Bird Flu - Koh Roi, Phang Nga Bay, Thailand
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Thu 10 Mar 2011 14:52
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08:11.562N 98:36.623E
February 16th - another day, another hong - this time on Koh
Roi where aside from a few tourist toting
longboats, only cruising or charter sailboats venture.
It was nice and peaceful with good swimming as long as someone you could trust
kept a watchful eye out for giant jellyfish.
 Our view of Koh Roi while at anchor.
 Three sailors near a state of heat exhaustion seeking a bit of
shade under the overhang. Note the hong entrance to the left.
 Kathie, Don and I inside Koh Roi's sand-filled
hong.
 Kathie and I inside the hong looking out through the entrance
at a serious Don caught contemplating life.
 A rare photo of Bill the photographer posing on Koh Roi's
beach.
So, what's all this got to do with Bird Flu? You might
have noticed that Kathie is in several of the above pictures, looking if not
exuberant and sprightly, then at least mostly bright-eyed and
bushytailed. Not only did we explore Koh Roi's hong for an extended time,
but swam several laps around the boat later that afternoon in a useless effort
to keep cool. It wasn't until later, after opting out of the usual
day-ending gin and tonic, and then proclaiming herself not up to eating dinner,
we realized Kathie was sick. Really sick. Why is it that health
professionals refuse to let on when they are feeling lousy? They are
the first to make a fuss over other under-the-weather individuals, but the
last to accept fuss-making over themselves. When Kathie indicated she
wasn't up to eating dinner and finally admitted to feeling "a little shaky", we
suddenly realized it wasn't just the holy humid hotness that was causing her
face to look so red-hot flushed.
Out came the thermometer. It should be mentioned here
that in four years of sailing, the thermometer has come out of the
emergency first aid kit only twice - once for Bryan during his night
of ten thousand trots to the head in Malaysia, and this time for
Kathie. Why is it that our guests are always falling ill? At least
in the case of Kathie, we knew she was a little sick when she came aboard.
She picked something up in Vietnam that caused coughing, a little shortness of
breath and a runny nose. A simple cold, we thought.
Wrong. Kathie removed the thermometer from her mouth, and
read it. "103.9", she reported calmly. 103.9! Holy
crap! We made Kathie repeat the process to be sure the reading was
accurate, and Don confirmed the reading the second time, 103.9.
Later, Don checked his own temperature, just to be sure the
thermometer was calibrated correctly. He measured a normal
98.6. Geez, a temperature of 103.9 and most of us less stoic people would
have been moaning and thrashing around in bed all day - not exploring
hongs, swimming boat laps and politely declining dinner. We hustled Kathie
off to bed where she downed some Motrin with a glass of water while we
turned on the generator and air conditioner to cool the cabin down from its high
of 95. She lay quietly in bed while Bill, Don and I ate a quick dinner and
tried to act like we weren't worried. Don, while continuing to act
unworried, plotted a course back to Yacht Haven Marina just in case we decided
to make a dash for it in the night. With Bill looking over his shoulder
still trying hard not to act worried, Don searched the internet for
information on how best to treat a fever of 103.9. To make ourselves feel
better, we also looked up the symptoms for avian (bird) flu (after all, Kathie
and Bill did just come from Cambodia and Vietnam where chickens tend
to run amok). There were at least three bird flu symptoms we didn't think
Kathie had, but Bill trotted up to the bow to ask her, just to be sure.
Kathie confirmed a 'no' for all three. We three breathed easier and agreed
we would make a decision to head back to Phuket based on Kathie's next
temperature reading. Ten o'clock rolled around and the report came in:
101.3ish. I don't remember what the reading was exactly, I just
remember all three of us heaving a sigh of relief. I've never known
anyone to have a fever of 103.9 and certainly not while on a boat anchored
in the middle of Phang Nga Bay, a good four-hour motor away from
civilization and good medical care. The next morning
Kathie's temperature was even lower, though still not quite normal.
If we didn't know better, we wouldn't have guessed Kathie was the least bit sick
that next morning. Us lesser folk would have laid around a good twelve
hours more. Several days later Kathie proclaimed herself cured.
We still don't know what it was, but thankfully it wasn't bird flu or any
of its nasty flu cousins.
Hopefully the thermometer will stay undisturbed in its
emergency first-aid kit home for several more years before its services are
needed again. We are just happy to say once again that all's
well that ends well.
Anne
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