A bit of
background to this trip. We had moved back to South
Africa from Australia
in 1995 after buying an old house in Kalk
Bay. We were in the midst
of renovating this and I was setting up a business in what was termed the
‘alternative’ insurance market when in August 1996 I was diagnosed with
prostate cancer. If you're interested in that story, go along to My Story My brother Steve had a good friend who was a practising
radiologist in Houston, Texas. He had qualified in South Africa but now had a practice in the United States.
He reviewed my medical reports and was unimpressed. He offered me state of the
art scans and introductions to some of the leading prostate cancer specialists
in the area at no cost. All I had to do was to get to Texas.
I had
retained one of my Australian clients when I moved back to South Africa and
was contractually obliged to meet with them annually. Although travelling to
and from Australia
means a long time in the air on lengthy flights, fare structures are such that
it costs no more to circumnavigate the globe rather than buying a return
ticket. Sometimes it is even cheaper. So we headed off to Australia and then on to the USA. After meeting the medical people in Houston, we planned to drive up to Chicago
and fly out from there heading for home via London,
with a short visit to New Orleans on the way to Houston. No point in being
the USA
and not seeing a bit of the countryside, especially as my initial urologist had
told me that my life expectancy was three to five years.
This is the story of our Medical Tour:
Friday March 21, 1997
Los Angeles
was sweltering on the first day of Spring under a smog blanket and even in walking around to the USAir terminal we could
taste the fumes in the air. It must be awful living in that climate. We had
three hours or so on the ground in the somewhat unappealing USAir Club lounge,
which we were reluctantly allowed to use, before we were on our way to Pittsburgh. Not our choice
of destinations but the best of the limited “hubs” for us to choose on our
round the world ticket. The flight was uneventful and the meal served was not
all that bad – certainly a great improvement on the United meals.
We arrived a
bit ahead of schedule but not all our luggage did. One suitcase went astray (it
finally turned up in Philadelphia)
so of course that caused a delay in reporting it and getting all the detail
sorted out. It seems amazing to me that none of the USAir staff I dealt with
were in any way apologetic for the nuisance and inconvenience caused by what
was their inefficiency. They were all very
polite, but no one ever expressed any empathy or contrition. I suppose that is
the way of the world – after all, as they said, they did find the case – what
more could we want.
Rab was
pretty tired at the airport, so I suggested to her that she should go on ahead
to the hotel we had booked - a Marriott Courtyard - while I sorted out the luggage. We had a
laugh about it when we met up at the hotel because, as she said, she found
herself driving through the night in a city where she had no idea where she was
or where she was going with a strange man, a man who could have driven her off
and robbed her with impunity before having his way with her and killing her.
But he didn’t so all was well. We had a good night’s sleep, although Rab swore
that there was something crawling over her during the night. Pretty reasonable
too at $62 for the two of us.
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