It's Not Always Giggles and Laughs

Sometimes being a cruising boater can have its challenges, like when you need medical attention.  Shortly after we crossed Lake Ontario Jim developed a rash on his chest which got worse with each passing day.  Unfortunately we were in Cape Vincent, NY, a town with no doctor, no hospital, not even a pharmacy.  He called his doctor at the Cleveland Clinic and described the symptoms.  The doc was willing to call in a prescription but the nearest pharmacy was 13 nautical miles down river in Clayton, NY.  Not a problem, Clayton had a city dock only a mile from the pharmacy, so we boogied down river to Clayton.

But the rash got worse and the drugs didn't seem to be helping.  The Cleveland doc said "see a local doctor."  Jim had discovered that the next town down river, Alexandria Bay, had a walk-in community clinic.  So we went another 12 nautical miles on Sunday, planning to visit the clinic Monday morning.  But Monday morning the clinic said he couldn't be seen until "sometime later this week."  As we later found out, they were converting from paper to digital patient records that week and didn't have time to actually see patients.  There is one doctor (only one) in Alexandria Bay.  He sees same day patients on a time available basis (news the clinic didn't bother to share).  By the time we found out about him, his day was booked.

Fortunately, Alexandria Bay also has a small community hospital.  Neither of us was wild about taking a rash to an emergency room, but the local medical establishment didn't really leave us with many other choices.  The folks at the emergency room were wonderful, they were more focused on taking care of him than completing the paperwork, although they managed to do both very efficiently.  The doc took one look at it, diagnosed it immediately (shingles), and gave us a prescription (prednisone) that has worked wonders in clearing it up.  And we got six miles of exercise walking from the boat to the hospital, the hospital to the pharmacy and back to the boat.

Let's hope this is our only medical adventure this summer.