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Viewpoint: Extinction can be halted

Contributed Article
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Viewpoint: Extinction can be halted

The following was sent to Catherine McKenna, Canada’s Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, and filed with the Driftwood for publication.

By RODNEY POLDEN

I strongly endorse the recommendation of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada to add the red-necked phalarope, Cassin’s auklet, lark bunting, black swift and evening grosbeak to Schedule 1 of the Species At Risk Act.

Additionally, the pink-footed shearwater should be upgraded to “endangered,” and both the McCown’s longspur and Louisiana waterthrush to “threatened.”

We are losing far too many species, and we all know what steps need to be taken to slow and halt this appalling trend. I do hope you yourself can find the moral strength and resiliency, as well as the political will, to take the steps that are within your ambit and mandate to do, such as the necessary actions regarding these eight avian species.

There is so much that could be achieved by a Minister of the Environment who decided it was time for something to actually be done in a realistic and meaningful way that would change the present toxic and entirely unsustainable relationship between industry, business, government, consumers and NGOs — the latter apparently the only segment to actually be attempting everything within their reach to be done.

The apathy, inaction, greed and carelessness of every other sector will be a stain on this era of Canada’s history that will never be escaped, since what we are losing every single day now will never, as we are all aware, ever be regained.

It’s not that we do not know how to save it, it’s not that we are unable for other reasons to do so, it is solely and quite simply that we all as Canadians are willing to leave all this up to “leaders” who only lead us towards more toys and fewer true wonders, such as these eight bird species that will quite possibly be some of the next to join the swelling lists of tens of thousands of vanishing unique creatures and plants.

I do hope that my words here may just possibly stir your conscience as one individual who possesses both more access and more influence to begin the task that is so desperately needed, if we too are not to join all those extinguished species. The choice is ours, all of us, and that choice is also quite uniquely yours too, to lead. Will you do so? Will you try?

Thank you for the opportunity to address you regarding this important issue.

The writer is a long-time Salt Spring resident.

Island buried by snow

Elizabeth Nolan
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Island buried by snow

The Gulf Islands’ first blast of winter on Friday was followed up with a major snowfall Sunday as the “coldest and snowiest pattern in a decade” got underway.

Some areas of the coast saw 30 centimetres or more of snow accumulate over the weekend, causing school districts in the Gulf Islands, Victoria and Surrey to close all schools on Monday. The poor road conditions on Salt Spring Monday morning resulted in the cancellation of the early morning ferry sailings between Fulford Harbour and Swartz Bay as crew members were unable to reach the Fulford terminal. Mainroad Contracting crews were concentrating on clearing roads to ferries first and hoped to move on the secondary roads after that.

Environment Canada warned this may be just the beginning of an extended week of exceptionally bad weather. The agency was calling for another 10 to 15 cm over Monday night/Tuesday morning with a second low pressure system in two days expected to sweep through the region.

The white-out conditions and quickly accumulating snow caused travel havoc for many. Salt Spring Fire Rescue warned drivers to stay off the road after the snow started Sunday afternoon, reporting one roll-over accident had already occurred. Bus service was restricted to main roads only. By the evening, cars were stuck on Fulford-Ganges Road at Lee’s Hill, partially blocking the travel lanes.

Heavy snowfall also impacted ferry passengers travelling on Sunday afternoon and evening, when the RCMP closed Highway 17 in both directions between Swartz Bay and Keating Cross Road following several major car crashes. People arriving at the terminal from Vancouver and the Gulf Islands were forced to stay put in the arrivals area for several hours before the road was re-opened. The Malahat highway was also closed between Langford and Shawnigan-Mill Bay Road due to dangerous road conditions.

Ferries running off schedule on Sunday afternoon and evening included the Skeena Queen, which was held to wait for passengers transferring from the Spirit of British Columbia, the Howe Sound Queen, the Klitsa serving Brentwood-Mill Bay and the Chemainus-Penelakut-Thetis ferry.

Snow and high winds that started Friday and accrued through Saturday morning resulted in power outages for almost all residents on Mayne, Pender and Saturna Islands through Saturday and into Sunday. Multiple Salt Spring residents also lost power for a short time on Friday night or Saturday morning.

NSSWD denies caretaker suite

Gail Sjuberg
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NSSWD denies caretaker suite

An application to add a caretaker suite to the Creekhouse building in Ganges was turned down by the North Salt Spring Waterworks District board because it goes against the district’s moratorium policy.

