Eric and Birgitta are a couple from Sweden who cruised years ago with their three sons and are now doing it again just the two of them. Eric is a doctor and our little kid boat contingent kept him busy while we were in Kiribati.
First, Ulysses, the boy on Skua had vomiting and diarrhea for several days, and so an SSB consult with Dr. Eric was arranged on our morning net, which resulted in very solid advice that they seek local medical attention right away. The hospital is quite a long bus ride from Betio, but there turned out to be a little medical clinic near the wharf that was able to provide antibiotics for the bug that was ailing Ulysses.
Next up in Dr. Eric’s queue was Brenden. He had a disk shaped sore on his ankle that just wasn’t healing, so Tim took him over to Ariel IV for a face to face consult. Eric cleaned it well, telling us that it’s better to use hand sanitizer to clean a sore than hydrogen peroxide. Who knew. He also explained that the bacteria live and thrive underneath the crusty stuff on top, so we should keep that clear. Sure enough, Brenden’s sore started to heal within a day. And later that afternoon Eric went over our list of antibiotics that we carry on board and made some recommendations for us.
And finally came the EOS II saga, which entailed multiple illnesses running concurrently. I’ll start with the impetigo, which I’m fairly certain was an extension of Brenden’s little ankle sore. You see, after arriving in Abemama, after Brenden’s sore was all healed up, Alex broke out with a few of his own disk shaped sores, and that’s when I realized that it must be impetigo. (Back in Fiji, little Benjamin on Fluenta had a pretty bad case of impetigo, and this looked just like it, PLUS I now remembered that part of the treatment was making sure all the crusty coating was kept washed off.) Alex started the treatment and we showed it to EOS II and told them about it in case the girls get it, because it’s imperative to catch the first ones and clean them in order to keep it from spreading. Fast forward to after we left Abemama and EOS II was still there, and sure enough Ahia broke out in pussy sores and they were having trouble treating them by cleaning them since it was so painful for Ahia.
Jumping over to the second illness… shortly after arriving in Abemama the whole EOS II crew was suffering from diarrhea. It should be noted that after just about everyone we knew well enough to talk about these sorts of things with suffered some amount of diarrhea after being in Tarawa. It’s like a Tarawa right of passage or something. Anyway, for EOS II it started mild, then got pretty bad, then most of the family recovered. Except Kiani. She suffered with it for days, then a week, then for even longer.
It seemed like all the shit really hit the fan with both illnesses AFTER we had left them in Abamama. So, we were far away and not really able to help. Except that’s where Dr. Eric and the SSB radio come in. I emailed Eric and asked him to join us for one of our daily afternoon SSB calls and from that point forward he was on the radio with us every day consulting on what to do for the girls. He listened to symptoms, advised immediate courses of action, and what antibiotics each of the girls likely needed. They were challenging conversations sometimes, because Ariel IV was already up in Majuro, and most of the time Eric could receive us but not EOS II, but then EOS II could receive Ariel IV better than I could. So, we had this weird one-way relay thing going, and we had to be ever so careful to get everything correct. EOS II was able to get some limited amount of medical attention at the “clinic” in Abemama, but quickly made the decision to return to Tarawa so that Kiani could have tests run at the hospital. All the while we had daily and sometimes twice daily SSB consults with Dr. Eric. It was a challenge to get the the proper medical treatment in Tarawa, but with some persistence both girls were on the road to recovery. It’s almost certain that Ahia had impetigo (like Alex and Brenden) and it’s somewhat less certain but still likely that Kiani had Giardia. There is always risk involved when travelling out here on the ocean in remote places but time and time again we are reminded of how much the cruising community sticks together and helps each other out. Thanks Dr. Eric!
Gresham Family Exodus 