I haven’t posted for a few days as we had a bit of a medical scare.
Continuing on Tuesday - Izzy had chest pains on and off all day, so when she complained of feeling ill as we were getting ready for dinner, I decided it was time to see the doctor. As soon as we explained the symptoms to the nurse, we were immediately rushed into the examination room, an ecg was started and blood was withdrawn for tests. A few minutes later, as I filled out her past medical history, the doctor arrived and made an examination. Heart problems were all but eliminated, the most likely diagnosis was a lung embolism. A chest xray was unsuccessful as the ships motion affected the machine (the sea was fairly rough, causing lots of rocking and rolling). We spoke to the doctor and he informed us that to be certain of the diagnosis, Izzy needed to have a catscan which would confirm his diagnosis with 100% certainty, so within 15 minutes, he had contacted Osaka University hospital to arrange for her to be examined. Izzy had an injection of Warfarin, to thin her blood, a process that will be repeated daily. We left the medical centre, Izzy still had the catheter in her arm, in case it was needed later, she was feeling weak and decided to spend the rest of the evening in bed. Around 08.00pm we had some food delivered by room service, Izzy had some chicken soup and a bread roll which she promptly threw up again 10 minutes later. She took a seasickness pill and soon fell into a restless sleep. Realising that we would be unable to meet our private guide, I emailed him and cancelled our arrangements. We were very disappointed that we couldn’t go through with the tour, our guide, Ichiro, was a volunteer, part of a government supported organisation whose aim is to provide help to visitors at no cost and after we had exchanged several emails, we were particularly looking forward to meeting him in person.
Dr Tagg, Izzy and Nurse Kelly
Next day, the pain was gone and Izzy felt a lot better, it was another sea day so we took it easy, it was much colder outside, down to about 15 degrees. After another Warfarin shot, we went to dinner at night, watched the show then went to the cabin.
This morning, Thursday 12th March, we had to clear Japanese immigration. We were scheduled to go at 07.45am, but the doctor had asked us to meet at the medical centre at 08.00am so that he could escort us to the dockside and introduce/transfer us to a medical interpreter, who would accompany us to the hospital. We arrived at the immigration inspection point at 07.15am to find a line up, literally from one end of the ship to the other. Knowing we wouldn’t meet our 08.00am meeting if we joined the end of the line, with help from friends, Mary and Andy, we skipped the line and managed to clear inspection by 07.40am. The inspection process was interesting in that everyone was photographed and fingerprinted, then provided with a stamped document to be used ashore, instead of a passport. We met the ships doctor and he accompanied us as planned to the dockside where he introduced us to, who he called, the medical interpreter. The doctor went back on board the ship and after a few seconds, it became clear that the gentleman he had introduced was actually our volunteer guide, Ichiro. Anyway we eventually found the interpreter and were soon on our way to the hospital, with Ichiro accompanying us, a situation that we were very happy about, Ichiro was easy to talk to and turned out to be an excellent help during the time we spent in the hospital.
Mr Hyushi (interpreter), Izzy and Ichiro.
We arrived at the hospital (Osaka Seamans Insurance Hospital not University Hospital) in about 10 minutes, stepped inside, and the kaleidoscope began to turn. Nothing was familiar, all signs in Japanese of course, all people looked Japanese, nurses in colourful uniforms, doctors in crisp whites, adolescent schoolboy patients in military style uniforms and all the sounds completely unrecognisable to us. Thank goodness for our medical interpreter and most of all thank goodness for Ichiro, who was contributing his time and friendship for no personal gain. Over the next 5 hours, Izzy had a CT scan, 2 xrays, a sonogram, several blood tests and consultations with 5 different doctors. The consensus, as far as we could understand from the interpreter was that the heart was OK but we should follow up with a cardiologist when we return to Canada, there was evidence of an embolism, but the Warfarin should resolve the problem. The last process in our hospital time was paying the bill which fortunately was possible thanks to Visa and surprisingly was less expensive than we thought 9covered by Princess travel insurance). The Japanese people, everywhere we went, were absolutely amazingly helpful, efficient and polite, they made our time as easy as possible. By 01.30pm we were back at the ship to leave our copies of tests, xrays and ct scan films before going back ashore to meet Ichiro. Ichiro refused to allow us to pay his travel expenses so we were determined to at least provide lunch and, in fact, I had been looking forward to trying some traditional Japanese food.
Izzy tries some of my lunch, Misoshiru & Dombu Ri to the left and Gyo Za to the right.
We stayed close to the ship and after surveying a few possibilities, we decide on a small ‘fast food’ place whose advertised meal pictures looked appetizing. Ichiro and I each had the 3 course special and Izzy had a bowl of rice and pork. Our 3 courses consisted of Misoshiru (seaweed soup), Gyo Za (fried pork and garlic fingers) and Dombu Ri (rice, egg noodles, chunks of chicken and vegetable topping). The latter was particularily good and I thoroughly enjoyed it, the soup and pork fingers were palatable but not really to my taste, nevertheless we enjoyed the experience, eating with chopsticks and it was even more special that there were no other tourists around and it felt as if we were eating genuine Japanese everyday fare, Gochisosama Ichiro. I can’t say enough about how happy we were to have the company of Ichiro, he made our time in Osaka so much better and it was with some sadness that we said our goodbyes, I hope he will visit us some day in Canada. Back on the ship, Izzy had an afternoon nap as she was worn out, mostly with the stress of the morning’s events, I took a walk into the streets of Osaka, not with any other intention than to absorb the moment and observe the everyday events. During my walk, I was surprised to be approached on the street by an old guy who spoke fairly good English and just wanted to talk, he asked where I was from and I enjoyed talking to him for about 10 minutes, telling him where we had come from and where we were going. Later in the afternoon we met with the ships doctor again, (a Scotsman named Andrew Tagg) and he confirmed most of what we had understood, though he will get the final report from the hospital in the next two days.
At 05.00pm we attended a ‘welcome ceremony‘ marking the inaugural visit of Royal Princess to Osaka, local dignitaries and our captain exchanged plaques of commemoration, followed by a demonstration by pseudo ninjas. We were overwhelmed by the good wishes and prayers accorded to Izzy by so many people, Bill & Shell (thanks for the flowers), Pat & Jim, Mary & Andy, Jim & June, Doreen & Bob, Lucy & Jim, Alice & Catherine, Harry & Bob, Sue & Jim, Dave & Jo, John & Irene, Martha, Mirza (dishwasher) and Montano (our steward) plus others that we can‘t even name.
Osaka as we sailed away, with giant ferris wheel on the left.
After dinner, we watched the sail-away, a poignant experience as many shore side watchers waved and called goodbye, we said a sad sayonara to Osaka a surprisingly friendly city of memorable people.
