I love the outdoors. Give me a tree and some leaves and a babbling
brook and I am a happy camper (literally)!
I work hard like most of us do (at least the ones lucky enough to have a job in
this seemingly insane economy), and I arrange my entire year around the two
week vacation that my king, er, I mean… my boss
grants me every year. What I usually do is find a beautiful rural area and take
to the woods like an old time pioneer. This year was different from most. I did
not expect to have my hotel concierge have to call me a doctor nyc.
I never travel alone, so this time I was with a new girlfriend. A
gorgeous creature with whom I seemed to share a lot with. When I found out that
she also enjoyed camping, I asked her to accompany me on my next adventure, and
she immediately said yes. I was psyched. There’s nothing better than the great
outdoors, unless you are sharing the great outdoors with a pretty girl. This I
have found out during my many travels. It’s a fact. You can look it up in all
the camping books. The only doctor I thought I’d need on this trip was me,
myself and/or I: a self-proclaimed Love
Doctor. Alas, this was mighty wrongheaded of me.
When we arrived at the hotel everything was great. It was a huge
sprawling lodge steeped in the grandest of old-timey architecture. Even the
concierge was cool. He was wearing a hat with a raccoon tail on it to lend some
old west-time spirit to the place (I assumed). The idea was we were going to
spend two days bush-whacking through the forest on separate day trips and in
between head back to the hotel for some comfortable lodging (if you get my
drift).
Unfortunately, what actually happened is I caught a severe case of
poison ivy! I thought I had all my bases covered. After all, I was an
experienced woodsman. I guess I didn’t notice the telltale signs of poison ivy,
that is, the distinctive three, thin shiny leaves that are green in the summer
and turn orange/bronze in the fall. Most individuals are only allergic to the
oily type resin (or sap) of the plant. Others can get an itchy case of poison
ivy from the stems, plants, flowers and leaves. This seems to have happened to
me. For before we even arrived back at our friendly concierge desk my legs,
hands, arms and ankles were bright red and itching like crazy!
Thankfully our concierge arranged for a doctor to come to the
hotel and treat me. I was a wreck. The doctor filled me in on a lot of poison
ivy–related factoids. Such as, had we had a campfire burning and inadvertently
lit the poison ivy plant on fire we both could have had a difficult time
breathing due to the burning resin situated inside our airways. I also learned
that it can take up to five days before symptoms show up. He explained that
symptoms typically arise between an hour and five days. I guess I was one of
the rare individuals whose allergic reaction popped up on the hour mark
exactly. Yay for me.
This article is just to alert people to the availability of
hotels, and the concierge in particular, to arranging a house call when one is
needed. We kept up our vacation but things didn’t go as well as I planned them
to considering I spent most of the evening applying my prescribed cream instead
of… well, you know.
If you are ever in New York City and would like a board-certified
doctor to visit you in a hotel, motel, office (or even at your own home) please
log on to HouseCallDoctorNYC.com and read up on the best house call doctor
in the area. To speak to a knowledgeable staff member simply dial
1-212-696-5900. Remember, a doctor’s visit is a just a simple phone call away!
