I have had a gentle prod about my failure to update progress on the health front. It’s not that exciting but I think we can say there has been some positive progress.
We are now moving to one blood test a week and probably transfusions only once every 4 or 5 weeks. The doctors ring me the day after the blood tests to go through the results. And I can find them all on My Medical Record.
I believe that it will still be some months before the doctors are able to say that the medication I am taking is doing its job.
I feel well. In fact, since I returned from Lisbon in mid May, I have not felt unwell at all. It’s clear that the treatment I am being given is the ‘old man’s treatment’. If I was 20 years younger there would be talk of transplants and more dramatic procedures.
Thank you for your good wishes.
On a different topic I would feel a whole lot better if Sir Ben Ainslie could start collecting a few wins.
Queen Elizabeth – Transit of Panama Canal – first published in “We are Cunard”
QE – Call to Aquaba (and Petra) – “We are Cunard”
QE – Grand welcome to Travemunde – “We are Cunard”
21 December 2013
QE – Exotic Voyage 2013. LA, Honolulu, Samoa, Auckland, Wellington, Tahiti, Bora Bora, Maui, LA.
6 January 2014
Start of the Queen Victoria 4 month World cruise
11 January 2014
En route to Port Everglades
12,13,14 January 2014
Fort Lauderdale and Miami
17 January 2014
Barbados
21 January 2014
Crossing the Line
23 January 2014
Fortaleza, Brazil
Dinner companions Gillian Poznansky and Mark Tanner
26 January 2014
John McCarthy
Rio de Janeiro
30 January 2014
Montevideo
Problems for our Lady Captain
31 January 2014
Don’t Cry for me Argentina
1 February 2014
Admiral The Right Honourable Baron West of Spithead
3 February 2014
Cape Horn
4 February 2014
Ushuaia and Punta Arenas
7 February 2014
Amalia and Pio XI Glaciers, Chile
9 February 2014
Puerto Montt
10 February 2014
Lord Thomas Cochrane
11 February 2014
Valparaiso
13 February 2014
Captain George E Smith
Captain’s table – Captain Simon Love
16 February 2014
Easter Island
18 February 2014
Pitcairn Island
23 February 2014
Tahiti and Morea
25 February 2014
International Date Line
27 February 2014
Memorabilia
2 March 2014
Fiji and Noumea
4 March 2014
Brisbane, Australia
6 March 2014
Sydney
7 March 2014
Celebrity Speakers and the Singers and Dancers
8 March 2014
Milford Sound and South Island, New Zealand
11 March 2014
Dunedin, NZ
Wellington, NZ
13 March 2014
Napier, NZ
14 March 2014
Auckland
17 March 2014
En route to Tonga
18 March 2014
Tonga
20 March 2014
Pago Pago
22 March 2014
The Equator
25 March 2014
Hilo, Hawaii
27 March 2014
Honolulu
28 March 2014
The World Voyage Dinner at the Hawaii Convention Centre
29 March 2014
Roger McGuinn of The Byrds
3 April 2014
San Francisco and the O’Connells
7 April 2014
San Francisco to Puntarenas
9 April 2014
Puntarenas, Costa Rica
12 April 2014
Panama Canal
14 April 2014
Aruba
15 April 2014
Grand Cayman
16 April 2014
Astronauts Gibbon and Seddon
18 April 2014
Fort Lauderdale
25 April 2014
Madeira
7 May 2014
Dinner with the Commodore
10 November 2014
Back to back cruises on Queen Victoria to the Canaries, a day in Southampton and then to the Western Med
2 December 2014
Livorno and Ajaccio
4 December 2014
Barcelona and Gibraltar
May 2015
175 years of Cunard
The 3 Queens leave Southampton
The Baltic and the Tribute to Liverpool on Queen Elizabeth – Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Tallin, St Petersburg, Warnemunde, Orkney, Liverpool, The 3 Queens together.
