Referencing adjoining cells and counting in an IF statement
 

I'm looking for some type of formula or function that will allow me to
do the following:

In a large spreadsheet, I need to count every cell that has the word
"sick" with a cell to the left or right that has the word "vacation".
(It's actually a little more complicated than that, but if someone can
give me a formula to do that, I can do the rest myself.)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Brenda