He says: It's not really a true adventure until Shauna gets sick. Last year around the same time, she caught a nasty bug that resulted in us visiting a Turkish hospital where the doctor, with his limited grasp on the English language, stated it was, "very bad". Fast forward 365 days and we were once again visiting a clinic, this time on the Dawn Princess. For the last few days she had been battling a cough, and as we soon found out, at least one third of all passengers were experiencing the same hack. The ship is equipped with an on-board clinic that looked like the set of ER.

Before we saw the doctor, we were in the waiting room for around 45 minutes with around a dozen other ill people. I luckily haven't caught the bug yet, but after sitting in a room full of germs for that long, I imagine I'll come down with it soon. Even if I showered Purell for the next week, I think it's unavoidable. The ship is asking people to "What About Bob?" when they use doors to stop the spread of the virus (for those unfamiliar with Bill Murray's character Bob Wiley in What About Bob? he always uses a napkin to turn door k*** because he's a hypochondriac).

We experienced a scary moment before Shauna's name was called. A man and woman - probably around 80 years young - were sitting in the waiting room, and the man started having a seizure. His wife went to get the doctor and Shauna and I attended to him. He quickly let out a horrible croaking noise and passed out. I swear I thought he died right there. A few seconds later a team of four nurses and a doctor put an oxygen mask on and he came to. His wife said he'd had a heart attack a short while ago, and they rushed him into the clinic. We didn't see him again, and I hope he's okay.

Shauna's name was called shortly after and the doctor said she had most likely caught the cold going around the ship. She put her on antibiotics and sent us on our way.

She says: I have a crap immune system. At some point, I will have the so-called "teacher immunity" and not catch every bug that exists. Now is not that time, though.

When we got each of our kitties from the Humane Society, they had "kennel cough" from being in cramped quarters with other sick kitties. I now have "cruise cough". In addition to a painful cough, wheeziness and supreme tiredness, my tonsils are enjoying their final adventure with me. They are certainly making themselves known. Every time a doctor sees my giant tonsils for the first time, there is some sort of "Whoa, those are HUGE!" type reaction. The South African head doctor on the ship was no exception. She didn't even have to swab me to diagnose Strep. Now I have lovely antibiotics that are coated in what tastes like poison.

Everywhere you go on this ship, you are surrounded by people with this same, charming, dry cough. I have no idea how it's spreading, because it seems like only one person in each family/cabin gets it. Anyone we've talked to has one unlucky person (in our case, me) and one lucky, healthy one (Matt).

The other bummer about this sickness is that it's got me coughing and sneezing, achy and painy so much that it's really bugging my awful neck and back.

I'm up to a count of seven foreign massages thus far now. I had one in the Washington airport, two awesome shiatsus in Tokyo, the sandy one in Lombok, a Chinese pressure point one on a street corner in Darwin, Australia and now two at the cruise ship spa. The two at the spa here have been pretty helpful. I was moving really badly for a couple of days, and felt like I had a major setback. The massage therapist on board has been able to work on some of the crazy tightness hiding under my "dead zone" on my neck and back. I can't tell you how happy I am NOT to be carrying around a backpack. Despite the long waits, the ridiculous entertainment and our elderly co-passengers on the cruise, the time and space to rest my back and neck has been really important. The hot tubs that we always have to ourselves have been pretty great too.