“I got snowed in at my family cabin, eight miles from nearest paved road. The whole family and I were scheduled to go to Hawaii. I got trapped the day before the flight out and they left without me, which I would’ve done too. It snowed over four feet within 48 hours. Power went off early, no stove, no fridge, no light, no running water. I had to heat the house via a wood stove and melt the snow on the stove for drinking water and cooking. Luckily after a day or two, the power came back on. I called all my friends on the landline just to talk to someone.
On day 10, I started to run outta food. I grabbed a very expired can of chili from the cupboard and heated it up. I ate about half of it and immediately started to vomit and feel terrible. I called poison control and they said, ‘You might have botulism.’
They couldn’t say for sure, since I was snowed in and couldn’t get to a hospital. They said if I did have botulism, the first sign would be numbness in my extremities. After that, it could move quickly to my heart muscle. So if I felt any numbness, then to call them back and they’d scramble a chopper. Luckily, it was just food poisoning. At 15 days, they slowed the feeder dirt row. At this point, I had already reread all the Harry Potters and was eating rice with bullion power for near a week. I gave my 11-year-old Aussie a little tranq, called my dad to drive in as close as possible, and avalanche carried my dog through the powder until I reached the car.”
