Chapter 3

The boarding of this new cruise ship went along the lines of his prior ship’s boarding. His assigned cabin was an exact duplicate of his previous cabin both as to size and its location. He read the note Scott had left for him. The only item of interest in his note was Scott’s comments that Brad should be careful in how he deals with and what he says to Marla Sanders, the cruise director. Why Brad should be careful wasn’t stated in this note.

Brad was in his cabin and had just about completed his unpacking when there was a knock on his door. Opening the door he saw a lady who was of small stature and maybe a little overweight standing there.

“Doctor Parker, I am Rosa Stankus the other physician onboard. I thought I would meet you and answer any questions you may have.”

“Call me Brad, and it’s nice meeting you. Please come on in.”

Rosa did come in and had a discussion that didn’t disclose anything out of the ordinary. Brad, however, did form an impression of Rosa. She said she was from Latvia and had three years of emergency room experience before signing up to be a ship’s doctor. Her emergency room experience qualified her to be a physician on this ship. She seemed highly organized and his initial thought was that she would be a good partner.

With Brad being the senior doctor, he gave his philosophy of how they should operate and equally share the workload along with being somewhat flexible in the hours both of them needed to be in the infirmary. He did ask her about the ship’s officers and if there was anything he should be aware of.

His asking Rosa that question caused her to laugh a little before she said, “I guess you have received some feedback from Scott on Marla Sanders the cruise director. For some reason, she and Scott were like oil and water, they just didn’t get along and I don’t know why that was. I do know Marla likes to think at times she runs the ship, but I think most cruise directors act that way. If I were you, I would just be careful in what you say to her but that doesn’t mean you need to roll over and play dead. Just be careful how you talk to her.”

Brad thanked her for these tidbits and said after he finished unpacking, he would go down to the infirmary to meet the medical assistants there and become familiar with the facility. He also said it was probably expected that he attend the second sitting for dinner and meet the Captain and the other ship’s officers.

Brad did what he said he would do. At the infirmary, he met Sherry Tidesman and Cindy Deevers, two of the medical assistants. They both seemed nice and efficient. They welcomed him to the ship. There was a brief discussion that confirmed the procedures here were similar to how things were on Brad’s prior ship. He did notice that there were instruments and the equipment for laparoscopic surgery. They told him they had just received them and they understood that these instruments were being sent by the cruise line to all of their cruise ships.

Rosa said she knew what they were used for, but she like Brad was not qualified to use them. They speculated that maybe in the future one of the doctors on the ship would need to be qualified to use those instruments.

She laughed when Brad told her not to be surprised in the future if they send the ship a surgical robot and some surgeon three thousand miles away will use it to perform operations.

“Who knows,” said Brad, “Maybe in the future doctors on cruise ships will be replaced by physician assistants who will be supervised virtually by doctors far away.”

Laughing a little Rosa said, “For this to happen they will first need to improve the speed of the ship’s internet.”

Brad went to the second seating dinner and sat at the Captain’s table and met him. The Captain, who was in his late forties seemed like a nice guy. He introduced Brad to the other ship officers who all welcomed him. To be expected, they asked Brad questions to get to know him which Brad did his best to answer.

A little bit of a surprise occurred during the dinner when the Cruise Director Marla Sanders stopped by to meet the new doctor. She said she was in between the shows she was doing for the passengers in the main auditorium. Marla who was about Brad’s age was an attractive lady with a nice figure, a pretty face, and shoulder-length auburn hair. She also had an outgoing personality which was to be expected because it was a necessity for her to be effective in her position.

He thanked her for her effort to meet him and was very careful in what he said to her. She said it was nice meeting him and left to go back for the second show. Her making this effort to meet him was a nice thing for her to do which left Brad wondering what had gone on between her and Scott.

The next day was a day at sea. There were a few patients that came to the infirmary but there was nothing that they couldn’t handle. Brad met the other medical assistants who appeared to be qualified and efficient.

For lunch, Brad went to the Dolphin and sat at the ship’s officers’ table. Sitting across from him was Marla Sanders. She was pleasant and asked him if anything interesting happened on his prior ship. He mentioned the passenger who had the myocardial infarction but omitted to say that this patient was an executive for this cruise line.

She mentioned the ports of call that would be visited before entering the Panama Canal and recommended certain tours Brad should take if he could. He thanked her for her recommendations but he still was guarded in his conversation with her.

Brad did take a few of the tours Marla recommended when they were in port if he wasn’t on duty. He had to agree with Marla that doing these tours was worth doing. He also checked and responded to some emails when they were in port. He was a little wary about doing his online banking in port. He would only do that on the ship using a VPN as a safeguard.