The suite was planned for the building to house an onsite caretaker whose job would include ensuring the building was kept safe and to deter vandalism. Multiple incidents of vandalism have occurred on the property.

“The merchants are concerned about the increase in vandalism. We felt that having a caretaker suite there would be a good idea,” said Dorothy Murdoch, property manager for Hardal Management. “We understood about the moratorium, so we tried to show NSSWD that by doing some changes to the toilets, faucets and things, we could actually decrease the amount of water used and still put a suite in there and we would not be using any more water than we would have done beforehand.”

The Pender Island company purchased the Creekhouse building last year and planned to install water-conserving fixtures throughout the building to make up for the added water use a suite would bring. Murdoch and company owner Davie Rae presented their case to the water district board at the January meeting, but the board determined that the application was a violation of the moratorium as it would be considered a secondary suite.

Although the addition would use less water than the building already does, the district determined that the water usage did not factor into their decision. The moratorium policy applies to the service connections, not the actual use of the water once it is past the meter.

“We’re limiting increases to demand on our system because there have been numerous reports done that show that we just don’t have the capacity,” district manager Ron Stepaniuk said during the meeting.

Plans for the Creekhouse building are based on the Driftwood Centre on Pender Island. LED lighting has already been installed outside to deter vandalism, and further lighting is planned for the parking lot behind the building. Other improvements will include fixing up the nearby planters.

“Over the next while, we’re going to do everything that we can to make the place look better and reduce vandalism,” Rae said during the meeting. “We had a terrible time with the Driftwood Centre and vandalism originally, the RCMP was involved and everything. Over time we’ve found things that work. Lighting is one, cleaning the place up is another and having someone present is a third. That’s what we would like to do with downtown Ganges.”

This was not the first such application after the moratorium was put in place. An application for a caretaker suite was made by Martin Ogilvie in 2015, which was denied because the new residential use represented a substantial increase in demand. The property is served by a three-quarter-inch pipe and part of the moratorium policy includes denying any increase in connection size. A second similar situation was that of the Harbour House Hotel, which proposed renovations that increased the number of rooms in the hotel but reduced the water usage. This property had a larger connection, and it was determined that the changes could be made without reducing the size of the service connection.

Trustees sympathized with the Creekhouse applicants, but the moratorium policy was upheld. Trustee Michael McAllister said that the organization needed to review how they incentivized water conservation, and potentially a refinement to the moratorium.

“My advice is that if you don’t get what you want today, come back in a year and ask again, because things are moving and shaking,” said trustee Chris Dixon. “The answer today may not be the same answer next year.”

Multicultural history celebrated

Elizabeth Nolan
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Multicultural history celebrated

The author of a new book looking at cultural diversity in Victoria’s early history will share some of her research at a Salt Spring Historical Society event at Central Hall on Wednesday, Feb. 13.

Doors open at Central Hall at 1:45 p.m. and the presentation runs from 2 to 3 p.m.

May Q. Wong has been a Victoria resident for 40 years and grew up in Montreal as the child of two Chinese immigrant parents. City in Colour, her new offering, upends the truism that the city of Victoria became “more British than the British” by uncovering forgotten stories of some of the people from outside the colonial class.

Wong has a natural interest in history and multiculturalism: her previous book examined the impact of the Canadian “head tax” on one Chinese family. Her decision to focus on multiculturalism in Victoria was made during a time when anti-immigrant and anti-refugee rhetoric was becoming alarmingly prolific — and not just south of the border.

“I hoped the book would add a positive note to society’s growing fear and shed a light on our country’s actual cultural and ethnic diversity, and encourage the celebration and acknowledgement of all those pioneers,” Wong told the Driftwood.

Victoria got its start as a Hudson’s Bay Company trading post and fort, founded in March 1843. It was incorporated as a city in 1862, but before that was already floored by newcomers from all over the world as a consequence of the 1858 gold rush.

As B.C.’s celebration of Black History Month rolls on through February, it’s fitting that May devotes space to the early black settlers who came north from California. She also looks at the Hawaiians who were once found at every Pacific Northwest HBC trading post, leaving the term “Kanaka” on place names from Salt Spring Island to the Lower Mainland. There are also stories about people who came from China and Japan, as well as Jewish community members.

