Day 20, Year 8: Beautiful Friday
Date: Friday, November 23, 2012
Weather: Beautiful, Warm, and Sunny Day
Location: Lightkeeper’s Marina in Coquina Harbor, Little River, SC
While all of the shoppers in this country were enjoying Black Friday, we were enjoying a drop-dead gorgeous day. The sun was shining, the sky was deep blue, and it was warm enough to wear short-sleeved shirts. What a delightful day. Unfortunately, Mark had to spend his morning in the Emergency Room, which was not because of an emergency—I’ll explain that one in just a moment. But Linda, Michael, Garrett and I spent our morning on the water in the kayak and in the dinghy. Boats of all sorts were leaving the marina this morning, headed out for a day on the water. Garrett and Michael went out in the kayak and after giving them a good head start, Linda and I went out to find them in the dinghy. We motored out of Coquina Harbor and into the Intracoastal Waterway. When we found them, Garrett and Linda exchanged places and with Garrett driving the dinghy, we headed out to the Little River outlet to the sea. We didn’t go out, but we knew we were almost there as the swell from the ocean became apparent. We then went back to look for Linda and Michael but could find them nowhere. We went back to the boat and they weren’t there, so we took off in the other direction and still no Linda and Michael. When we approached Coquina Harbor the second time, we spotted Linda paddling in without Michael. We wondered if she had thrown him overboard, but it was nothing that dramatic. She had simply taken him back to the boat and had gone out for another paddle on her own. She explained that the reason we couldn’t find them was because they had found some little by-ways to explore. Once we all returned to Windbird, it wasn’t long before Mark returned. Now for that story.
A day before we arrived here Mark noticed a place on the bottom of his left foot that had strange looking blister-like spots and other hard pimple-sized bumps. The blister-like spots were hard, not soft as they would be if they were filled with liquid. Neither of us had ever seen anything like this, and after searching the internet, we still had no idea what was wrong. The day we arrived, he started getting red splotches on his stomach and on the tops of his feet. And now the other foot had places on the bottom in the space between the heel and the ball of the foot. We called the oncologist to see if this could be a long-delayed reaction to chemo and the answer to that was no. We had Lee and Lynda call their doctors to see if we could get an appointment and the answer was a resounding no. Most physicians are not taking new patients. We yesterday morning Mark went to a “Doc in a Box.” These are urgent care physicians that are located about town in small, box-like buildings. The doctor said he had never seen anything like this and gave Mark a couple of prescriptions for who-knows-what. Since yesterday was Thanksgiving Day we just hung in there, but this morning Mark went to the local Emergency Room. Again, the doctor said he has never seen anything like this and he gave Mark another couple of prescriptions for who-knows-what. He said that Mark should see a dermatologist as soon as possible, but those appointments down here can take almost a year. He thought having the backing of an ER doctor might help, but still Mark has to call and make the appointment. No one is in until Monday, so we will just have to wait and see how long it will take to get the appointment. The ER doctor says it needs to happen next week, so we shall see. In the meantime, Mark and I have tried to think of any possible cause and last night as we drove home from my sister’s house something in our conversation made the light bulb go off. At the same time as we started our trek south, Mark started a new medication to help with the symptoms of neuropathy (numbness in feet and hands and difficulty sleeping). The neuropathy was caused by the chemo drugs. We had read about the side-effects of the drug which listed everything but death and basically ignored that and went ahead with the medication. Last night when we got home from the Thanksgiving gathering, we searched the internet again for side-effects and found some indications for strange dermatologic reactions. The ER doctor was not convinced by our discovery, but Mark has stopped taking the med and we will just have to wait and see. The trip to the ER was basically to eliminate the possibility of shingles and the doctor was able to rule this one out.
After Mark returned to Windbird, we all went back to Lee and Lynda’s house where Linda, Michael, and Garrett are staying. Linda made “day after” sandwiches for us for lunch. I had never heard of this before, but Linda has been eating these sandwiches on the day after Thanksgiving all of her life. Between two pieces of toasted bread spread with mayonnaise, you pile in cold, left-over dressing, cold turkey, and cranberry sauce. We added a little baby spinach, and the result was fantastic. I highly recommend this. After lunch we went to the local Goodwill Store to look for a suit for Garrett. I recommended this as I had been in this store last summer and found their array of offerings quite impressive. Garrett is in the International Business School at the University of South Carolina and often finds he needs a suit for special occasions. We didn’t find anything, but I was still amazed at the amount of clothing in this store. Then it was off to play miniature golf. We had a lot of fun and I definitely won the day with the highest score. The point is to score as high as possible, isn’t it? Linda and Michael tied for the lowest score, so I assume they lost. Then we were off in search of a place to have seafood by the water. Most of the good places that are on the water pretty far south of here, so we took an internet recommendation and went to the Flying Fish at Barefoot Landing on the Intracoastal. It wasn’t the ocean, but there was water and the fish was great.
Linda, Michael, and Garrett leave in the morning, as will my niece Jennifer and her husband. After we say our goodbyes to them, we hope to spend the rest of the day with my visiting nephews and their families. I’m hoping to get some of the little ones out on the water in the kayak and dinghy. It is always important to spread the love of being out on the water to as many people as possible in any way that you can.
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| 121123 Day 20 South Carolina, USA–Day After the Turkey |
