There's a Bee in My Bike Shorts

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Last weekend, a friend and I decided to go on a bike trip up to Caledon, ON. The forks of the Credit River to be precise. A lovely plan yes, but in practice it turned out to be a little more hard core than we had initially thought. You see, when I google mapped it, it was about 50-60 Km which would have been fine, but we went the looooong way! We biked through winding bike paths and lovely country roads that always seemed to be uphill... both ways, don't ask me how that works. Anyhow, I am not what you would call a road warrior; I commute in the city on my bike, but that, my friends, is a very different beast than spending nine hours (yes, nine) on a bike in one day.

First we got lost, then we got hungry and then we got dehydrated to the point that we had nothing left to sweat. We had to stop in Inglewood where a lovely lady named Blanche took pity on us (by this time the shops were all closed). She gave us water and we took some Arnica (a homeopathic remedy that has an affinity for helping damaged or overused tissues) for our bruised bottoms and sore muscles so that we could continue on our way. We got to the camp site and cooked dinner at 11 pm after doing one lap around the lake for good measure to make sure we had the best spot, (I believe the low blood sugar had limited our good decision making skills at that point), put up the tent and passed out. We both woke up the next morning expecting not to be able to move, but amazingly, we were fine! Trust me, this was no small miracle! Had we not taken the Arnica, I might still be stuck at the forks of the Credit River now! 

This was not to be the end of the miracle of homeopathy for this trip.  My friend was stung by a ferocious bee, right behind the knee (ouch) as we were taking down the tent. Catastrophe had struck! Can you imagine getting a bee sting right behind the knee, and then trying to bike back to the city? We had 82 Km to travel and my friend sarcastically said, 'Don't worry, it only shoots stabbing hot pain every time I peddle!'  Fortunately, I am the grown up version of a girl scout as well as being a homeopath so not only had I brought Arnica, but I also had my trusty homeopathic remedy kit. I don't leave town without it! It has saved my life and the lives of others in India (dysentery), Cameroon (malaria), Costa Rica (food poisoning) and Killarney (heat stroke)-but that is for another blog entry. I gave my friend a dose of Apis ( a remedy that can work well for bug bites and stings) and put an insta-ice pack on it, and no exaggeration, in five minutes the swelling was practically gone and she was ready to go.

As we rode back to the city, we were both pretty happy about what we had accomplished and I kept contemplating the 'what if' scenarios had I not given us the remedies.

Life is so much easier when there is something that can be used to help in almost all situations; to ease pain and create comfort, so that you don't feel restricted by having to play it safe because you might get sick or hurt. I know that no matter where I go or who I am with I can handle most things that come up with a single dose of a well chosen remedy (with the exception of broken bones of course). So the next time you go on vacation, or go camping, even the next time you go to the cottage, you might want to consider taking along a remedy kit along with the Band-Aids, nano particle free sunscreen and Deet free bug spray.

Happy Summer Everyone!