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Museum tour guide Janice Henderson was sent to The Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus Emergency Department nine times in 2016 for allergic reactions. She recently expressed her gratitude to the staff with a poem and cookies.

Over the last six years, 29-year-old museum tour guide Janice Henderson has collected allergies like baseball cards: tree nuts, cherries, cucumbers and apples to name a few. After nine trips to the Emergency Department in 2016, she added peppers and sulfites to the list.

During this challenging time, the Ottawa resident was grateful for the care she received at The Ottawa Hospital’s Civic Campus.

“I really appreciate it when the doctors and residents take the time to go over my reaction and my response and let me know that I did the right thing, or what I could have done differently,” said Henderson. “That means so much to me, as I constantly second-guess myself and need to have a clear plan to know what to do next time.”

During a typical emergency visit, Henderson sees six to seven people, including nurses, paramedics and admissions staff.

In May, Henderson found a creative way to say thank you to all of them. She couldn’t eat the Girl Guide cookies her Brownie unit was selling because they contained sulfites (a food preservative found in everything from tea to spices), but she thought the Emergency Department staff might appreciate them. She dropped off some boxes of cookies at the Civic Campus along with a card and a personalized poem.

“I spent most of an evening figuring out how to phrase things so I didn’t have to rhyme ‘intravenous’ or ‘epinephrine,’ she said. “I’m hoping the cookies lasted for two shifts, but as they are 12 hour shifts, who knows?”

In the meantime, Henderson makes most of her food from scratch. She hasn’t has a major reaction in a month.

“Thankfully I haven’t needed to go back to the Civic as a patient,” said Henderson. “Obviously I’m hoping not to, but if I do react, I know that I can count on seeing staff there that care about me.”

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