#1 Snug Harbor in Sacramento– Hunt’s First Signs of Symptoms (December 28, 2009)

After a year full of struggling – Hunt was working hard on his way to be fully recovered from a heart attack that happened the year before, and I was coping with changing my job to a better position and closer to my house - we decided to celebrate the holidays by going away to Snug Harbor to spend our quiet moment with nature.  We brought Beastly Baby the cat with us for his first time on the road and to our surprise, he appeared to enjoy the trip and behaved himself as a very pleasant passenger.

We booked into a small cozy cabin at the resort.  Our back windows open to a dock that goes along the resort which is located on a peninsula off Ryer Island on the Sacramento Delta.  It was during the resort’s off season and we were the only guests there at the time we arrived.  Hunt got very excited about the whole situation where he was Robinson Crusoe with his wife - Friday on the island.  He pulled the fishing poles right out and ran out onto the dock.  Beastly did not hesitate for a second; he jumped right up to the couch and poked his nose to the cabin glass window to keep Hunt in sight.  I looked out the window and found him on the dock holding the fishing pole and smiling at the water. After a few minutes he set his pole down and walked back up the dock holding a tissue to his nose. 

 

It started with a nose bleed.  Hunt had been having fairly severe nose bleeds several times earlier during the month. After that cleared up he went back out for more fishing, but it wasn’t more than half an hour or so when he came inside with the pole and bucket complaining of a stomach ache. The sturgeon would have to wait. He was nauseous and threw-up. Then he laid down on the couch for a while. Beastly instantly trotted over to the couch and laid down next to him. Two boys napping.

I sat down to read.  Sometime later Hunt sat up with his head in his hands, and I asked what was wrong. He traced from the bottom of his ribcage, down his intestine to the lower colon pointing out where the pain was, and a strong case of heartburn. We decided to get an appointment with his primary care physician at Kaiser, Dr. Rubin, when we returned home. Hunt took some Tums, and then a half hour later some more, that seemed to work. Besides the occasional pain and nausea the holiday weekend at Snug Harbor went well. No sturgeon or any other fish took our bait, but it was nice to get away and Hunt made some great meatball and spaghetti.