Chapter 7

We finally got close enough to see the smoke. It was coming from the other side of a sand and gravel bar. We rounded the shallow bend to see two women next to a small fire. One was lying down on the sand with a pfd under her head and shoulders, covered with what appeared to be an orange Space blanket. The other was squatted down, feeding the fire. She had her back to us, as we grounded the canoe. Out of an abundance of caution, I hollered. “Hello the fire! We spotted your canoe back up river. What can we do to help?”

The squatting woman jumped up and turned around. She instinctively put her hand on the hilt of the river knife attached to her PFD. Her companion rolled up on one shoulder to see what was happening.

“Who are you?” she called.

We pulled the boat up on shore and I called back. “I’m Matt Lee, and this is Jeff Sharp. We’re from West Virginia. Jeff’s a Critical Care Nurse, and I’m an EMT! Let us help!”

She relaxed visibly. “I’m sorry, you startled me, I had no idea there was anyone within miles of us.” Sure, c’mon up. We can use the help.

I dug out the medical kit, and Jeff got out our water bladder.

We carried them up the hill as the lady knelt down next to her friend. “She’s pretty sick. I don’t know what’s wrong. I think that’s how we got hung.”

Jeff and I knelt down too I opened the medical bag and we both gloved up. “Well, let’s take a look. What’s your name?”

The woman on the ground smiled a little weakly “I’m Sarah Stevens, and this is Jen Owens. We’re both teachers from Ohio.”

“Pleased to meet you ladies. So Sarah, what seems to be the problem?”

“Well, I haven’t felt 100% for a couple of days. My lower back’s been aching and I haven’t had as much energy as usual. I thought it was nothing, but today it was worse. I hadn’t let on to Jen, but it took me a while to get going. We worked our way down through those rapids, but the longer I went the harder it was to keep going. When we got in that last chute, I don’t know exactly what happened, but I lost my concentration and we got pinned. We spilled out and I was so weak that we washed down this far before Jen could get me ashore.”

“I see.” Jeff said. he looked at Jen. “Are you OK?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. We just got washed down here before I could get her out. On the bright side, we had our survival kits, and managed to hang on to our paddles. I got the fire going, and was going to make Sarah comfortable and then go looking for the canoe to see what I could do.”

“All right. The good news is that your canoe doesn’t seem to be hung that bad, and I’m pretty sure that Jeff and I can get it out, maybe with some help from you if we need more hands. I was on the rock checking it out and it doesn’t appear to be damaged.” I said.

“That’s a big relief! I was scared that we were in deep sh ... uhhh trouble.”

“Well there may be some trouble, but we’ll help you handle it.”

“Ok, Sarah, can you sit up OK? I need to examine you.”

“Yeah, sure. I’m a little weak and shaky, but I’m not injured at all.”

“Ok, just be still for a minute while we get some vitals and I listen to your chest”, Jeff said.

I took her pulse- 116 and a little thready. Her respirations were 18 or so- a little fast for someone resting. While Jeff listened to her chest, I took a BP. It was pretty low at 80/60. Her O2 sats were 98. I relayed the numbers to Jeff.

“Well, Sarah, your chest’s nice and clear, so you don’t have pneumonia. I assume you didn’t breathe any water.”

“Nope, I just floated in that slot with my paddle until we could get out.”

“Let me get a temperature.” He swiped the thermometer on her forehead. “102.1! You’ve definitely got an infection going on.”

I got out the glucometer. I put a stylette in the holder and cocked it. “Ok Sarah, give me a finger so I can get a blood sugar. Are you a diabetic? Do you have any health problems? Any drug or food allergies?” I swabbed her fingertip with an alcohol pad and stuck her to get a drop of blood.

“No, I’m not a diabetic. I’m normally healthy. No drug or food allergies that I know of. I didn’t really start feeling bad until a couple of days ago. I thought I’d just shake it.”

“Well, your blood sugar is 80, a little low. Have you been eating normally?”

Sarah nodded, but Jen jumped in. “No, you really haven’t yesterday and today. We’ve been paddling hard and you didn’t eat or drink like you have been.”

Jeff nodded. “I see. It looks to me like you’re pretty dehydrated. I think you have a urinary tract infection. Does it hurt or burn when you pee? Sarah nodded. “Yeah, a little.”

“You said you had a lower back ache. Can you show me where?”

Sarah ran her hand from the small of her back to the bottom of her ribs.

Jeff rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Do you feel good enough to get up and give me a urine sample? I can give you a little cup and a prep pad to cleanup with, and Matt will get some TP from the boat.”

“I think so.”

Jeff, Jen and I stood up. Jeff and Jen helped Sarah to her feet.

“I’ll be right back, I said.

I went to the boat, and unloaded the bag with the toilet paper in it. I also grabbed the bag that had the Gatorade and electrolyte mixes in it. I went back up the bar to where Jeff was standing looking at the cup.

“Sarah, I’m pretty sure you have a UTI. You have all the signs and symptoms, and your urine is cloudy and strong-smelling. it’s also really concentrated, so you definitely haven’t been drinking enough. I assume you have a pretty good medical kit, did your doctor give you any antibiotics, and if he did, do you remember what and and if he recommended anything for a UTI?

“I know he gave us antibiotics. We have all the papers he gave us in our medical bag in the boat. I think I remember Bactrim for a UTI, but I’m just not sure”, Jen answered.

Jeff nodded. “That’s a standard one. We have that one in our med kit, too. There are some others, so I don’t want to start you on something your doctor didn’t recommend, unless we can’t get your stuff, Sarah.”