Friday, March 8, 2013

Window Seat


‘Sitting in the window seat, one seat between the Big Guy on the aisle and myself.  ’thinking, wow, maybe I’ll have a little space on this long flight halfway around the world. 

Instead I have a new friend.  Her name is Chasti, she’s a Filipina RN, working in the States, going ‘home’ for a month to visit her family.  We sat together and shared a bit of our lives with each other from the west coast of California to Taipei in the East.  Her husband is a Firefighter/Emergency Services guy, works alongside her.  They have a one year old son, who lives with her birth family when she and hubby are off working on the Carnival Cruise ship based out of Florida.  No, she wasn’t on the boat that broke down a few weeks ago.  Her husband went home a few weeks ago, and she’s following.  She told me her contracts are a written up differently with their dates on and off.

I asked her about her work on the Cruise Ship.  She told me there are three RNs who rotate around the clock, 2 always on, 1 off.  Two MDs on the ship.  I asked her the types of calls they get.  I wondered.  People with chronic conditions that flare up? 

In rare circumstances.  ‘Most of the patients she sees are fools.  Vacationers who look at all that food (that they already paid for), thinking now, “it’s free”.  Gluttony kicks in, they eat more than they can handle, get sick and “Help, help, I need help!” 

Or the couple at the bar, when the lady slips down the oak to flirt with some other guy.  Then HER GUY, drunk with madness, starts a fight! 

I suppose it should come as no surprise.  A few years in Isla Holbox, a tiny island off the tip of the Yucatan, I came across a little medical clinic.  Of course I went to check it out.  The Doctor there told me just about the same story.  Drunk tourists who fall down the stairs, break their leg.  Get in fights and fall down.  People, what are you doing out there??



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