Wong said one of the interesting things is how people of colour were treated differently. The black and Hawaiian settlers were welcomed and given full rights, while the Japanese immigrants were afforded much more respect than Chinese immigrants were before World War II — possibly because their home country was viewed as being stronger.

“That’s why it’s so important to know history and understand why things happened, so you don’t make the same mistakes,” Wong said.

The Indigenous people who existed within colonialism are not forgotten. Wong includes the stories of three “Métis matriarchs” who made strong contributions to the new colony. Wong explains Amelia Connolly Douglas was famous for her generosity, her skills as a midwife, and teaching her children about their Indigenous heritage. She married James Douglas, who would be governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island and the first governor of the Colony of B.C. Isabella Ross, the first female land owner in the colony, Josette Work, an HBC wife, are also featured. Wong said although the women tend to be forgotten, their husbands’ success in HBC roles was supported by their marriages.

“Their Métis wives really made a difference in how their men did because they had all these skills and knowledge an English wife wouldn’t have.”

Wong’s use of primary sources includes research with the Salt Spring Archives, the BC Archives and the municipal archives of Victoria and Esquimalt. Stories from books, journals and newspapers of the time period helped inspire direction. The Jewish Museum & Archives of British Columbia was another great resource, she said.

Generally speaking, in all her chapters Wong wanted to include not just the “high and mighty” settlers and people who may have been a bit notorious. The people who were just striving to subsist off the land also hold appeal.

“Regular people’s stories aren’t remembered as much, and all these people faced challenges,” Wong said. “That’s why I like stories about ordinary people because everyone’s lives have challenges and they all have different ways they overcome those challenges.”

Wong’s book contains some names that are familiar on Salt Spring, such as Maria Mahoi, who raised a large family of Hawaiian and Aboriginal descent and settled on Russell Island; and Sylvia Stark, who was born into slavery in Missouri and came to Salt Spring with her husband in 1860 as homesteaders.

“People on the island will probably know some of the stories,” Wong said. “I hope some of the information will be new to them and hopefully it’s told in an interesting way. And I hope people will pipe up and tell me about what they know. Maybe there’s a second book available.”

Monologues show tackles timely themes

Elizabeth Nolan
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Monologues show tackles timely themes

Valentine’s Day 2019 will offer islanders the opportunity to see life through a different lens as a collective of local women eschew paper lace hearts for the more profound perspective of the vagina.

It will be exactly 17 years since The Vagina Monologues was last seen on Salt Spring, with a community-based production opening at ArtSpring on Valentine’s Day 2002. While many things have changed in the world during that time, society still has much to improve on in terms of feminism, equality, freedom from sexual violence and body positivity.

A new production helmed by Loren “Lolo” Hendin and Andrea Thring that comes to ArtSpring on Feb. 14 promises to bring those important themes back to the forefront.

“It really feels like it’s the right time,” said Thring, who directs the play. “There’s a bit of a hunger for it. And obviously with the #MeToo movement, it’s become a new kind of current.”

Playwright and activist Eve Ensler first wrote and performed The Vagina Monologues in 1994. Based on dozens of interviews Ensler conducted with women, the play addressed women’s sexuality and the social stigma surrounding rape and abuse. The play ran off-Broadway for five years in New York before touring the United States.

“The writing is so accessible; I think it’s very easy to step into,” Thring said. “It’s nice to have well-crafted words that are feeling and meaningful and emotional.”

Hendin said the cast has been amazing to watch as they delve into their roles. Some women saw the last local production and have been thinking about it ever since, and all of them are finding a deep experience within themselves.

“It’s really powerful and it stays with you. If you’ve been in it or you’ve witnessed it I think it really makes an impact,” Hendin said, adding she thinks more women and more communities should be putting on the play.

For more on this story, see the Feb. 6, 2019 issue of the Gulf Islands Driftwood newspaper, or subscribe online.

POD storm debrief finds communications the biggest hurdle

Gail Sjuberg
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POD storm debrief finds communications the biggest hurdle

Members of the Salt Spring Island Emergency Program’s POD system met on Saturday to debrief after the windstorm that took place on Dec. 20, 2018.

Over 100 people from all over the island attended the meeting, where they discussed areas of success and areas that need work in Salt Spring’s disaster management system. CRD emergency program coordinator Elizabeth Zook said it was the largest POD meeting that’s ever happened on the island.

“What it shows for me is that the POD program has moved to a different level. This was one of the best community meetings that I’d ever been to,” she said. “What I’m impressed by is that these people are volunteering themselves and building teams of people in the community to help each other in a disaster or a major emergency.”

