Well, How Did We Get Here?

First off, here’s to a happy, healthy, and safe 2024 for us all.

JO BETH is laid up in Solomons, Maryland. Her crew – Lisa and I - are laid up in Fernandina Beach, Florida. Since September’s update, we’ve left New England and have sailed to the Chesapeake Bay, departing from Newport, Rhode Island and stopping at Sandy Hook, New Jersey. From Sandy Hook, we sailed to Cape May, New Jersey and then transited Delaware Bay to the Chesapeake Bay. We’ve spent time with friends in Baltimore and Annapolis, Maryland, and also in Yorktown, Virginia. We enjoyed a wonderful and quiet week anchored in the gorgeous Sassafras River in Northern Maryland, and visited the quaint towns of St. Michaels and Rock Hall, MD. We visited Baltimore for a few days before heading to Annapolis, Maryland where we had a mooring in Annapolis Harbor for several weeks. While there, we attended both the Annapolis Powerboat and Sailboat shows.

*We had a completely windless passage from Newport, RI to Sandy Hook, NJ*

How did we suddenly land in Florida from Maryland? On the morning we left the tiny harbor at St. Michaels, I awoke with a knotted upper back and lower neck on my left side. It was more annoying than anything, and I presumed I had slept in weird position. We had a very rough exit from St. Michaels, powering directly into 20-25 knots of wind, about 10 knots stronger than forecast, and a very steep and squared off two-three foot chop. I used the motion of the boat and the sheet winches to make sort of a ‘rolfing’ action on my knotted up back with little relief gained.

*Atlantic Ocean sunrise, off of Long Island, New York*

By the time we entered the main body of the Chesapeake Bay, the wind had died and we were forced to continue on our way south to Solomons, Maryland, under motor power. We entered the Patuxent River and made our way into the harbor just as the sun was setting. We had been planning to take a mooring as the harbor at Solomons is quite small. But Lisa had found a very affordable marina, so we made arrangements for three or four nights at its floating docks.

However, by the time we were secured for the night, I noticed my left arm and hand were very weak. I had barely been able to handle dock lines or the shore power cord while securing JO BETH. Fearing a recurrence of the nerve injury I experienced a couple of years ago, (click here to read that post), Lisa and I agreed I would seek medical help the next day, or at least I would try to get an appointment with a massage therapist. Prior to our arrival at Solomons, we contacted our friends Michael and Susan who live aboard their sailboat CALYPSO in Solomons. They very generously offered us the use of one of their cars for the duration of our stay and recommended a massage therapist.

*We spent a peaceful week at anchor in the Sassafras River, off the Upper Chesapeake Bay, surrounded by ospreys, bald eagles, and an array of egrets and herons*

I was able to get into the massage therapist’s office on the following morning and did gain some relief. My arm and hand continued to grow weaker, and after another day, my left hand was slowly contracting into a claw shape. Our health insurance plan provides for Teladoc visits and after completing such a visit with a Maryland physician, I began a course of anti-inflammatory medications and following a program of stretches and exercises.

Unfortunately, I began to experience significant pain and only a day after the Teladoc call, had lost the full use of my left arm and hand. Getting in and out of the cabin, and on and off the boat, was excruciating at times and becoming dangerous. Moving between the boat and dock was an accident waiting to happen; I wasn’t sleeping well and was unable to perform even routine tasks on board.

*The good ship* ***MINX****, friends we met in New England, passing us heading to her fall base in the upper bay*

On Monday of the following week, I contacted an orthopedist’s office in nearby California, Maryland, and to my astonishment, I was able to get an appointment that afternoon. I was seen by one of the practice’s Physician Assistants, who was visibly alarmed by the state of my arm and hand. She immediately ordered x-rays and MRI. She also set up an appointment with one of the practice’s surgeons for the following morning. That surgeon referred me to a neurosurgeon near Washington, DC, also scheduling an appointment for the me the next day. I was handed a formal diagnosis during my visit with the orthopedic surgeon: a pinched brachial-plexus nerve caused by either bone spurs due to arthritis and/or multiple herniated discs in my cervical spine – my neck – pressing on the nerve. The pressure was on the nerve root where the nerve exits the spinal cord and passes through openings in the vertebrae. She also indicated her opinion surgery was in my very near future.

Early the next morning, Lisa and I made the four hour drive to Chevy Chase, Maryland for my appointment with the neurosurgeon. There, the surgeon and PA reviewed my x-ray and MRI and put me through a battery of tests once again. And, pretty much as expected, I was told surgery was my best option. It was at this time that Lisa and I were hit with the gravity of the situation. We knew we had to develop a plan.

