Make Me Laugh Again

February 16 and on being sick

I got sick Jan 31. We went to church on Jan 30, it was held at an mid to upscale restaurant and we had lunch with everyone from the service afterwards. Both Reneé and I had shrimp dishes and a berry lemonada (probably made with local water). This was the last really good meal for me for a while. We checked with the people at the church and no one else had any issues with the food, so I probably did not get here.

The next day both of us were at little out of sorts, upset tummy sort of thing. No diarrhea for either of us, no vomiting just a bit of nausea.

I got progressively worse, with occasional days where it seemed like everything was normal. I went to the pool one day at Barra de Navidad and the whole day was fine, the next day was horrible.

We went into town and saw a local doctor, who treated me for Acid Reflux. The next day we called our doctor in San Diego and started the first round of antibiotics.

We moved up our flight back to the states (our Daughter in Law is/was due on 3/14, no baby yet as I am writing this on 3/19). We flew in on 2/16 Wednesday, I saw the doctor on Thursday and we got blood tests and stool samples ordered.

It was an effort to get through this (BTW, I was on my second round of antibiotics at this point). Apparently I have a parasite, but the research on the internet says treatment is up to the patient and the doctor as many people have this one for decades with no problem.

This is what I wrote up on 3/7:

What’s going on as of today, 03/07/2022

I have been dealing with a parasite and maybe something else, since January 31 this year.

We travel a lot, and we were in Mexico when this started. Initial symptoms included night sweats, followed by shivering with a temperature of 98.6. The night sweats would soak the bed.

We came back to the states by way of San Diego 2/16. I saw my doctor there who after seeing my blood work prescribed an antibiotic for the parasite. I will finish those at dinner tonight.

He also referred me to an oncologist/hematologist.

My significant symptoms include:

Night sweats (I think I am done with these)
Exhaustion
Slight headache
Fever 97-100 usually low
Unusual weight loss, I stepped on the scale this morning (2/27/22) at 209. That’s down from approximately 235 in January. Lowest have weighed since about 1977.
Slight upset tummy
Slight tightness in chest
Low appetite
Minor cough

What I am not experiencing:

vomiting, diarrhea, and nausea
Runny nose, clogged sinuses etc
Open sore
Sore throat

Please refer to the blood work attached, as you can see, up until the February labs everything was pretty stable. Note I had a physical in October 2021, so only 4 months ago.

I am really tired all the time.

So, to describe the night sweats, about a gallon of water out of my body soaking the bed and pillow all the way over to Reneê’s side of the bed, followed by shivers for a half hour.

As of today, I have had a follow up blood test and stool samples. The parasite did not show up in the stool samples. The blood work is returning to normal. It has been about 7 weeks, my weight is back up to about 220 (about when we got married in 1982). I tire very easy and can’t walk very far compared to what we are used to. Hopefully I am getting better day by day. We are supposed to be back on the boat, April 6th. We will resume the blog then.

Monday February 7, 2022 Barra de Navidad

Monday February 7, 2022 Barra de Navidad

Our time in the Barra de Navidad has been bittersweet. We’ve enjoyed meeting some new boaters. We met Del and Barbie on Timeless and Bill and Susan Birschoff on a Trawler that has a long name beginning with A. We got to see old friends, Steve and Denny on Brendan, Walt and Shelley on Dune, Greg and Christine on Sonrisa, Eric and Kim on Gladiator. This has been Cruisers Week here with all kinds of festivities and a race on Friday. We didn’t participate in any of the activities. Neil continues to be sick, quite lethargic. I’ve gone to water aerobics and on two fabulous walks (one to secret beach and the other to the point at the end of the peninsula). I went to the Thursday market in Barra and took a cab ride to Melague to shop at the Hawaii store. We got Neil to a local doctor who gave him meds for acid reflux. Neil had a telemedicine call with our San Diego doctor who recommended meds for a stomach bug. Yet, Neil continues to have no energy. So…we made the hard decision of going back to the states earlier than originally planned. We have a flight out of Puerto Vallarta on 2/16. We will stay with the Miller’s for 2 weeks while Neil sees the doctor. We will leave our boat here in Barra de Navidad under the care of Pancho. He will oversee the bottom cleaning, repair of the generator, and any other boat needs that arise. While here in the marina we got our laundry done. We had all of our fuel pumped out because it appears to be dirty. Sadly the fuel clogged up the generator filter and that may be part of the reason it isn’t working. On Friday we motored over to the fuel dock and spent close to $1000 to fill up the tank again. Tomorrow, Sunday, 2/13, I plan on going to church at Costalegre Community in Melague. Denny Pepper is going to join me.

I felt up to a night out, if you look close you can tell I am not really all there.

This was the musician and he was very good.

The top of our fuel tank, the only way in is to remove the level gauge.

