TWO WEEKS FROM HELL

Wednesday September 5th - Sunday September 16th

The next 2 weeks were from Hell!!!
The day after our last posting was the beginning of our dilemmas. We were relaxing on the Summer Wind, reading a couple of good books when I (Dick) sat up from my prone position and the world was spinning. Thinking I got up too fast I laid back down but it wouldn't stop. Trying to stand was impossible as my balance was way off with the dizziness. After several minutes we decided that I should get looked at and we called the Atlantic Yacht Club launch. When he arrived I could not get on the launch so he called the EMT guys. Yes, Atlantic Highlands has a boat with EMT personnel for just these kinds of things. They got me on and upon arriving at the Yacht Club they had an ambulance and police car waiting. Took us to Red Bank, NJ ER where a number of tests were run including a CT Scan, EKG, and many blood tests. The diagnoses was Vertigo and they prescribed Anti-Vert meds. Luckily we were close to our kids house in Holmdel, so both Kevin and Geri picked us up and took us back to the boat. Thanks guys again!!!

After a few days of rest and watching the weather closely we had an opportunity to start south. We did round sandy Hook and discovered the seas not too bad but mother nature was not promising anything.  Hurricane Leslie was working her way north and  the predictions were to be very heavy seas so we ducked into Manasquan Inlet and went to Toms river where we knew of a nice anchorage.
The next 2 days we traveled down NJ inside on the ICW. The NJICW has not been dredged in most places for many years and created a tense trip. Upon arriving in Cape May, NJ I decided since we had such a long and horrendous trip that we needed a nice relaxing dinner out. HA, little did we know what would transpire.

Half way through our dinner I had a recurrence of the above incident but worse. I passed out and upchucked the good crab cakes all over the place. Again the EMT's were called and I was taken again to the ER. This time they made me stay 2 nights to run many more tests. All of them came out negatively and the diagnoses was Meneires disease which is an accumulation of fluid in the inner ear. They did recommend me to see an ENT specialist but none in Cape May. Rented a car and drove north with an appointment for the next day.

After an extensive exam and hearing test it was determined I was attacked by a virus which caused me to lose my hearing in the left ear. Have a 50/50% chance of it coming back.

Went back to the Summer Wind and spent the next 2 days just relaxing and again waiting for the Delaware Bay this time to calm down.

To be continued: