The Doorbell And The Gate
July 12, 2023
Pain seared through the right side of my head leaving me almost blinded for less than a second. It rang down into my jaw and the sounds of the room faded in and out like I was listening to them from under the water.
Deep breath in, I told myself, we can do this.
Normally I go home when my migraines start to set in but today we had the Ear, nose and throat doctor visiting our community and I am the lucky girl who gets to be their clerical support while they’re here.
With the hospital reaching a level of criticall staffing there was no one to fill in for me.
44 people or more from our community can benefit from a clinic like this. In a community of 1500 people thats a significant amount. Without the wonderful specialists we have that come to visit us people would either go without or would have to go off-island.
Going off-island is a real challenge for many people. Even though when we leave for medical reasons the cost of the eight hour ferry ride from Haida Gwaii to Prince Rupert is covered, the expense involved is still pretty incredible. With tourist season in full swing it’s very difficult to get on the ferry making it even harder to get to medical services on the mainland.
Making sure we continue to have our visiting specialists come to us is a personal mission for me and not one that I am willing to let a migraine come in the way of. I had to suck it up and keep working.
Thankfully my family doctor was working in the emergency room and I was able to talk to her about some better drugs. She gave me one to take when now and one to take when I get home.
I took the one for now and it turned the volume down enough on my pain to get me home.
Punkin and Tonka met me at the gate, excited to see what kind of adventure we were going to have today.
I looked at them sad that every time things start going well enough to get into a good riding routine something like this steals more time.
Too much life has been stolen from me by migraines.
Apologizing to my equine friends I packed their buckets into them. They were disappointed they didn’t get to go out but happy to see their fancy dinner buckets arrive early.
After spending a few minutes with my husband I laid down and let the sleep wash over me.
DING DONG…….. DING DONG….. ……… DING DONG
“The horses are not out” I told my husband.
He looked down the driveway at the sensor. Nothing.
DING DONG…… DING DONG… …… ……. …. DING DONG … DING DONG .. DING DONG…
It sure sounded like the horses were out.
“Did I leave the gates open?” I asked my husband who was looking for the culprit who was very persistently setting off our doorbell sensor.
“Yes the gates are open” he told me.
“CRAP! The horses ARE out!” I exclaimed while jumping out of bed.
I scrambled to find enough clothes to leave the house in and straight to the barn for the cookie bucket.
“Hey Ponies!!! TREEEEATS!!!” I called out in my sweetest , most fun sounding treat voice.
“TREEEEAAATS” I shook the cookie bucket.
“Punkin Tonk come get treats” I called while looking down the driveway from tier return.
My head raced, all I could think about was one of them being hit by a car because the driveway gate was also open.
They weren’t coming up the driveway and the thought of putting out the energy to chase them around the neighborhood just about broke me.
I turned to look beside me there they were, on the inside of their paddock, happy I had changed my mind about tonight's adventure. I gave them both a cookie and told them how good they were.
After closing the gates I had left open I went back upstairs and closed my eyes.
This time sleep took me hard and fast. I slept the whole night with no more interruption from the doorbell.
No comments:
Post a Comment