QUEEN OF THE MAY
May starts on a high with my 49th birthday. Angel organises a birthday ride for me at the neighbours and Mrs Angel cooks a roast leg of lamb in my honour as birthday girl and Queen of the May. How lucky am I? It feels so great to be socialising, especially with pineapple beer. I am rosy cheeked and high as a kite in two sips. Fantastic!
On 5 May, Mr Angel brings the nicest young man to come and help me with the gas situation. Turns out there is a hectic gas leak and if the battery had been correctly connected, I could have blown myself to bits. Not a very nice thought. Thanks to Mr Angel and this clever, efficient young man, I have an oven again and I HAVE HOT WATER!!! No more kettles and baths in a bucket. As soon as they leave, I have the best shower of my life!
Two days later, Rosie is bitten by the neighbour’s dog who is always out in the road. Rosie is a sweet natured girl, she never complains and is always smiling.
A lovely family had to rehome her, and I was the luckiest woman on earth to be in a position to take Rosie in. When we go for a walk Rose always expresses her joy with the sweetest hoppity skippity, her sunny nature is infectious. So sweet, sensitive and also a mean, precise hunter, Rosie is undemanding and never complains. When she is bitten on her back, two nasty puncture wounds, it nearly breaks my heart to hear her cry. Luckily, I get an antiseptic into the bites immediately and vigilantly care for them in the coming week. They heal well. We are very lucky as a dog bite can turn real nasty.
On 13 May, I discover I have a lump in my groin, and I am just wondering if I’m feeling funny, when Finn gets sick with classic colic symptoms. I wonder if this is tick related? I get the vet out and Murphy’s law, Finn is fine again when the vet arrives. Finn gets treated for colic.
The following day is the neighbour’s daughter’s birthday. It’s her turn for a birthday ride. Angel can’t go as her chickens are ill and I feel like I just cannot let this little girl down. By this stage, I am feeling rotten. I am so glad I went. It was really so cute, so special. The birthday girl was terribly excited and could barely stay on top of her pony!
I go to the doctor the following day and whip off my pants in true Julie style without being asked to do so. Poor man. As there are two bites in proximity, Doc and I decide they are spider bites and I get a script for the appropriate meds. I am in very high spirits. I spend so much time on my own that when I am in company it is quite normal for me to develop an uncontrollable motor mouth. This is different, for I realise this one-sided conversation I am enjoying immensely is really mild hysteria at having finally gotten some help. That I’m not in my right mind is confirmed when I try to pay for the consultation. I have three senior moments and forget my pin three times! My card is blocked.
I finally get home to find Finn terribly ill again. He is lying down, sweating, with his teeth bared as if he has already left this planet. It is awful. Of course, Finn is grazing peacefully when the vet arrives for a second visit. He is treated for colic again. Poor Finn and I are not well!
The following evening is freezing. Angel lets me know that Finn is lying down. It is about 20h00 and he is not only lying down but sweating profusely. I call the vet and ask him to please take blood, this has to be tick related. It is not colic! The vet is out on another after hour call and while we are waiting, Mrs Angel feeds me the most delicious oxtail. I am so grateful for this fortifying meal, I don’t think I have eaten properly since the neighbour’s daughter’s birthday breakfast.
Finn gets up, has a poop and starts to graze. (The poop part is very important when watching over a horse that has colic. Horses cannot regurgitate their food, the only way for it to pass is out the rear end. A horse looks big and strong, but the inner workings are really quite fragile and tricky. Colic can be fatal, for if the obstruction can’t be passed it can lead to a twisted gut and all sorts of unpleasantness. Finn’s poops are model poops.) I make the call to leave Finn for the rest of the night, by this stage, it’s already 22h00. The Angels kindly agree to keep the horses at their farm where they have an enclosed area close to the house. We are all on standby to get the vet out tomorrow. Sunday. Finn is not well.
Neither am I. I send a pic of the bite to my sister and describe my symptoms to her. I am so fortunate that she is a pharmacist, one of the very best and beloved and trusted by all her clients. This is not a spider bite and therefore she tells me I am on the incorrect meds. Poor Finn and I have both been misdiagnosed. I have tick bite fever/lyme disease and even though I have no experience in this area, I just know he does too.
The critter’s handiwork
I fall into a feverish sleep and at around 10h00 in the morning, I slowly walk up to le phone booth to check the phone. Angel has left a message: the vet is here.
At last, Finn is treated for babesiosis/tick bite fever and is on the mend. The Angels kindly agree to care for the horses until I have recovered. I drive away from their farm and from my horses feeling very grateful, but also slightly faint. I have to stop the car and hang around for a bit in the field. I lie down and then sit with my head between my knees before driving the steep path home. I talk to myself, reminding myself to breathe so I don’t pass out and crash land onto Swanky!
On Monday I go to town to get the correct antibiotic and finally, I too am on the sweaty, delirious road to recovery.
Journal entry May 2020. Fever ramblings.
Tick Woman. Doesn’t really have a romantic or powerful ring to it. Like Spider or Bat Woman. What exotic superpowers do ticks have?
Do you think, when the world was new, things such as ticks and mosquitoes were created? Or did they slip out when Pandora’s Box was opened?
Vultures, hyena, sharks, maggots, are useful. They keep the world clean. Humans are a bit like scavengers but leave a filthy trail behind them.
Perhaps Mother Earth has to cook things up in a pot to combat human invasion? Not like in a witchy cauldron, for she is a force of much beauty and grace….and undeniable power. She calls on the tsunamis and floods and drought to retaliate against our oh so intricate, egotistical ideas. She conjures up ticks and mosquitoes and rats plagues and covid 19. Clever, super-intelligent humans find cures and life resumes while we continue to pick at her bones and suffocate the Mother.
I have a tick’s toxin in my blood. I feel its power over me.
I hope Mother Earth wins in the end.
We are bloated ticks, toxic and swollen with pride. What a fantastical black, scarlet mess we will make when we are squished under foot. Poof!
APPRECIATIONS
Kasper at Fast Flow Plumbing. I am hugely indebted to you for coming out all this way to help me. Thank you, best shower of my life!
Jo-Marie, Mientjie, Martiens. I do not know what I would have done without you. Knowing my horses were safe and fed and watered was such peace of mind for me. The delicious soups you sent down were appreciated too! I am blown away by your kindness and I am blessed to know you.
Thank you, Kim for getting me onto the right meds. Your telephonic support was and is a lifeline. I love you very much.
