A View of Morocco From An Ambulance Window

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Day 91, Grand World Voyage

Tuesday, April 4, 2023; Agadir, Morocco.

In what was a new shore excursion experience for me, I saw the treetops of Agadir from my gurney in the back of an ambulance. I was off to the Clinique Al Massira, a local hospital, for an MRI of my injured knee. The ship’s doctor wanted to make sure there wasn’t vascular or ligament damage that wasn’t visible on yesterday’s x-rays after my fall and fractured patella.

Originally the ship’s doctor planned that I would see an orthopedic specialist here, but the resort town was too small for that. I would go get the MRI and come back to the ship for a follow-up in two days in Casablanca. Score – two more days on the ship!

I had mentally reviewed my options, and staying on the ship was my goal. If there were complications, I might need to get off for treatment somewhere along the way, with the hope that I could return to the ship to complete the voyage. The worst case in my mind would be the need to go home. But where would that be? My orthopedic surgeon is in Dallas, but I don’t have a home there any longer. And my support team – my sisters – is on the ship.

As you might expect, it was a day mostly of waiting. But in reality, things went smoothly. The ship’s doctor worked with the port agent to arrange the scan. My sister Elaine skipped her planned walking tour in this resort town and rode with me. First ambulance ride for both of us. Despite the fact that there was no urgency, our driver delighted in running with the siren and thus avoiding slowdowns at rotaries and lights. My gurney was locked in a track on the ambulance bay floor, but I wasn’t belted in.

Four hours later we were back on the ship. I had a large envelope with images of the scans and a report in French. During the ride, I used Google Translate to see what it said in English. What I really needed was Google Medical Translate, as English wasn’t much better than French in explaining the results to me.

Google translated from French, but it was still “Greek” to me.

But the ship’s doctor reviewed the translation, and we both seemed to think it was pretty good news, as it didn’t seem to identify further problems.

She arranged a telemedicine conference with the University of Texas Medical Branch, which is a huge hospital complex in Galveston (just a mile or so from where I lived as a kid). UTMB contracts for medical consultations with Carnival Corporation ships and many other lines.

After the consultation, the great news is that my knee isn’t dislocated. It just has accumulated a lot of arthritis and scar tissue over the years, and with the swelling from the injury it looked worse on the x-ray.

So I will stay on the ship to heal as I continue my voyage. I’ll suffer through with this heavy plaster cast until Monday, when I’ll get an adjustable brace in Lisbon.

I canceled my overland tour to Marrakesh and shore excursions in Tangier, Málaga and La Coruna, Spain. I’m hoping by the time we get to Le Havre, France, I’ll be able to go to the D-Day landing beaches, even if I mostly see them from the bus. I did cancel Biking in Oslo!

Meanwhile I will enjoy days on the ship. I’ve invited Eloise and Elaine to contribute to my blog with reports of their experiences.

Here’s Elaine’s Facebook summary of her Agadir experience:

There’s still much to do on board the Zuiderdam. Tonight our same pre-birthday group from last night gathered again to celebrate my actual birthday and my fortune in staying on the ship. You can’t have too much birthday cake!