Don't leave home without it

Bernie felt even worse today, she had really bad chills, and her throat was really red and swollen, even the side of her face hurt. Because she wasn’t feeling well, it was up to Mar to unhook the water and electric. It was her first time. Luckily she didn’t electrocute herself or blow anything up, but she did get soaking wet when undoing the water hose (note to self: turn water off first :-)

Mar found the walk-in clinic in North Myrtle Beach SC. When they took Bernie's temperature it was 103 degrees! We spent about three hours at the clinic. The staff was great and ran all kinds of tests to try to figure out what was wrong. They kept asking questions to which Bernie would just mumble the answers. They thought they might have to start an IV to give Bernie some fluids, in case she was dehydrated. But because Mar had been forcing Bernie to drink plenty of liquids, she was actually not as badly dehydrated as they thought she would be.

After getting some meds in her, Bernie’s fever finally broke and some of the color returned to her cheeks. According to the tests, she doesn't have strep throat, she doesn't have mono, but her tonsils are swollen and infected so it is very likely a viral infection. After some blood work and more tests and all kinds of meds, we left with a $240 bill (Visa, don’t leave home without it). And Bernie is finally on her way back to the world at large.

The doctor recommended lots of fluids and rest, and to come back if she’s not feeling better soon. As we were driving looking for a spot to park nearby, in case we need to go back to the clinic, we looked down a street and could see the ocean at the end. We turned down this street, and sure enough, we were in Atlantic Beach. As we turned on the street that runs along the beach, we found a cement slab, right in the middle of an empty block, and parked there for the night, right at the beach. We had the whole block all to ourselves.

There was a hotel about half a block away and when we opened our windows to listen to the ocean, we happily realized we could hear the hotel's live poolside music. And it was really good music too, they even played a song by Santana (Mar’s favorite). And if that wasn’t enough, there were fireworks on the beach too, what a great spot to spend the night!

Bernie was resting and taking her meds and hopefully soon all will be back to normal.