August 17

We’ve had quite an interesting few weeks. It seems that Alaska is becoming dangerous to the health of the workers at the Dredge and more specifically the Atkinsons.  Our first health-related issue came in the form of a black bug that’s half the size of a house fly called the White Sox. With a name like that one doesn’t conjure up a bug that will cause inflammation to your extremities. White Sox makes you think of a baseball team, something cute that doesn’t wreak havoc on your body.

Jim met a White Sox while watching salmon spawn in Dyea Flats. The first bite was mildly irritating, just like a mosquito bite. It wasn’t until the third bite he received on his elbow that his upper arm started swelling. And by the time he received his fifth bite his ankle swelled to double its size. He couldn’t come to work for three days because in addition to inflammation it also causes fever. Luckily, the White Sox has limited effect especially if you use an Alaskan remedy of limes, coffee grounds, devils club salve and a few other special ingredients.

A week after Jim went back to work Courtney went out with her friends to 80s Dance Night. It started like any other Friday night. They drank whiskey before going out, walked to the bar and hung out for a few hours. As the night was winding down one of our co-workers from Lithuania walked her home, made sure she got in the RV okay, and went back to company housing. Being the considerate drunk she is she took the dogs out for a little walk before she went to bed. But while she was out she came across a few lights dancing 30 feet up in the trees. She got an idea. Once she put the dogs away, she went exploring and joined the lights dancing in the trees. She is really good at climbing trees sober. She proved she was still good at climbing trees drunk. However, she is also good at falling out of trees. She fell 9 feet out of the tree onto her right foot. It rolled up like a taco. The one of the men behind the dancing lights in the tree had to carry her home on his back because she couldn’t walk.

After she crawled into the RV and tried to walk a few steps she called out. “Dad! Mom! I need help.” It was already 1 a.m. She was crying and in pain. But the funny part was she wasn’t crying because she was in pain. She was crying because she was embarrassed that she woke us up and upset because she thought she was an inconvenience.  What a thing to cry about at 1 a.m. after you’ve had a few too many glasses of whiskey and broke your foot.

After a few trips to the clinic we learned that she fractured her foot in two places and may need surgery. We aren’t certain if she’ll need an CT scan yet. We are still waiting on the results.

Monday, following the weekend Courtney fractured her foot, Sandy fell ill. After becoming extremely dehydrated and not being able to keep anything down the clinic told her to keep drinking water and sleeping. She’s been under the weather for a week now and was finally able to eat solid food last Thursday. A solid week and two days after she initially got the flu she will be able to go back to work.