The meeting, held at Meaden Hall, was a session for neighbourhood POD leaders to share their experiences of the storm and aftermath. SSIEP also distributed a new action plan to help with any concerns that leaders might have had.

One of the major concerns brought up during the meeting was the loss of communications. 

“Communication is the most important aspect in dealing with an emergency, That’s what I see our focus being on right now,” said meeting facilitator Amy MacLeod. “The type of situation we experienced as leaders was very unique because we lacked the various things we could do to communicate with and check on neighbours.

“People just couldn’t even leave their driveways. It wasn’t safe to go outside and they couldn’t go down the roads because wires were down. We had no internet or power,” she added. 

The POD notification system relies on traditional methods of communication, as well as social media. Currently, it is only effective when hydro and wireless networks are still in place. As it was shown during the aftermath of the storm, communication can break down in the absence of these utilities.

After the storm, emails were sent out initially, and updates were posted to the SSIEP Facebook page. Other web-based channels were used, including updates on the Driftwood website for those who could still access the internet using their phones. SSIEP is working on bringing on a two-way radio system to help with more direct communications. POD leaders have been encouraging people to keep a set of two-way radios on hand. Each POD has been issued its own channel and GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) testing has been occurring weekly.

“What was hard was just normal telecoms, like being able to talk to each other. That’s still a challenge,” MacLeod explained. “We’re looking at how to deal with that using radio in terms of GMRS and amateur radio and how that works together.”

The POD system currently has 45 amateur radio users who are volunteer POD relayers. Their responsibility is to send the POD situation report through to the Emergency Operations Centre with the POD leaders.

Zook explained that the POD program now was 400 people taking part. Two training sessions scheduled in February are nearly at full capacity.

“Now I feel after eight years that this program stands on its own. It’s starting to pick up momentum,” Zook said. “That’s the program, that was why I was hired: to build community resilience . . . The outcome of this meeting was not just about building disaster resilience, but about building community. I’m very proud to be a Salt Springer.”

Islands Trust budget action urged

Gail Sjuberg
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Islands Trust budget action urged

A group of Salt Spring residents is urging the Islands Trust to do more to combat climate change and to reflect that in its upcoming budget.

“Islands Trust needs a wake-up call to put climate action on their agenda,” states a letter signed by Elizabeth White and 15 other people.

They want the Trust to declare a “climate emergency,” an action the Capital Regional District Board is seriously considering.

“If anyone needed a wake-up call to the realities of the climate crisis, the Dec. 20 windstorm should have provided it,” they write. “Not to mention two summers of devastating wildfires in B.C. that severely impacted air quality in the Gulf Islands, and recent road washouts caused by unusually heavy rainfall events.”

With the Islands Trust requesting public feedback on its 2019-20 budget and priorities until Feb. 11, the group is asking islanders to express their concerns about climate change through that forum.

The Trust has a 33-question survey on its islandstrust.com website, which canvases respondents’ opinions about how Trust funds should be spent and related matters.

At a special Trust meeting held on Salt Spring on Jan. 26, Trust Council chair Peter Luckham asked people attending to take the time to complete the survey so that trustees had more input to work with in advance of their next quarterly meeting in March when the final budget will be approved.

The Trust is proposing a $7.89-million operating budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year, which is two per cent higher than the previous year.

Also signing the letter were Peter Lamb, Jean Gelwicks, Ann Wheeler, Geoff Bartol, David Denning, Simon Wheeler, Jane Squier, Maxine Leichter, Dion Hackett, Jim Standen, Barbara Dempster, Ron Watts, Dennis Lucarelli, Michael Bushby and John Borst.

They note that the Trust’s 131-page 2018 annual report devotes just two pages to climate change action, focusing on reducing travel emissions by staff and trustees.

“In 2017-18, Trust Council received consultants’ reports on climate change adaptation, and delegations from climate action groups. But as far as we can tell, not even one dollar has been specifically allocated for climate-related activity in the 2019-2020 budget,” they state.

They add that “the good work undertaken by the Islands Trust and the Islands Trust Conservancy on freshwater resources, land stewardship, advocacy and other areas is important but not sufficient.”

Swimmers benefit Heart & Stroke

Driftwood Staff
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Swimmers benefit Heart & Stroke

On Saturday, Feb. 2, Salt Spring PARC hosted a charity Aquafit class and swim-a-thon to raise money for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.

