Our ship is beautiful. On the top deck, there is a nine hole miniature golf course, with a nautical theme of course. And there is a rock climbing wall, but we won't be doing that!
Here are photos of the Solarium, a glassed in area on the top of the ship. There is a soundtrack going all the time of birds and crickets chirping, and other jungle noises. I feel like I am in the rainforest cafe! The glass ceiling retracts, so air can get in there. It was a little steamy in there!
For dinner, we have been seated with 4 other couples at a table for 10. We really were not expecting that! And we would love to be alone, but we are making the best of it. It turns out one woman at our table is a nurse, and is going to show us how to change the dressings, which has to be done once a week, instead of having to go down to the medical clinic. She has done home health care, so she knows exactly what needs to be done.
Last night, returning from dinner to the room with the IV ball still attached, the tubing got caught on a railing, and pulled the IV line out about an inch.
This was REALLY bad, because the end has to be situated in the superior vena cava so the toxic drugs move along quickly right into the heart and get disbursed immediately. We called Heidi, the home health care nurse who has been coming to the house. She said we had to get an xray to see if the line was moved too much. We called the medical people onboard. They have an xray machine, but we had to wait until this morning to have it done. It was a LONG night, worrying about it.
We got there before it opened at 8 AM, the xray showed the line was fine, PHEW. We can continue the IV antibiotics.
Bob was given a prescription for oral antibiotics, but they are not as effective. And it would have meant that he would have to be on IV again when we got home, for a much longer time, I think.
Bob's arm in a cast is a great conversation starter. Everyone stops to ask what happened. One guy looked at me and said, did you have to twist his arm to get him to come on this cruise?
You can see the sock-like cover on Bob's IV line in his right arm.
I should be checking email every morning.
It turns out we have cell phone coverage on the ship, but I am sure there are roaming charges, so please only call if you really need to. Or call Bob's phone, since his company pays for it, 617-480-4146.
I will post some photos of the ship later.
We had a leisurely day at sea Tuesday. First we went to the Ship Shape Center (fitness center) and worked out. We sat and did a lot of reading, or listening to books, slathered in SPF 50. Several people on this ship are in motorized wheelchairs, and some in devices that look more like scooters. They get around everywhere! One guy was in a wheelchair near us on the deck. I looked over, and he had tilted the chair back so he could sunbathe. Instead of an "L" shape, the chair was lifted up a bit and turned like a V. So there he was with his bathing suit on, and long socks over heavy black shoes, getting a tan. My hand was itching to reach down for my camera to capture this image, but I thought it might be rude.
We had dinner again with our tablemates. They could get a little annoying by the end of the trip! One couple is from near Columbus, Ohio and the wife Barb hogs the conversation. She likes to have garlic at every meal, she slathers it all over everything she eats. She has to ask for it since no one serves that on the table next to the butter and salt and pepper shakers. We try not to sit to close to her at the table. Bob's medical needs are a GREAT way to excuse ourselves from the table when we feel like leaving the table early - we just say we have to go hook up his IV. I think we insulted the waiter for our table, so I stopped and explained that we to go do medical stuff for Bob. So even if the IV ball is in his pocket, we just have to make sure no one sees it, so we can get the heck out of Dodge!