Well, we knew that sooner or later it would happen to one of us and why not to me? I felt a pain under my watch and thought it was scratching me, I unclasped it and saw a black mark. I put on my glasses to take a closer look. It was then that I realized a very ugly little bug was trying to burrow itself under my skin. You would be very proud to know that I did not over react. I grabbed some tweezers and tried to pull this nasty little creature out. When I couldn’t do it, I called Ron. He came and I explained my situation. He took the tweezers and on his second try had the horrible thing tightly in his grasp and away from me. He disposed of it and then we began the googling to find out what to do next. After a shower, we were off to church. I went to the pharmacy and was told that I should go to Emerge. This was not what I wanted to hear. I was triaged rather quickly and told that they would fast track me to see a doctor. I sat on the other side of the curtain from Triage and listened.
People came in for bad backs, sore knees, fear of blood clots and coughs. Some had had their symptoms for months and others for just hours. The questions were the same…
- “what brings you in?”
- “Do you have any allergies?”
- “What medications are you on?”
Next the nurse would do their blood pressure and oxygen levels. There would be some small talk and then they were sent to the next desk to register and WAIT.
The curtain would open and close, accepting a new patient and then sending them to the office. I sat patiently hearing the sounds of the hospital…coughs, moans and beeps. I tried not to listen too closely but sitting in the middle of emergency, it’s hard not to hear it all.
The best conversation came from a little old lady. The heart specialist had been called in. She asked her patient “Do you smoke?” “Do you drink?”
The lady responded, “I’ve never smoked or drank and look what good it did me? I’m here.” The doctor laughed and said, “what about hard drugs?” She then explained that as we get older our bodies just start to fail.
The most shocking part of the day was when I looked down at my wrist band. How could my identification say “62 years?”
The doctor finally came and said that I didn’t need any medication even though she couldn’t guarantee that this little creature wasn’t carrying the lime disease. I went back to the pharmacist who was surprised with that result. She prescribed me a double dose of something and sent a message to my doctor. She felt it was better to be safe instead of waiting for the possibility of getting sick and then go through the whole thing again.
I have discovered that the creatures that I don’t like are in abundance in Ontario…snakes, spiders and ticks. In Alberta, all we had to worry about were bears and cougars!
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