The Rona Diaries

Hanalei Bay, Kauai

The Rona Diaries

6/4/22

Last I wrote was the update of my positive coronavirus test on 6/1 with starting the symptoms on 5/31, the big giveaway of me sleeping all day!! Unheard of - ha! Except when I had the flu several years ago and perhaps as a passenger on a drive to somewhere fun after working 7 nights in a row. 

My first 3 days were a blur of sleeping on and off and taking the schedule of ibuprofen and Tylenol to abate the symptoms of myalgias, headache, and low-grade fevers. The sinus congestion was only really annoying one day and the occasional cough was productive at times. The passage to Kauai was surreal. I told Stephen if we left the marina he would be single-handing mostly because I felt terrible. He agreed and so we did leave. I did stick to my word and sat in his new expensive $150 bean bag chair I whined about him buying. Well.. it is a HUGE SPACE SUCK and not ideal in my opinion for our already crammed boat BUT….The perfect place to cradle a body in the pitching, rolling, pounding seas of the Kauai channel. 

I forgot about boat noises. Amazingly, you can. The noises on a boat by far trump the noises in an ICU. Because of the volume but also because of the unrelieved cacophony. The bump, bang, slam, constant creak, squeak, CRASH, tap, tap, tap, drum, drum, drum, whistling/howling wind, groaning, twanging, pinging - any way you certainly the get the point that along the acoustic spectrum it is ALL happening. So yes,  I tried to nestle in for slumber but in the background, it was controlled chaos of a sail in 25-knot winds on close reach through the channel. The North West wind waves were 5-6ft and some cross swell from the south at 5ft. The bean bag was securely wedged in the salon walkway, it cradled my body during all the rocking and rolling and I was able to brace with a right foot on a port settee cushion. 

We did have some things that needed better securing and these were addressed quickly.  Nothing was broken or damaged. The majority of the noises just represent the forces of nature on a sailboat and the associated gear. We arrived at Hanalei Bay and it was just as gorgeous as I remember. Big LUSH green peaks surround the bay and have cascading waterfalls in their crevasses. Some boats were here but it is a large bay with lots of room. The water was turquoise blue and the long white sandy beach inviting for a run or walk when energy returned to my body. 

Stephen was exhausted the day we arrived but also started to feel a bit achy. Whether we say his symptoms started 6/2 or 6/3 no matter, he is sick for sure. While in a restless fit in the salon that day, I did try to get my brain working and was trying to remember if there were any potential treatment options for me in case I got sicker. I am on Enbrel, a Tumor Necrosis Factor Blocker, for my Rheumatoid Arthritis. I took a shot before I went home and chose not to bring one to MD as it requires refrigeration and the 12-hour flight + was too long to deal with an ice pack, etc… I remembered besides the parental treatment options there was an oral antiviral pill. I work  inpatient medicine so I had to do some homework regarding outpatient treatment options and got onto UpToDate, my favorite medical reference. There is a 5-day antiviral treatment, Paxlovid, for folks with mild to moderate disease with COVID but had the potential to get sicker because of being high risk. 

Being immunocompromised does make me high risk. I did go down the rabbit hole of seeing time and time again patients come into the ER saying they were feeling ok with their COVID illness and even a convalescent period only to find at day 10 they crumped. They came into our ER with low oxygen levels and pneumonia. This played in my head a few times and I called in an Rx for Paxlovid for myself. The logistics of getting it though was doable but feeling ill made the task seem very cumbersome. We were now on anchor so that means getting to shore to start. That requires us blowing up our dinghy ( Not Happening- too much energy required!!) or blowing up our paddle-boards ( definitely not excited about that with feeling exhausted but more realistic.) No pharmacy carried the meds close to us. The closes pharmacy was in Kapa’a 15 miles away. Uber prices 60$ one way and the bus is 1hr 40 min each way. We decided I would still be in the < 5-day window if Stephen went to the pharmacy tomorrow for me. One way is via bus and other Uber to avoid the full $120 cost to get a medicine that is FREE by the government. 

The medicine was not even ready until 6:30 pm that night anyway. This was still day 3 of my symptoms and + test. Stephen started to decline that evening and the idea of either one of us trying to go to get this medicine the next day with our symptoms, severe fatigue, and being in public with COVID albeit N95s and all precautions in place still seemed to be unrealistic. We were blessed to have friends we met last year who were paddle boarding in the bay the next morning (6/3). Margaret and Haviland Wright are local folks who live in Princeville. We met them last year while they were paddle-boarding in the bay and again on a walk in their neighborhood. Stephen and I used to stash our paddle-boards and walk up into Princeville for long walks. 

Anyway, we have kept in touch a few times while we went back to Nevada and I did alert her that we were sick with COVID in a recent email. They paddled out to the boat to say hello and when they found out about our dilemma they offered to go get my medicine for me. This meant they had to paddle-board back in, go to the pharmacy 15 miles away, drive back ( which then no parking was available), and drop Havi off who then paddle-boarded my medicine back to me. SO GRATEFUL!!! SO KIND!! SO GENEROUS with their time!! They have lived in Kauai for quite some time. Havi is a professor of statistics at Boston University and CEO/owner of many previous companies and travels back and forth for teaching. He is happy to discuss the numbers about the benefits of the COVID vaccines with anyone anytime. Math is not an opinion people! 

