Chapter 5

This cruise ship Brad was now assigned followed the same procedure of him getting priority handing in boarding. After unpacking he went down to the infirmary and met the staff. This included meeting Doctor Dennis Walcott who was more than twenty years older than Brad and recently retired from private practice.

Dennis seemed like a nice man but Brad couldn’t help but feel Dennis was questioning why he was designated the junior doctor and Brad the senior doctor. Dennis seemed to have trouble accepting this. Brad could understand that because of the age difference and hoped it wouldn’t present a problem in doing their duties. After an explanation of how they would share the workload of patients, Brad told Dennis he valued his opinion. Brad said he probably would be consulting with Dennis on patients seemed to quell Dennis’s concerns.

At dinner, Brad met with the Captain and most of the ship’s officers which included cruise director Duane Huisman. Brad didn’t say anything but he was bothered that Duane was at the dinner and not conducting the “Meet and greet” show that was going on for the passengers. Previous cruise directors had done this but Duane had delegated this duty to an assistant. If it was for the assistant’s training or if it was because Dennis was lazy that would be revealed in time thought Brad. He would keep an eye on Duane as his initial impression made him a little wary of Duane.

Overall, the captain and the ship’s officers who included two women seemed to be a friendly and efficient staff.

For the most part during the cruise, the patients seen and treated went along the lines that Brad had experienced on the other cruise ships. There was no transfer of patients to the hospital, just the normal run-of-the-mill illnesses and conditions including some fall-downs and sprains. Dennis adjusted well to doing his duties which made Brad’s job easier and didn’t cause any conflicts. As it turned out, Dennis asked Brad for his opinion regarding two patients.

The one thing Brad saw that bothered him a little was that Dennis was quick to prescribe opioids for pain relief. Brad was thinking about how he could in some way tell Dennis he needed to slow down in prescribing opioids without offending him. Telling him and having the nurses confirm that they were running short of those drugs and needed to save them for the patients who really needed them for pain relief was an approach Brad took and it seemed to work.

Brad’s social life with meeting new women was what he would call a mixed bag. He did meet several attractive women aboard the ship but he was not able to develop more than a conversational relationship with them. His prior experiences on the other ships had somewhat spoiled him which he reluctantly accepted. He concluded that it was too much to hope for that he would get lucky on every cruise ship.

That concern was offset by the wonderful scenery he saw ranging from the mountains, coastline, forests, animals, glaciers, and sea life. Whales when spotted would be pointed out in announcements from the bridge which was an added attraction. He would have liked to have visited Denali but it was too far away from Anchorage for that to happen.

The entertainment on the ship was similar to what he had seen on the other cruise ships. Large singing and dancing production shows, dance instruction, bingo games, ice carving, lectures, and husband and wife games, all and more occurred. The two Captain’s nights on each cruise had most of the passengers dressed up in suits and dresses. The ship’s photographers taking photos at different temporary locations did have quite a few customers.

What amazed Brad somewhat was when four cruise ships would all dock the same day in a town and the ships would discharge their passengers. These passengers would total three times more than the stated population of the town. It was amazing that the town could handle that amount of people.

One evening it looked to Brad that Duane the cruise director had developed more than a casual relationship with one of the passengers. That was a turn-off to Brad as the passenger was much younger than Duane and looked like she had too much to drink but there was nothing Brad could say or do.

Brad couldn’t say he was bored being on this cruise ship because of the sites he saw, but he was looking forward to his two-month assignment being over and transferring to a new ship for a change. It was just a natural reaction on his part because stopping at the same ports had over time lost some of this cruise ship’s luster.

It was a pleasant surprise for Brad to receive his new cruise ship assignment. It was to the cruise ship he had been previously assigned which then was going back and forth through the Panama Canal. There had been a change in that ship’s itinerary. Now, this cruise ship was doing fourteen-day cruises from San Diego to Hawaii and back. He was hoping that Marla was still the cruise director on that ship.

Once this cruise ship was back in San Diego there was no problem for Brad in transferring to the new cruise ship he had been assigned. At the infirmary, he met with the staff who basically were the same people when Brad left the ship. Rosa was still assigned here and said she waived the option of being reassigned to another ship and taking a vacation because of this cruise ship’s itinerary change. Brad laughing said to all of the staff he was glad to be back and that it was business as usual.

At the evening dinner, he was able to confirm that Marla was still the cruise director but he didn’t see her as she was busy in the main auditorium with the orientation show for the passengers.

Back later in his cabin, Brad heard a knock on his cabin door and he opened the door to see Marla standing there.

She walked into the cabin saying, “We need to talk.”

“No we don’t,” he said as he took her in his arms and kissed her.

This kiss which she returned led to him caressing, fondling, and undressing her. That then led to them being on the bed making love. Nothing had changed as Marla was as good as a lover that he remembered her to be. It appeared that her like him, wanted to make up for lost time. There was no talk till after their first round of lovemaking and they were cuddling.

“Let me say that this is a great way to welcome me aboard. I did miss you,” said Brad.

“And I missed you too. I am glad you are here.”

That for the most part ended their talk and they were back at it for their second round of lovemaking.

There was more talk the next morning with Marla bringing him up to date on the minor changes that had occurred on the ship.

His comment as to business as usual to the medical staff turned out not to be the case. That was because when they were a little more than two days out to sea heading to Hawaii, Rosa paged him with a problem.

“I have here a twenty-nine-year-old female who has vomited and is complaining about severe pain in her right side. She has a one-hundred-and-one temperature and a high white blood count. I think it’s a classic appendicitis attack and while the appendix hasn’t burst yet, it could and that would put the patient’s life at risk. We have the laparoscopic instruments and equipment on board to do that type of operation, but I am not qualified to do that procedure. Going on to YouTube to see how that type of operation is done is not something I want to do. What should we do?”

Brad explained this was the classic cruise ship doctor’s nightmare. He said he wasn’t qualified to do the operation either and said to give him time to think about what they should do and he would get back to her. They were out far enough in the Pacific that there was nowhere to go for medical help nor could the ship turn around and go back at this stage in the cruise since the ship’s position made Hawaii just as close as the West Coast.

After giving it some thought, he picked up the phone and called Derek King who was the Senior IT person aboard the ship. When Derek answered the call, Brad asked him if he had access to the passenger manifest. Derek said he did have access. Brad knew a person’s occupation was asked in completing the required boarding information.

He asked Derek to see if there were any passengers’ occupations listed as physician or surgeon. Derek was good at searching and in less than five minutes said there was one who was listed as a surgeon, Doctor Paul Holman.