Participants first took part in a by-donation Aquafit class led by instructor Brenda Akerman. 

Following the class, teams of swimmers took to the lanes with the goal of swimming a combined 100 laps in under two hours.

PARC recreation programmer Stevie Freer said more than 30 community members attended the event and a grand total of $2,570.40 was raised. 

Freer thanked everyone who participated, donated funds and prizes, and otherwise supported the event.

“Special thanks to Aquafit instructor Brenda Akerman for her help in organizing the event and to Debbie McNaughton, Frankie Johnstone and Laura Jean for their individual fundraising efforts,” he said. 

February is Heart Month, when various fitness-focused fundraising activities are held across the country.

Viewpoint: Don’t wait to take action

Contributed Article
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Viewpoint: Don’t wait to take action

By JIM STANDEN

Recently, we’ve seen climate scientists raise the warning to “crisis” or “emergency” level.

We are hitting and passing tipping points and unstoppable feedback loops. The term “extinction event” is now becoming common. Action to prevent irreversible damage must be taken immediately. In other words, an EMERGENCY. (Yes, in caps and in bold.)

Greta Thunberg in Europe sees the emergency. She is 16 and has been holding education strikes on Fridays. Other students have been joining her. They are on strike for their future and want immediate and decisive action.

So how does one act in an emergency? We should know. We were just there with our December storm. Crews were out all over the place with a “do or die“ attitude. They came from far and away to ensure our roads, hospitals and grocery stores were available. They worked Christmas Day and had long shifts. They did what was required and they did it . . . NOW!

Were there meetings to produce studies, ask opinions, generate reports, create budgets and discuss budget cycles, find consensus? No. It was an emergency. Damn the torpedos, get the job done. Later, determine how much it cost. Write some post-event reports. Make better plans for the next event.

The climate change challenge is clear, folks. The studies have been done, the questions have been asked and the climate scientists have responded with hard facts. This is an EMERGENCY. 

And we know that transportation is our biggest producer of greenhouse gases locally, so we islanders began taking action. We spent our own dollars. Over 200 of us already drive electric. And a team of smart, intelligent folks volunteered their own time to encourage the installation of 10 free public chargers on Salt Spring (providing 15 charging wands). Together with wise business owners, we have changed Salt Spring Island. We have lowered our greenhouse gas emissions, reduced the island needs for fuel, reduced the noise level and made the air better for our precious kids and pets. And we were happy to do so and are proud of our accomplishments.

What about government?

Action from the federal level? Precious little.

Action from our provincial government? Some nice assistance. Programs to reduce the cost of purchasing an electric car and/or scrapping your existing junker, installing chargers at multi-residences and providing subsidies for charging at home.

Action from the CRD? Gary Holman is supporting the declaration of a region-wide climate emergency and is looking for ways to support climate action on Salt Spring this year.

Action from the Islands Trust? Not much.

This is an emergency. So I am asking Gary and Islands Trust trustees Peter Grove and Laura Patrick the following question. Have you initiated projects to support lower transportation emissions from your organization on Salt Spring Island by 1) installing chargers at your business locations and 2) swapping out your fleet of vehicles for electric or plug-in hybrid equivalents? These actions will immediately lower your organization’s emissions, and the results will be easily quantifiable.

The Transition Salt Spring EV Group is here to assist you. Please ask. And please take action (NOW).

Nobody Asked Me But: One man’s harrowing battle with a MRSA superbug

Shilo Zylbergold
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Nobody Asked Me But: One man’s harrowing battle with a MRSA superbug

Look up in the sky. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Superbug!

Superbug? Is this another of the Marvel Comics superheroes turned into a blockbuster box office smash?

No, actually, the superbug I refer to here is none other than MRSA, an acronym for Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus. To put it briefly, this potentially fatal menace is a bacterium that has grown resistant to many of our “go to” antibiotics. Although it is found almost everywhere, especially on skin and mucous membranes such as inside the nose and mouth, it can wreak havoc if it finds its way into your bloodstream and is allowed to multiply exponentially. If this happens, MRSA can cause serious infections and abscesses in the host body.

Why am I discussing such a morbid subject? It’s because I was struck down by this little MRSA vermin just before Christmas. 