August/September 2015
Queen Elizabeth – Back to back cruises – first to Med – Vigo, Lisbon, Cadiz, Barcelona, Monaco, Toulon, Livorno, Civitavecchia, Cartagena and back to Southampton and a visit to the knee surgeon at the Nuffield for a cortisone injection to get me through the 2nd leg with the Houghtons and the Wassells – Vigo, Messina, Cephalonia, Dubrovnik, Venice, Split and Corfu
November 2016
Queen Victoria – a new knee for me – Kim Bigwood joined us as a companion/carer for Jane. A Caribbean cruise – La Coruna, Antigua, St Lucia, Barbados, Guadeloupe, St Maarten
June 2017
Queen Victoria after a major refit. Blog changes too. A Canaries cruise – Madeira, inside Funchal, Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote
September 2017
Cruise on QE celebrating 50 years since the launch of QE2. Commodore Ron Warwick and Captain Ian McNaught. We left the ship in Messina for niece Katie and Sam’s wedding near Lucca. 4 days away and joined QE again in Venice. Captains table for dinner with Captain Aseem Hashmi
December 2017/January 2018
Christmas in Dubai
April 2018
TWE Roche – Samuel Cunard – the Roche family – Delphine Roche-Gordon
May and June 2018
QE – Mallorca with the Holts – Piraeus, Santorini, Crete, Olympia, Sardinia, and Captain Aseem Hashmi
August/September 2018
QE – Valencia, Sicily, Venice, Sibernik, Dubrovnik, Cagliari, Gibraltar
A brief snapshot of Fathers career at sea from the New Zealand Shipping Company through to Cunard
July 2019
Richard Smith clocked up 27,000 days on Earth!
September 2019
Graham Sadler of Regent Seven Seas – Sir Ben Ainslie
Movie showing a young deck officer, George Smith, with the Commodore
November 2019
The carers and supporters who enable cruises to happen for us
December 2019
Grimsby and Cleethorpes
February 2020
Covid and the Diamond Princess and the 2009 voyage. Bangkok, Singapore, Vung Tao, Ho Chi Minh City, Nah Trang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Shanghai, Beijing, Dalian, Kagoshima, Muroran, Pusan, Vladivostok, Anchorage, Alaska. Vancouver
November 2020
Covid and stories of Mudeford and Christchurch Harbour
July 2021
Still Covid. A full history Captain George Smith’s career
January 2022
Back to sea! QE – Cadiz, Malaga and the Freers, Cartagena, Valencia, Lisbon and the Stafford twins
September 2022
QV – Cartagena, Corfu, Dubrovnik, Hvar, Trieste (the Pains)
October 2022
Jane Smith – Bachelor of Arts. The degree awarded 50 years late.
December 2022
Southern California and Steamship Society of America – an invitation to speak on Zoom
Whole hip replacement for me in July instead of June cruise.
Christmas message
May 2023
QV to Gothenburg, Helsinki, Tallin, Stockholm, Lithuania, Gydnia, Copenhagen
June 2023
Richard at Mudeford sailing in small boats in Christchurch Harbour
His schooling
Success in 1964 National Sailing Championships at Itchenor – First!
August 2023
The 1965 working holiday and tour of the USA in 5 parts. Click on The USA Part 1 and it should come out chronologically
October/November 2023
QV – back to back voyages – 7 days to Portugal – Lisbon, Cascais and Queluz Palace and 14 days to Norway – Alesund, Tromso, the Arctic Circle and Northern Lights, Narvik, Haugesund
Richard sounding the whistle from the bridge
December 2023
Christmas message
February 2024
The Maiden Voyages of Cunard Queens – Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth 2, Queen Victoria, Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Anne
May 2024
The Maiden Voyage of Queen Anne and my departure to hospital in Lisbon
I’m told it’s difficult to find particular cruises or events in the blog. I agree. The answer is an Index and that’s what I’m about to add to the blog.
The date for each item in the Index is the date the piece was published on the blog, often a day or two after we have been there.
If you are looking at a particular cruise or port, we may have been there. You may get a better idea of whether or not you want to go there or on a similar cruise.
Go down the Index. Find the date of the item and then go to the list of months on the first page of the blog. Click on the relevant month and year and that months items will pop up.
