A SUMMER OF DISAPPOINTMENT and MIRACLE

This summer was quite different from the other summers.  The trip plans for this season were cancelled due to my eye issue.  I had a retina detachment which required emergency surgery on July 15, 2019. It was a hot and humid summer so far in July of 2019.  We were getting excited for our upcoming trip to Europe. We were hiking the Mont Blanc Trek, finishing in Charmonix, France, followed by a train ride to Zermatt, Switzerland, to meet up with our friends for more little hikes around the Matterhorn. 

Everything was ready, airline tickets, the tour itself through G Adventures, our shuttle from Genova to Charmonix after our flight that day, then our train ticket to Zermatt after our trek and the apartment we were renting for our stay with our friends in Zermatt. I had also picked up the currency we needed in Euros and Francs, and finally the "Monarch" shuttle service to drive us from our home to Montreal airport.

We were so ready for this trip and so looking forward to it.  It was my ultimate hiking extravaganza I was so awaiting, hiking in the Alps, traversing three countries, France, Switzerland and Italy, then bonus was hiking around the Matterhorn. It was a dream coming true, until it happened .... The weekend of July 13th, I was hiking that day with a friend up Catamount Mountain in the Adirondacks. That morning was the first time I noticed some kind of shadow at the top of my left eye. The next day I was out hiking again, this time with our new neighbours on their first hike in the Adirondacks, up Mount Azure. That evening I once again saw this dark shadow at the top of my left eye. Anxiety welled up within me and my gut told me something was very wrong.  Next morning, about 7:00 am, I called Dr. Youssef's office to fit me in for an urgent eye check, which they were able to do at 1:00 pm that day.  My gut feeling was correct, my retina had detached and I required emergency surgery. I quickly texted a friend in Ottawa to stay overnight, told Cathy and ran out the door on my way to Ottawa to see Dr. Lee.  More stress was added to the mix when Dr. Lee told me this is a bad time for eye surgery as hospital cut backs did not make room for this and other surgeries took priority over mine.  Being in good health made it possible for day surgery, in and out in one afternoon.  Surgery went very well and painless.  It was the recovery that would be the challenge.  I had to lie on my side, keeping my eye fixed in one position for 24 hours over 14 days, allowing a total of 45 minutes per day to eat, drink, pee and brush my teeth.  My eye had a bubble in it to keep the eye steady as it healed and it was crucial to eye positioning that there was little to no movement of the eye, otherwise too much movement and shifting body positions would ruin the surgery and I would lose my eyesight.  The bubble fills the eye and then over time slowly drains allowing me to see a little more out of that eye.  There are different timing-bubbles depending on the severity of the situation.  My bubble lasted eight months due to the severe detachment, which also required a "scheral buckle" sewing the retina to the eye and lasering the rips, quite an amazing surgery, all done through the eye without any scarring around the eye.  It was brutal on my body, with aches and pains but there was no pain with my eye.  The pain pills were for my body not my eye. 

I could not have done this without Cathy's help, making meals, arranging the couch and television, and helping me wash.  Finally after six weeks, I could return to work and the bubble in my eye was diminishing. I returned to work on Monday, August 19, 2019, and the bubble finally disappeared in late September.  The miracle of great doctors enabled me to get back doing what I love to do.  In October, 2019, I went backpacking with friends in the Adirondacks.  Here's a photo of us at Indian Head, enjoying the beautiful fall colours.

MONTS-VALIN SNOWSHOEING Hut to Hut, March 21 to 25, 2019

 

 View towards St. Lawrence River from Lookout on Monts-Valin

A winter wonderful weekend in Monts-Valin Quebec, a national park near Saguenay, a 6-hour drive from Cornwall to Saguenay.  We left Thursday, stayed at the Auberge Cenre Ville in Saguenay, then the next day we drove a half hour to the park, registered, then headed off to the hut.  That morning it was raining but soon, as we ascended the rain turned to snow and eventually stopped.  We arrived at our first hut Ulysse.  We started the fire in the woodstove and settled into our little cabin for the night.  The hut could fit 8 people, 2 rooms with bunkbeds, 4 people in each room.  The hut was so well insulated, it was like a sauna and I was swetting through the night form the heat, by early morning I was cooling down but never had to cover up and slept in my underwear.  The next day we broke trail to our next hut Le Pionnier, about 4 km away.  There was so much drift of snow from the wind pushing the snow.  There was a sketchy section where the trail was buried and we traversed along a steep bank, sliding slightly on our snowshoes from the angle.  We arrived at Le Pionnier in plenty of time to settle in, have a late lunch, scout around and then finally go to bed early, shortly after sunset at 7:10pm.  Our next morning we were greeted with a blizzard, blowing snow.  We thought we would have to break trail again but fortunately, we were starting early enough that the accumulation of snow hadn't settled yet and the trail was still broken out from the group the day before of 15 people heading back to the centre.   We hiked back 8 km to the center and from there we drove to the same Auberge we stayed at on the way here.  We had a great drive home in the sunshine and were back in Cornwall by mid afternoon.