I know, I know, everybody has problems, so why do I have to publish mine in the Driftwood newspaper? I’ve already written extensively about my experiences with prostate cancer and the rare Sezary Syndrome lymphoma I have been struggling with for a few years. Couldn’t I just suffer in silence like everybody else without letting the whole island in on it? Don’t I realize that my reading audience is sick and tired of hearing about my physical ailments?

No. Apparently not. So to continue with my story, one day in late December my wife came home to find me doubled over the kitchen counter in abject back pain. We waited through a sleepless night and decided the next morning to drive to Lady Minto Hospital. I was kept overnight and the next day whisked into an ambulance and transported via the Fulford ferry to the Saanich hospital for a CT scan. The pain in my back was unbearable so I had been given narcotics to make the trip easier. Later that same day I was returned to Lady Minto. The CT scan had not been completely conclusive, but suspicions were now rising that I had been infected with MRSA.

I would need an MRI at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria.

By this time, my back was hurting so badly that there was no way I could lie flat on the sliding table that would carry me into the vortex of the machine. I was supposed to keep still for the wicked 90 minutes that it would take to do a complete scan of my spine, but I knew that I, a natural fidgeter at the best of times plus being claustrophobic, would not last five seconds on that table.

I convinced the lab techies that I could not go through with the scan unless they gave me something that would knock me out. They kindly gave me a shot of ketamine, a fairly common sedation drug, and I was out like a light in no time, and the MRI was completed successfully.

What no one knew at the time is that I was allergic to ketamine. Once I was returned to 5 North of the Patient Care Centre and started to come around, I went psychotic. And I mean out-of-control crazy. I surmised that I had been abducted by aliens and they were preparing to do brain probes on me. I tried to make my escape by staggering out of bed, but in the wretched shape I was in, I only managed to bounce my body off the hallway walls. Eventually, the nursing staff summoned security and two burly uniformed guards roped me back to my room. I still struggled to escape, but they made that impossible by anchoring each of my limbs to the bed frame using thick webbed straps. I was stuck. I fought those restraints for hours, calling out for my wife to help me, at the same time thinking she was in on the plot. The entire scene resembled that notorious acid trip clip from the ‘60s movie classic Easy Rider.

When my psychosis finally dissipated I returned to my old addled self. Blood tests confirmed that I had a superbug infection and that the bacteria had settled into a sticky abscess in my spine.

The course of action was obvious to the doctors. Hit the little suckers with every type of antibiotic ever discovered until they found one or more to which they weren’t resistant.

Every day, at three different times of the day, I was infused intravenously with several antibiotics. Most of them did little or nothing. One of them, moxifloxcicin (sounds like a good name for a pet cat), made me develop an allergic reaction and break out in hives.

I was poked with syringes several times a day and had test tubes of blood drawn from my veins, which started to close down in protest. I was told that they would consider me healed and the infection under control if I could produce blood samples that were sterile and had zero bacteria for five straight days.

The problem was that I couldn’t produce sterile blood. Some days the bacteria decreased to almost nothing, but then shot back up the very next day. The doctors shook their heads. I was sent for more X-rays, CT scans, ultrasounds, echocardiograms and MRI’s. 

Days turned into weeks and slowly the tide turned. The specialists marvelled at how tough these specific bacteria were and they claimed they had never seen such specimens that were so hard to kill.

After five weeks confined to a single floor at the Royal Jube, I finally passed the blood sterility test. I was told that I would be set free in the near future if all remained as was. But just as I was about to be discharged the very next day, a new complication arose. The platelet level in my blood, which had been one element of my body chemistry that had been quite normal, took a precipitous dive towards the danger zone. Next, my B12 level took a dive to the danger zone. It seemed like the separate elements in my blood were taking turns jumping off the chart!

As I write these words, a whole week has now gone by since my platelet and B12 scares and I have had the levels return to normal by stopping one of my antibiotics and replacing it with another. I am buoyed with the assurance that I will be discharged on Feb. 1 (the day before Groundhog Day, uh-oh).

Nobody asked me, but six weeks bed-ridden in a hospital with an infectious disease is nothing I want to experience ever again. Three more weeks of antibiotics treatment at home and I should be totally clear of the MRSA. Then it’s back to the challenge of seeing how long I can continue life in my sweet home on the rock, Salt Spring, while I dance with my old enemy, Sezary Syndrome.          

And now that this superbug has stepped aside, I’ll be able to focus on the next arch villain. I’m sure you’ll be hearing about it.

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