If you have not already done so, I suggest that you fill in your email address in the Box on Page 1 and press Subscribe. Then you will receive an email every time something is published. It costs nothing!
I had a meeting with the consultant today. The second bone marrow biopsy apparently revealed more evidence of what was wrong than the first. As a result a course of treatment has been agreed to deal with the failure of my bone marrow to produce platelets and blood as it should.
The plan is that I take a particular drug twice a day from tomorrow. I will also have blood tests at Southampton General Hospital twice a week to see if the drug is doing its job. If it is not, or if it is causing me grief, then there will be a change of drug.
I will continue to have blood and platelet transfusions as and when they are needed. For me, on the basis of the last 10 weeks, that seems to be a transfusion every 2 or 3 weeks. They are painless.
It takes about 2 hours to pour the blood or platelets into me. I don’t know how it all fits into my body, but it does. I do a WhatsApp group Wordle, a Sudoku or two and read a John Grisham to kill the time.
This regime may well continue for up to 6 months when there will be a major review.
My apologies to the medics amongst you for the lack of detail but its difficult for a non medic to pick up all the terminology and it will be a few weeks before the letter is produced and sent to the GP!
I have put this on the blog to save emailing and to save on phone calls!
Thank you to everyone for your good wishes.
By the way, I will be resuming lunches out immediately and will be getting out the cruise brochures forthwith!
At the back of the Southampton General Hospital site there is Hamwick House. I go there for blood tests. Other people go there to see consultants.
I learnt early on, that if you go for a blood test, you find the machine that issues numbered tickets, take one and try to remember the number. Then you put the very small ticket somewhere safe, on the basis of that after waiting for the number to be called you will have forgotten the number.
There are usually 40/50 patients and supporters sitting there in 40/50 chairs so you need to sit in the first one you find that’s free and get out the Wordle, or Suduko or Kindle.
If you are there for a consultation they stand at the front and say your name (usually a mumble) when they are ready to see you. But us blood test people are waiting to hear a number shouted/mumbled so that we can try to guess how many are ahead of us in the queue.
Last Thursday I arrived about 15minutes ahead of the appointed time. I took ticket No 36 and started the day’s Wordle. After 30 minutes no number had been announced so I had no idea how much longer I would have to wait.
After a time I thought someone at the front mumbled ‘Richard Smith’ but I realised it couldn’t be me as I’m a blood test person. I’m a numbers person. I heard Number 35 called out and realised I was next. And then again I heard ‘Richard Smith’ being shouted out. I got up and at the same time another man came out of the WC and said ‘I’m Richard Smith’. That threw the nurse. She looked at me and asked if I was born in 1963. Close I said. 1945. Well it’s not you I want she said. I was devastated!
She didn’t seem surprised that she had 2 Richard Smiths in her clinic at the same time!
Almost immediately No 36 was shouted out and I went off for my blood test. The assembled audience seemed to have enjoyed the Smith show.
I’m learning the process slowly. A lovely doctor rang today with a detailed explanation. Most of it I didn’t understand but she promised to let me have a written report.
What I did understand is that they want some more of my bone marrow. The last lot looked ok to me, but apparently it was lacking something.
I think that it will be extracted next week. Then it will be sent for analysis and it could be 6/8 weeks before a conclusion is reached and treatment is decided upon.
In the meantime it will be weekly blood tests and, if necessary, blood transfusions.
It was my first trip in an ambulance. It was old and rattled a lot. After about 15 minutes we arrived at the De Sao Jose Hospital. A very old building. The ambulance crew checked me in and handed over the papers the ships medical team had quickly put together. The ambulance pair departed leaving me on a trolley.
I found myself in a waiting area which had about 40 trollies lined up alongside each other. They had found a slot for me. After some time I was wheeled away and lined up for a couple of bags of Portuguese blood to be dripped into me.
I was still on my trolley for the 2 days in the place. No question of me being offered a bed! It was almost impossible to sleep. I asked whether or not I could have a pillow. No they didn’t have pillows in Lisbon hospitals. And the noise was horrific at night. People were shouting and fighting. Nurses were shouting instructions to each other.