*While in the tiny and shallow harbor at Rock Hall, Maryland, we had to ride out the passage of Tropical Storm Ophelia*

To put it bluntly, surgery was not an option for me, for us, while in Maryland. Recovery from spinal surgery on a small sailboat is not tenable. While we have friends in Maryland, we had no place to stay where I could recover as the majority of our friends there live aboard their sailboats. We have friends in North Carolina where we could have stayed, after having the surgery in there; but, our health insurance is based in Florida, and Florida is our legal state of residency. Plus, it can get cold along the North Carolina coast in winter. Accordingly, we reached out to friends in Fernandina Beach, and made arrangements to stay there. We felt with all things considered, it was our best option.

*The beautiful Magothy River, just south of Baltimore, Maryland*

In the span of one week, Lisa and I purchased a used car and made arrangements to have JO BETH hauled, winterized, and put into storage. We emptied the boat of everything which could freeze or be damaged by the cold, drained the water tanks and deck jugs, topped up the fuel tank, and emptied the refrigerator/freezer. We arranged for the boatyard where JO BETH is stored to complete maintenance and repair tasks we had planned to do over the winter. Our sailmaker came and undressed the boat, taking the sails back to his loft in Deltaville, Virginia, for inspection and repair. By the end of that week, we were standing in our friend’s driveway in Florida.

Even before arriving in Florida we began the search for a neurosurgeon from whom we could get a second opinion. It’s here that I should mention another component of this story: I was never convinced surgery was my best or only option. In the weeks since this all began, I had taken it upon myself to work towards recovery. The week we left Maryland, I couldn’t pick up my cell phone from a table and had tremendous difficulty getting it out of a pants pocket. I couldn’t hold a glass in my left hand, or loosen a jar lid. Pushing open a car door was extremely difficult. Tying shoe laces was an exercise in futility.

*The relatively small town of Annapolis, Maryland, the state capital, gets crazy-busy during the fall boat shows*

I was able to get an appointment with a neurosurgeon in Jacksonville, Florida, about three weeks after arriving. One of the first things I did after getting to Fernandina Beach was to contact a longtime friend whose daughter works as a Physical Therapy Assistant in another state. I was able to connect with her daughter who sent me a program of basic stretches and exercises to do.

*Quaint St. Michaels Harbor on Maryland’s Eastern Shore*

*The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels is absolutely phenomenal*

When the second opinion appointment came around, and while sitting in the surgeons waiting room, I did a quick self-evaluation. I had regained some strength in my left arm and hand. Managing my cell phone was fairly routine now, and using silverware and handling glasses was no problem. I was able to drive with no issues and the pain in my arm and hand was almost non-existent. There were still areas of numbness and tingling, but it had continued to diminish a bit each day. I had regained about 60% of the motor control for my left hand and fingers. I was ready to present my case for not being a good candidate for surgery.

***JO BETH*** *in winter storage, Solomons, Maryland*

Soon, I was in the exam room with the surgeon. He was attentive and listened to what I had to say. He had read my X-Ray and MRI and essentially repeated the diagnosis; a pinched nerve in the cervical spine. However, while he agreed there are several herniated and deteriorated discs, he believed the bone spurs caused by arthritis were the direct cause of the pinched nerve. And much to my great relief, he agreed with me that surgery isn’t my best option – at least, not right now and likely not for several years.

I liked him immensely. He spent close to an hour with me, even asking me to accompany him to his office to review my MRI. Once there, he went over not only the issues with my neck and the pinched nerve, but showed me where there is a lot of arthritis in my spine. He had asked about my working life, what I did for hobbies, did I play sports, and the like. I told him about my lifetime of basically abusing my spine: seven years of skydiving, undisciplined weightlifting as a teenager, and many miles of hiking and backpacking with a pack weighing far too much, not to mention the three decades I’ve spent bobbing around the ocean in sailboats. He is Bulgarian, and in his heavy accent, said with a smile, “a life well lived, and now your bill is coming due.” I left his office with a prescription for eight weeks of physical therapy, which I just started last week. I’m delighted to say, I continue to make gains on my own.

*I really enjoy my daily walks along the Egan’s Creek Greenway in Fernandina Beach, Florida*

So what’s next for us and for JO BETH? The boat is secured and fine where she is. It’s odd being away from her, but progress is being made on her projects and she’s being looked after by a couple of friends we have there. For us, we’re working at not making a nuisance of ourselves to our hosts, and expressing our gratitude and appreciation for their generosity by doing much of the meal prep and cooking, etc. The weather in Fernandina Beach has been quite ‘un-Florida like’ with long stretches of overcast and chilly days, with sunny and comfortable days being somewhat infrequent. Still, I manage to do some extended walking on a nearly daily basis, usually something between three and five miles on local trails. I also have daily ‘homework’ from my physical therapist. I’ve been working on getting the YouTube channel fully operational and am taking a deep dive back into my photography passion.

We expect to return to Solomons and JO BETH sometime in March. It will take a few weeks to get her ready to float again and to start sailing. Systems which have been shut down have to be brought back online and tested. We have to move back aboard and get things organized, and after all of that, we’ll have to make the motor run to Deltaville, VA, to get her sails bent-on once again. It’s going to be a busy winter and spring.