CCCT 2012 - June 10-13/12 Days 22-25

Cross Canada Cycling Tour - June 10-13/12 Sick Days
Feeling terrible!!! Also unable to open my Bell-Sympatico e-mail. Able to see contents of Inbox but when I try to open an e-mail I get "Error on Page" message. I managed to somehow get through the night and dragged my sorry ass out of bed Monday morning in order to go across the highway to the "Medical Clinic" which opened at 10:00 AM. After registering at the main desk and waited 1/2 an hour to see a doctor. After checking me over he said I needed to go to the hospital in Blairmore, about 4 kms further down the road. On the way back to the motel we ran into the manager, Tom, who offered to drive us to the hospital. I was admitted right away and after doing some blood work and getting some x-rays waited in Emergency for an hour or so before seeing an ER doctor. She recommended I be put on an IV for 8 hours as I was extremely dehydrated. It was now 1:00 PM so this meant I wouldn't be able to go home until 9:00 PM or so. There were several emergency cases for the ER staff to deal with including a guy who came in with a heart attack. They finally decided to take him to Calgary by road ambulance but about 20 minutes later told the ambulance crew to turn around and come back to the hospital as they now were going to transfer him by air ambulance. Anyway, after 8 hours on the IV I began to feel better. Bev had gone down to the cafeteria and got some tapiocca and some jello for me. I was finally discharged at 9:00 PM and we were able to get the one and only taxi that serviced all of the 5 nearby communities to come and pick us up and take us back to the motel for $12. On the plus side I was able to watch the Canadian F1 Grand Prix on Sunday. It turned out to be a terrific race with a surprise ending. I asked the doctor for some sort of medicine to help kill the flu bug but she said I would just have to let it run it course. She did give me some pills (2) to help ease the stomach cramps so I could a decent night's sleep. The next day I went back to the drug store and talked to the pharmacist who suggested I continue taking some Imodium and Kaopectate. The ER doctor also wanted me to take a liquid iron supplement as my "iron" count was low. The pharmacist said that I should wait until I get my diarrhea problem sorted out before taking an iron supplement as it would act as a further irritant. The pharmacist also recommended that I continue drinking Gatorade but to dilute it 50/50 with water. By Wednesday I was starting to feel much better but still very weak. We decided to wait on more day before setting off for Pincher Creek, AB.
Bev and Roly