Birding best medicine for former Sault man battling Lyme disease

At 65, Bob Bell says he now has more friends than he has ever had in his life.

The former Sault Ste. Marie resident who now lives in Ancaster, Ontario credits that to taking up bird watching - also known as birding - in his retirement, having formed friendships with a group of Hamilton-based naturalists.

“It’s become an addictive passion,” Bell told SooToday.

But that passion and new friends were discovered only after contracting Lyme disease, a serious illness transmitted by tick bites.

Though initial severe symptoms - such as a distinctive ‘bull’s eye’ rash, fever and headache - go away if the patient is properly diagnosed and treated with antibiotics - permanent joint pain, muscle pain, fatigue and other symptoms often result.

Officially based in several Canadian cities throughout his career, Bell travelled the world while working in the mining industry as an exploration geologist, first with Inco - later Vale Limited - for 27 years.

He later became CEO of Toronto-based INV Metals.

“I had been travelling through southern Africa in late August and early September 2013 and I know I got bit by a number of insects there, and then I was back in Regina, Saskatchewan at a barbecue and I wandered into some tall grass and I may or may not have picked up a tick there,” Bell said.

The typical ‘bull’s eye’ rash associated with Lyme disease didn’t appear on his skin but Bell went through a great deal of suffering.

“It was 10 days after those two trips that I woke up with massive chills, shaking violently and a temperature of 103. That was either the start of Lyme I picked up on one of those two trips, or Lyme can be dormant in your body for 10 years, so I could’ve picked it up anywhere in the world.”

“About three days later it went away but in October 2013 all the symptoms of Lyme started showing up, like muscle aches and twitches, fatigue, my joints cracking and popping and brain fog. I couldn’t even count change. It was all downhill from there.”

Bell stuck with his job at the helm of INV Metals, but with great difficulty. 

“I was trying really hard to function but you get brain fog. I literally could not count the dollar and seventy five cents to buy a newspaper and at the same time I was negotiating with the mines minister of a country in South America for a mining permit. I realized ‘this isn’t good.’”

After a six month leave, he noticed some improvement in his condition, but not enough to allow him to keep working.

Lyme disease forced Bell to retire in 2015.

He still suffers from the lingering effects of the disease. 

Bell said that in the fall and winter months, the pain gets worse.

His muscles and joints ache and he struggles with fatigue, those symptoms easing to an extent when spring and summer return.

Bell said he encountered frustration when seeking diagnosis and treatment of his illness in Canada.

Having to be his own doctor and conducting his own research while suffering from severe symptoms, Bell discovered a physician - Dr. Maureen McShane - who was interested in Lyme Disease and practiced medicine in Plattsburgh, New York.

“She had 1,500 patients and 1,300 of them were Canadian because nobody in Canada would treat you for Lyme Disease.”

Bell was prescribed antibiotics and a strict diet.

“It’s nine years later and it seems like the Canadian medical system is coming around to a greater degree. They seem to recognize that if they give you antibiotics right away and you take them for a month you’ll be fine. I think more and more doctors are getting like that, I hope.”

“It’s real. It’s here. Don’t be dismissive,” is Bell’s message for Canadian doctors in regards to Lyme disease.

Bell has also taken naturopathic treatments but has found birding to be the greatest comfort in his ongoing ordeal.

“Birding has been my salvation,” he said.

“I always had bird feeders at my various homes where I had lived, but when I retired in Ancaster I became aware that I was seeing birds at my feeder that I hadn’t seen before, birds that aren’t up in the Sault or Sudbury. I started researching them and that’s what made me start to feel better, when I was reading up on them and watching my feeders. I thought ‘I’m occupied and I don’t feel the aches and pains.’”

Bell went on a birding field trip with a large naturalist club in Hamilton in 2016.

“I was hooked.”

“I got totally into photography and started giving public talks, showing my bird photos, and I enjoy sharing my passion for birding with an audience. I get real joy out of photographing birds.”

“Birding is not a cure but it’s a great coping mechanism. Your mind is off your body. It’s like mindfulness. People pay big bucks for therapists and get into these mindfulness workshops. I would say just sit and look out your window or walk to your local park and watch the birds. Watch them leading their lives. It’s fascinating. Now, I want to get a really super photo of every bird possible.”

Bell has written a book outlining his discovery of birding as a form of treatment for his pain in a book entitled Out of the Lyme Light and Into the Sunlight: Birding as Therapy for the Chronically Ill, to be released Nov. 15. 

“To be honest, I wrote this book for myself. It was cathartic to get it off my chest and then on a whim I submitted it to a few publishers. I’m still in shock but Hancock House Publishers in Vancouver said ‘this is great’ and they picked it up.”

“In my book I talk a lot about how to get into it, everything from backyard birding to local parks and conservation areas.”

Born in New Liskeard and raised in the Sault, Bell’s family members in this city included several school principals and a school board superintendent.

He still visits family members and friends at cottages in northern Ontario.

“Who would’ve thought you’d make friends at the age of 65 but I’ve got more friends now than I’ve had in my entire life,” Bell said of his fellow birders, describing them as a nature-loving group of companions different from friends he made at school and in his career.

“Birding makes you feel part of a community and that’s good for your health. I was walking with a cane when I was in Toronto and now I can walk eight kilometres a day,” Bell said.

“It’s been the greatest hobby for me.”