Stroke Month Saga, con’t: CALGARY, Alberta

On Monday, June 5^th Ron and I proceeded east on #3, the Crowsnest Highway. The highway takes its name from the Crowsnest Pass in the Rockies where the road crosses the Continental Divide between BC and Alberta. After Ron’s talk at the East Kootenay Regional Hospital we spent the night in Cranbrook before proceeding to Fernie where we had complimentary accommodation thanks to the hospital staff in Cranbrook. In Fernie we visited with Randal Macnair and Carolyn Nikodym of Oolichan Books, which Ron had founded in 1974. In 2010 Randal bought the press and moved it to Fernie but Ron remains involved as an editor. Both visits, to Cranbrook and to Fernie, were special. The people and the scenery were splendid and between the venues we were often treated to the sight of large deer with very big, brown ears. Logically enough, this species of four-legged forager is called the mule deer.

However, it is not my intention here to dwell on descriptions of the flora and fauna or geological phenomena such as the Frank Slide. Nor will I comment on my faux pas in consulting a map of BC and Alberta published in 1998 when planning our route from Fernie to Calgary along Highway #22. Nor will I describe the fits of frustrated frenzy the author of The Defiant Mind threw when he realized that he was headed back to the Rocky Mountains and not to Calgary. Also, I will omit any mention of the difficulties one is likely to encounter when asking for directions at gas stations in Calgary. Suffice it to say that I did not encounter a local, at least not a local whose first language was English and who knew the city like a chuck wagon driver at the Calgary Stampede. I shall also refrain from describing the logistics involved in arriving at 1804 Crowchild Trail, the address of the Best Western Plus Village Park Inn, where we had reservations in hand, my cousin Cheryl being away on a hiking tour in the bucolic Tyrolean Alps. I shall merely note that when the weary traveller arrives at the above address, he or she will whiz by the aforementioned hotel, which can only be accessed by a service road known only to locals in the know. Instead, I shall simply remain grateful that somehow we found our way to the hotel, marriage in tatters but luggage intact, and happy in the knowledge that it was only 4pm; that Ron did not have to be at the reading at Shelf Life Books until 7pm; that Noreen Kamal and her husband were picking us up at the hotel at 6:30pm; and that I would not have to drive.

Recognizing that June was Stroke Awareness Month, the event at the bookstore had a unique format. Ron’s reading was complemented by Dr. Noreen Kamal, a Researcher and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary, the engineer who is responsible for implementing the world-leading stroke treatment now available throughout Alberta; and by neurologist, Dr. Amy Yu, who graciously stepped in on short notice for Dr. Michael Hill who had been called away to Hamilton and Toronto. The women were there to comment on stroke and to answer questions from the audience. The answers they gave were extremely enlightening, all the more so because their Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Calgary is world renowned. Dr. Hill and his team led the international research and randomised trials for endovascular thrombectomy for large vessel blockages in ischemic strokes. Using this procedure a person suffering from a clot in the brain has a tube inserted into a blood vessel in their groin which can then be sent all the way up into the brain where a stent is released into the blood clot. Then the stent and the clot can be pulled back down the tube and out the blood vessel in the groin. Doctors Kamal and Yu are intimately familiar with all aspects of stroke treatment and understand how and when endovascular thrombectomy may be applicable and how effective the treatment can be in substantially reducing the disabilities which typically result from strokes. Given the diversity of people in the audience–poets, writers, caregivers, stroke survivors and readers–the event was exceptionally informative and enjoyable. A big thank you to poet Tyler Perry, author Betty Jean Hegerat and Shelf Life Books for arranging this evening and to Bob Stallworthy for reading some of his powerful poems written from the point of view of a caregiver.