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<\/a><\/p>\nAnd despite my previous post\u2019s happy endorsement of spring cruising, the rain didn\u2019t help. On some of the rainier days, there was very little to keep our minds off our suffering stuck below in a cool damp boat. The Webasto got fired up perhaps a bit more than would have been our usual practice.<\/p>\n
We were swinging on the hook in Von Donop when I made the executive decision that a few days at dock were called for, and so we raised the anchor and made for Heriot Bay, shore power and, best of all, a supply of medication.<\/p>\n
On the road back to better<\/h3>\n
We tied up at Taku Resort and immediately tromped off to the Market. The selection was limited, but Leslie chose to indulge in her faithful NeoCitran while I opted for a combined cure to both my now incipient head cold and the persisting background allergies: Sinutab Allergies. We loaded up and spent two days on the dock reveling in electric heat, all the hot water we wanted and the ability to walk away from what we regarded as our own personal plague ship.<\/p>\n
Of course we didn\u2019t do that much walking, preferring to huddle miserably below. After a couple of days we decided that if that\u2019s the way it was, we might as well go somewhere more picturesque so, after forgoing the worst of the drugs for a day, cast off for the Octopus Islands. And there we sat for a few more days in alternating sun and rain and slowly recovered.<\/p>\n
At least I did. My cold slowly receded, although my allergies remained (albeit at a much reduced level thanks to the drugs). But Leslie\u2019s illness had unfortunately settled into her ears, which stubbornly refused to drain, and she was starting to count down to a flight to Toronto that she absolutely did not<\/em> want to make with blocked eustachian tubes.<\/p>\n Right about then we started paying attention to medical facilities. Or at least I did. Talking it over, we decided if L\u2019s ears weren\u2019t better by a week before her flight, we would bustle off to a doctor for some serious drugs. Of course, walk-in clinics didn\u2019t seem to be overly abundant in Desolation Sound, so we shifted our short-term plans accordingly.<\/p>\n The days went by and with the help of some Benadryl I picked up in Lund, I beat my symptoms into a mere five-minute, first-thing-in-the-morning coughing session. Leslie\u2019s ears did not, however, improve. And so we continued to move slowly south toward more populated parts.<\/p>\n A sign you will be sure to encounter on your walk tot he Pender Harbour Health Centre<\/p><\/div>\n A few days short of our one-week deadline we found ourselves back on the hook in Pender Harbour. I gave Pender Harbour Health Centre <\/a>a call the morning after we arrived to get some advice on the nearest place to have Leslie\u2019s ears looked at. It turned out they had a both nurse and<\/em> a doctor available and could we be there by 11? I secured directions (a 10-minute walk south down the highway) and we started to get ready.<\/p>\n There are a lot of things about small towns that can be irritating, but Madeira Park\u2014indeed the whole Pender Harbour area\u2014has just the right balance between services and population to make things like going to the doctor a joy. We arrived about a half hour early and Leslie was bustled in five minutes later. I could hear her laughing, and 15 minutes later she emerged with a smile and a prescription.<\/p>\n It turns out that the issue with her ears was not the dreaded infection but instead a symptom of \u2026 wait for it \u2026 allergies.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are lot of things on the coast that cause allergic reactions,\u201d the doctor told her authoritatively.<\/p>\n \u201cBut we spent a year here without being affected,\u201d she protested. \u201cAnd we returned a month ago.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIndeed,\u201d he rebutted, \u201cthe exact conditions that might bring on such an attack.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh,\u201d she rejoined weakly, \u201cI see.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIndeed,\u201d the doctor repeated kindly.<\/p>\n So we strolled back to town and Leslie filled a familiar (to me) prescription for steroids and we loaded up on Benadryl. Apparently Benadryl, according to the nurse practitioner, should be an essential part of any first-aid kit. Free from \u201chelpful\u201d additives, it\u2019s a pure antihistamine useful in many situations.<\/p>\n And now we wait.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nThe D-word.<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>The A-word.<\/h3>\n