OK, so I wasn't quite honest about why it took an extra day to get the first post up. It was due to me spending time on Skype, but I wasn't just catching up on home news. It was also the reason I missed the trip to Disneyland today. Again, Jayne and I were staying connected with home.
Unreported in the first post was that the day before we left Sydney Daniel was admitted to hospital. If his Murdoch-employed brother was writing the headline it would have contained the words "mystery virus". The preliminary results showed a low platelet count and they decided to keep him in Campbelltown hospital overnight. By the time we had returned from our first day in Tokyo he had been transferred to the haematology unit at Liverpool and had a private room. The mystery virus had been superseded by talk of leukaemia and being on the other side of the equator was not a good feeling.
We were definitely living on a prayer at this point. I don't want to over-dramatise the situation and I know the tyranny of distance added to stress and tension, but, my greatest fear is to have one of my children die before I do. Our thoughts and prayers were all winging their way from Tokyo to Liverpool.
After brief search on the net I discovered that one-way flights from Japan were not that easy to secure. Jetstar no longer fly out of Nagoya, so Tokyo was the only reachable departure point. After skype conversations with Dave and Cait, I booked Jayne onto a Jetstar flight back to Sydney via the Gold Coast. She was due to fly out tonight at 8:25pm.
I spoke with Kayo and Brett this morning and told of them of our situation. They insisted that I stay with Jayne today and that they would conquer Disneyland without me. Much relieved I returned to our room and continued our Skype conversations. By this time Daniel had been taken for a bone marrow biopsy. Patience has never been one of my virtues (if I have any) but waiting in a hotel room in Tokyo while the action was in Sydney was a testing time.
Around 2pm our time - an hour before Jayne was due to board the bus to the airport the kids skyped from the hospital room. Still no confirmation of Dan's illness and they are still concerned about the low platelet count, but leukaemia is off the front page and "mystery virus" has returned. Relief and tears all round.
To celebrate our good news we went downstairs and walked around the tranquil Japanese garden - is that tautology? The only pics I have today are of the garden (sorry Todd). After talking things over Jayne has decided to stay with me in Japan and we will continue our journey with the rest of the group tomorrow. Shopping therapy will be the order of the day.
The Disney adventurers won't be back until 10pm tonight. Jayne and I will be enjoying a celebratory meal in one of the hotel restaurants this evening.
In an unusual post script to this story, the flight I booked Jayne on was non-refundable. However, Jetstar lived up to their usual level on non-reliability and cancelled the Gold Coast - Sydney leg of the flight. David relayed this detail to us via Skype because he received the phone update. The end result? None of the offered options to resolve the cancellation were acceptable and we scored a full refund! This day just keeps getting better.
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