Aug. 14th – Back to sailing and exploring

Hi all
I am currently anchored at the end of a deep bay on the Island of
Raiatea in the Society Islands. John and I are planning to travel by
dingy about a mile up the river feeding the bay to explore what’s there
this morning.

Sorry for not being in touch sooner as I had some medical concerns. I
had an infection which was caused by a uncared for coral cut on my knee
while snorkeling which seemed to heal OK and then just festered. The leg
and knee swelled up to the point I could not bend the joint more than 10
degrees which limited my movements around the boat let alone doing any
kind of sailing. At that point I went into the hospital on Raiatea for 4
days where they did surgery to clean out the infection and IV drugs. It
was always fun every other day for the following 3 weeks at the clinic
when they removed and inserted one to two feet of gauze wick into the
opening on the knee without anesthesia to keep the wound draining and
remove the build-up of puss. After almost a month of care and
Antibiotics it is healing fine although I still can not get in the water
to swim or dive.
I was thinking that maybe I have an attraction for this particular
hospital as I was at the same hospital 15 years earlier for a broken
finger. The French medical care was again excellent and in comparison to
American health care very inexpensive.
I will try to be more in touch in the future. I would love to hear from
you if you get a chance.
Love
Jim

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