. Thinking I was lucky not to have encountered some
kind of reptilian monster sucking my blood I told Michael all was good and we
continued on our arduous trek. We
climbed over rocks and fallen trees as we discussed the various manifestations
of allergic reactions. I continued to reassure Michael that I, being the
specimen of health, had no allergies whatsoever, all while I furiously
scratched my scalp and backside. After about thirty minutes we did make it back
to Marnell’s and I settled myself into a lawn chair to relax since I was feeling
a bit sweaty and my heart was definitely running on high gear. As I sat there I
started to feel a bit congested and found that breathing was becoming a bit of
a chore…
Being
a twenty-first century kind of person I picked up my iPhone to Google my
symptoms and noticed rather alarming red welts arising rather unnaturally on my
arms. A quick inspection of the chest area also revealed theses large splotches
of red angry looking markings. I decided
a little Benadryl wouldn’t go amiss at this point so I headed over to Marnell,
who was busily washing her car and asked if she had any anti-red welty type of
medicine. Well, I guess the swelling had moved onwards to my facial area and I
was beginning to look like a rather ripe red tomato ready to burst open because
before I knew what was happening, Marnell, ever the cool calm and collected
individual, was packing me into the car and calling for my sister-in-law, Cindy
to jump in. Next thing I knew we were headed out to find some type of real
medical intervention.
Now,
I’m not saying that living in the north of Ontario or any remote region means
you are more likely to die from life threatening emergencies but lets just say
I’m glad Marnell has a bit of a lead foot. As we headed to Deacon, the nearest
town, I started to become nauseous and experience some rather alarming chest
pains so Marnell headed to a little medical clinic. Luckily a wonderful nurse
practitioner was on duty and within minutes she was making me take a couple of
tablets and had me hooked up to various wires and medical type whatnots to
measure all my important measurements – heart, breathing, brain wave – well
maybe not brain waves. Meanwhile, the receptionist had called for an ambulance…
Apparently
the ambulance was nearby having a little coffee break and so within minutes I
had a rather attractive looking ambulance attendant strapping me to a gurney
while his partner was pulling out the largest bloody needle I had ever seen and
filling it with some mysterious mediciny stuff. I must have looked a bit
alarmed because Mr. Attractive tried to reassure me by saying they weren’t
actually going to stick me with it…yeah, right, I thought, she’s just getting
it ready for practice! Despite his reassurance I did get stuck with the needle
that looked more like an alien torture device, which was apparently filled with
Epinephrine. Boy, that stuff works like a charm! Almost instantly my heart seemed to slow down
and I no longer felt like I was going to be having to explain some of my past
actions to St. Peter…
As
they were loading me into the ambulance and Cindy was hopping in the front, I
was starting to feel like a lot of fuss was being made over nothing but
apparently the epinephrine shot was just the beginning of the fun after suffering
anaphylaxis. After a thirty-minute ride to the nearest emergency room I spent
the rest of the day in a hospital bed being monitored for relapse, which can
happen, and given a variety of other drugs to counteract the effects of the
nasty little creature that had attacked me. My cocktail of drugs for the next week
included Ranitidine, Prednisone, and Bendryl!
Cindy
was a real trooper throughout this little drama, staying with me the whole day
and Marnell was a godsend, first getting me to the clinic and later picking us
up and taking me to the drugstore to get my new handy little Epi-pens!
When
we finally made it back to the old homestead that night I put on a very serious
face and told Michael that the doctor said if he had only sucked out the venom
immediately then I never would have ended up in such a bad way! He responded
that maybe he would have, if it was a snake bite.
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| Beaver Dam Destruction |
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| Lake created by beaver dam |
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| Trees, what more can I say. |
