March 7, 2019 – at Sea
Terri finally convinced me to see the doc this morning. I’ve been hacking for over a month and been trying all kinds of over the counter medications with no luck. The medical center on the ship opens at 9am and I was the first patient in. The nurse took my blood pressure and said it was great. She asked if I suffered from high blood pressure or diabetes. I said no. She was all smiles and said “you are the first one I have had on this cruise that said no”. This may give you an idea of the health of a lot folks on this ship.
The doc gave me codeine, prednisone, an antibiotic and cough syrup. The visit was cheaper than my own doc and the meds were pretty cheap also. My insurance may cover them but I don’t give that much hope. The meds fixed me up fast and I haven’t coughed since. I was very impressed with the medical center and staff. Operating a place like this in international waters means the elimination of all kinds of government forms and other baloney. The doc was very frank and said I can come down and get more meds if I ran out. No visit needed!
I think serious health care may be heading out to sea. Something I never considered. The government involvement in healthcare reminds me of government involvement in education. Every problem can be fixed with some kind of form that eliminates responsibility. There are people that create forms, people that are forced to fill them out, people that collect the forms, and people that throw the forms out. No one reads the forms that are filled out. The forms are there to cover someones posterior.
Some of my teacher friends may remember staff meetings. Sign in, sign out,(that is one activity no one misses) pick up forms, and other papers. Do a necessary job related activity such as grading papers during the meeting. Find the trash can on the way out. Deposit papers. Bang your head on the nearest concrete wall and asked your self “Did this help my students”. I am sure doctors feel the same way about their patients.
I skipped the gym to give my body some extra recovery time. I enjoyed sitting outside and reading. Team trivia is going poorly. Questions are way off the wall. Did you know an octopus has a beak? I knew that aluminum was the most abundant metal found in the earth’s crust but I allowed the engineer in the group to over rule me and we said iron.
We had dinner with Bob and Brenda again. We really get along well and the conversation is interesting. We talked quite a bit about the Berlin Wall and the border between east and west Germany. Bob did some work over there before the wall came down in 1989.
The Wall was such a world icon to the failure of communism. Not allowing people to leave because the system works so well! Who would have ever believed that communism would ever be here in the USA.
The Amsterdam singers and dancers were on tonight and did a European show. Very polished and flawless. There must be quite a team that works with this group. I really enjoy watching and listening. Tonight was done to canned music but was every bit as enjoyable.
…