I started the medicine and it does have a side effect of dysgeusia (not from COVID, just from the medicine). This bad taste in your mouth makes you not want to take the medicine. It eventually wears off but yuck! And then I remember why I wanted to take the medicine in the 1st place and the motivation is there. I did feel significantly better yesterday, my 4th day but decided I should take the medicine for the aforementioned reason.

Today, day 5 for me and day 2 1/2ish for Stephen. I did blow up the paddle-boards this am since my energy level is still good. My sleep last night was solid and no myalgias or intermittent fevers anymore. We have an electric pump and I forgot SCORE! Yes! and yes, kinda cheating and no arm work out but I am ok with that right now. I paddled our trash into the beach where they have big community trash bins. I ran into “Steve” the houseless man we met last year. He has a ritual of coming and setting up his gear under this large tree next to the lifeguard station every evening. He sets everything up very methodically and then breaks down camp every morning. He does not return until close to sunset and then is gone shortly after sunrise. I said hello to him and told him I was sick so I did not want to get too close. He had been doing well and was recovering from a “cold” as well but he was convinced it was not COVID. 

I paddle-boarded back to Soulstice and joined Stephen in the cockpit for my 1st cup of coffee. It is a lovely place to isolate from COVID for sure and it took me to feel better to appreciate my surroundings. I was a little grumpy yesterday about boat living. I forgot to mention I got a swim step shower yesterday and that improved my mood too. When you are sick and feeling puny it is easy to whine. I was thinking about being ill in a house and having the ability to take a hot shower.  I was on a timeline yesterday and if I did not get a swim step shower we would not have hot water after that.

 

When we run the engine we get 48 hours of hot water and then it dissipates. We do have a water heater but it is not a 12V DC system and would require shore power or running the engine. And our forward head where the shower is located is full of gear. This is supposed to be up and running in Alaska, meaning clearing out that area and using it as a functioning shower. I only agreed to go to Alaska if inboard showers were possible!! Since an inboard shower was not a priority right now, boat gear continues to fill that space as well as our TP and paper towel reserves, extra food, etc...  Never enough space on a boat:(  I was so pooped that the thought of having to dive into the water and stand on the back of the boat to get a shower was taxing. 

 

Yesterday morning, luckily, I felt up to it and the water was refreshing. As I was finishing up my shower ( I wear a bikini during daylight hours:) ) a young man on a paddle-board with a baby, YES A BABY!!, in a car seat apparatus strapped to his hard paddle-board, stopped by to say hello. His name is Trevor and he is local.. We chatted a bit and he vocalized how wants to “get after it” in life. He was extremely fit and 45 yo and was admiring our plans to sail to Alaska. He had experience solo sailing in a trimaran.  We chatted a bit and then that is when Margaret and Havi had paddle-boarded up to say hello. Very similar to the marina, being on the hook, affords you many intriguing encounters with people of interesting backgrounds. It is definitely more social than a regular neighborhood. 

I have been blabbing quite a bit about my feelings, I guess because I am always the narrator of these blogs but I would like everyone to know Stephen is fairing well with the COVID. Stephen's symptoms are fatigue, more rhinitis than congestion and an occasional cough. He had some intermittent fevers last night as well. Today, he decided to start the water maker and I was surprised as it requires getting into the cockpit lazarette and pulling out gear, some of it heavy to include the jordon series drogue. I was gone over to our friend's boat, SV Jeananne, that arrived into the bay this morning to pick up our COVID tests they brought for us and drop off a paddle-board for them to use if they wanted. I stayed off their boat of course and downwind. When I returned the water maker was in process and currently he is fishing off the back the boat.

 

I would say his coarse is mild to moderate and he is currently taking OTC cold medicine. We have been dosing high dose Vit C, taking Vit D and MVI as well daily. He does not feel as well as me but is 2 1/2 days behind. I hope his course continues on a trajectory of improvement.  He has just been reading, following up on weather and did attempt an HF radio contact with a boat we know on their way to Sitka. We depend on each other quite a bit in this setting. He certainly did an excellent job getting us over to Kauai as my help was quite limited.   

That is it for now... Living on a sailboat and having the Rona. Most people don’t paddle-board the trash in or take swim step showers. When I say that, I also hesitate because it is a "most people" in a 1st world culture that I reference. I do find excitement and allure in these annoying chores as well, if that doesn’t sound completely bizarre?!? My improved symptoms do have me excited to plan an outdoor activity and I hope Stephen feels well enough to join me soon! I feel like I’ve been focused on our passage to Alaska and that our summer is up in Alaska but our summer is here right now and in an exquisitely beautiful place. We will recoup, continue to check the weather and make the most of it.