After two days I was moved to a nearby public hospital which had a haematology department – the Dos Capuchos. The doctor in charge spoke English which helped. By this time the Smith family (Louise and Mike) had swung into dictatorial and organisational mode and were talking to and chasing the travel insurers Allianz, about getting me home. Mike flew out to Lisbon from his home in Dubai. He persuaded the insurers and the hospital that we should stay in a hotel and go into the hospital as an outpatient.
That worked well. There was a room in the hospital with 12 chairs where patients sat with drips attached. Some people appeared daily, some weekly.
Some days I sat there for 13 hours. 9.00am start, then some blood taken to be tested. Hours later after testing, bags of matching blood were ordered. They might not arrive until late afternoon. Then the slow process of dripping it into me began. On the last day in Lisbon the process didn’t finish until 10.30pm. Sudukos, Wordle and John Grisham helped to pass the time.
Halfway through my stay in Lisbon, Mike flew back to Dubai to be with Gretchen, who is shortly to give birth, and Archie. He had been able to work on line during his time in Lisbon. On the day he left Louise arrived from London. She worked on line in cafes near the hospital and I sat in the dreaded room attached to a drip.
Plans for getting me back to Southampton General Hospital were being sorted by Allianz. They wanted a doctor to accompany me on the flight and they also needed to be sure that a bed would be available in the SGH when we arrived there.
Doctor Veronique arrived from Belgium and we (Doctor, Louise and me) set off from Lisbon on 16 May on an EasyJet flight to Gatwick. On arrival we were transferred to an Ambulance which drove at high speed to Southampton arriving at the hospital at 10.30pm.
SGH had a bed for me (with a pillow!) but before that they carried out a number of tests. The next day after more medics had seen me, I was moved to a new single room with en suite shower and WC and a TV. I thought I was being treated regally but I later discovered the only reason I was in a single room was because I had returned from Portugal and might have brought with me some Portuguese bugs!
After more tests I was told I could go home and that was on the 20 May – a fortnight after being dumped ashore in Lisbon.
After I had left the ship Jane and Kim remained on Queen Anne until she arrived back in Southampton 3 days later. Kim had to cope with all the packing for the 3 of us and getting all the luggage home and then she looked after Jane until she, Kim was able to go home on 25 May.
It was sad that the 3 of us missed the 14 days to the Canaries, more so because my sister Liz and her husband Tim were on that voyage. It would have been the first voyage that my sister and I would have enjoyed at the same time.
Now it’s a matter of waiting to hear the results of the tests carried out last week in Southampton and the suggested treatment.
The only reason for putting this on the blog is that it saves me explaining it in separate emails!
Thank goodness I arrived back in time to see the Saints victory yesterday. Louise and Red had my tickets and David D’Arcy Hughes and his grandson had Carole Gordon’s tickets and Mike flew in with his Dubai Saints friends and they all had a really great day at Wembley and surrounding hostelries.
I apologise for bowing out before I had said anything interesting about the new ship. After 2/3 days I was finding it difficult to walk any distances on the ship. If I tried to explore I had to sit down regularly to get my breath.
There was no option but for me to make a visit to the Medical Centre. That was on day 3 of the Maiden Voyage. I talked to the Medical Officer, Doctor Chanel. She decided to carry out some blood tests which were poor and threw up very low readings.
I have to say that to some extent I have lost track of the days, but on the Lisbon port day, Dr Chanel, on looking at further test results, worried that there would be a major problem, if I was even weaker during the following two sea days and needed a blood transfusion. There would not be a suitable supply aboard. During the early afternoon Jane and I had to make a decision.
On balance the less risky option was for me to leave the ship, Jane remaining aboard with Kim, who would look after her until Southampton, 3 days ahead.
That was the option we settled on. We threw some clothes into a small bag and returned to the Medical Centre. The ship was due to sail soon after 5.30pm and I was quickly transferred to an old ambulance which was to take me to hospital.
The hospital I was taken to was the De Sao Jose – a public hospital – a free hospital. It was a hell hole!