The level gauge out and the fuel out as well

The fuel on the left is what was in our tank (according the fuel dock we got it at it is just dyed). The one on the right is what we put back in..

Just cause I am sick is no reason she can’t have a good time.

Saturday February 11, 2022

We motored over and got fuel, a lot of fuel.

We have a 160 gallon tank, and two 5 gallon Jerry cans on deck. The tank had been pumped out completely, we put both the jerry cans of diesel in our tank, and one more 5 gallon jerry can to make it more likely our fuel pump would get a suction and then motored over and put 161 gallons in to our tank.

Oh and the cost? 15396 pesos for the fuel plus a 15% dockage fee (getting fuel at a fuel dock rather than in town) 2309.4, (17705) and 3% if you pay with a credit card 531.15. If we chose to pay with USD then the conversion rate is 18 pesos to the dollar ($983.61). We paid in cash in Pesos 17705 (about $861 US at the current rate).

Sunday February 12, 2022

We started prepping the boat to leave it for a month. We arranged with Pancho to watch the boat and fix the generator while we were gone. Also to polish the stainless and the boat and clean the bottom. This was quite an effort for me, as I am really sick.

Reneé with ladies by resort pool – Denny, Susan, Barbie, Reneé

Pancho drove us to the Puerto Vallarta airport and we flew back to Tijuana on 2/16. we walked across the border using the CBX, it costs $20 US per person, but it was 48 minutes from when the wheels touched down until we were standing on the curb in California waiting for our ride.

From here we enter our normal no blog updates while in the states. But, I will tell the story of this sickness on the next post.

Monday January 31, 2022, Punta Salagua/Manzanillo

Up at 7, breakfast, bible reading and then ashore at lunch time for lunch and a bus trip to the market. Then back to the boat and naps. We have not been sleeping well (Ok, I have not been sleeping well). Somebody in this bay, or in one of the condo’s/houses turns the music on VERY loud from about 11 pm to 1 am. We planned to stay here only a couple nights, Saturday and Sunday so we could go to church Sunday and grocery shopping.

Sunday January 30, 2022, Punta Salagua/Manzanillo

Up at 7 am, breakfast and then get the dinghy down and into port by 9 am. We were going to take a bus, but we waited for over a half hour and never saw one, so we tried Uber and InDriver and finally took a cab. Church was held in a restaurant with about 15 people. After the service we had lunch then Reneé and I walked to Sams Club. We attempted to use a bus, but again wound up in a cab. We paid for leaving the dinghy (300 pesos, about $15 USD) then back to the boat. When we decided to pick up the dinghy we thought about using the electric winches and made a mistake and wound up breaking one of the winches. Afterwards, we had dinner and showers and bed.

We have been discussing a couple of major issues on the boat. They are solar, and our dinghy. The biggest issue with the solar is finding a technician (competent in electrical and electronics) I have only found 3 people I can rely on to do this. 2 are in La Paz in Baja. The other is in Puerto Vallarta. We have checked with a variety of resources south of here, and we are not finding much. Our situation is that we will need to move between 4 and 6 antenna on the arch and build a new frame to support the solar panels. The other issue we have is that our dinghy is just too big. The one we would like to have is made in New Zealand, and we have looked at the logistics of getting it here, and we have finally given up. So, second choice is a lighter dinghy than we have but similar design. That apparently is only available here on the west coast of Mexico in Puerto Vallarta. So, we have decided that we are going back to Puerto Vallarta after we go south to Ixtapa. In March we will be in the states for the birth of our newest grand baby. Then when we get back to the boat in early April, we will head north to be in Marina Vallarta for hurricane season.

This will be a one year delay on getting to Florida.

This was the front of the resort we anchored off of. This was probably a 300 foot climb from the water.

The beach at the restaurant where we went to church.

This is what an undamaged wench looks like.

Saturday January 29, 2022, Bahia Santiago to Punta Salagua

Up at 7, breakfast listened to the net, then bible reading and got ready to go. Then a few miles of motoring to Punta Salagua which has a resort and a small marina. This has a dinghy dock and we will be going to church in the morning. Much easier to get there from the dinghy dock. We had a quiet day, after we got the boat anchored. That as a lot of effort.

Normally, we put out our anchor in about 30 feet of water. I put it down and let out about 75-100 feet of chain. Reneé backs the boat up slowly to stretch out the chain and when it is tight, she “sets” the anchor. This means she brings the engine RPM up in reverse and pulls the anchor into the bottom. This time we were not so successful, we tried 4 times and the anchor would not set. So, we moved and were further out and got it set, …. But we were in a place where we could have drifted into another boat. So we moved again and finally set the anchor in about 34 feet of water. So, we got anchored but it took 6 attempts! This is not normal.

We stayed on the boat, Reneé polished some stainless steel, and I caught up the blog, and we researched and bought tickets for our trip next month back to the states.