The making of Dreamcatchers has been our greatest challenge and has pushed the limits in many areas of our lives. Just when we thought we had our bearings and began writing the scripts for Season One, Phil needed surgery and we found ourselves laptops open, in hospital rooms.
How did we get there?
Flashback to our sail around Indonesia four months prior.
We were in one of the most remote islands of our trip when Phil started experiencing a very deep, sharp pain in his right side. Our satellite phone and SSB radio were not working. We were far, out of reach and Phil’s pain wouldn’t subside.
Everyone always asks me if I find it scary to live on a sailboat. I can honestly say that at that moment, in the middle of nowhere, on a tiny island surrounded by hostile reef, the risk was not the weather, not the boat, but Phil’s health. Not knowing what was wrong with him was much more terrifying than any tropical storm we have ever faced.
Our route and plans changed quickly and we knew we had to sail to Jakarta, the closest big city, to get to a hospital. We knew we were 850km from a diagnostic. There were moments of respite as the pain Phil was experiencing was intense but not constant. It would come and go every few days, always leaving us confused and dreading the moment it came back. We were lucky to still be able to sail, although at times this meant Phil was lying in the cabin, doubled over in pain and I was alone on the deck looking out at the horizon wishing to see Jakarta faster.
The trip gave us time to think and we began to recognise the importance of some of the preparations we had made before our big voyage. A few months prior to our sail to Indonesia we had signed up for an international health insurance. The islands we were sailing to were very remote and we decided to play it safe. We had looked for an insurer that would cover us while were away, in extreme conditions and would repatriate us if things got really bad.
We both had signed up for policies with A+ International Healthcare and then hoped we would never have to use them.
This decision turned out to be one of the wisest we’ve ever made and allowed us to concentrate only on Phil’s recovery. Our Insurer gave us the freedom to choose the country where he got treatment, the hospitals and even the doctors.
We finally arrived in Jakarta and headed straight for the best hospital in the city. The recommended doctor identified a blockage near Phil’s kidney that was causing the pain but said it was not an immediate threat to his health. Phil was prescribed some strong painkillers and we decided to continue our sail to the north of Borneo. Our plan was to leave the boat in Kuching to then travel to Singapore to get the necessary treatment.
In all, Phil had to undergo several surgeries to fix the issue. It was a long and painful process made much easier by our health insurance. Communication with our A+ International Healthcare was excellent, we never had to worry about making payment ourselves and we were able to choose the best country for medical treatment. We decided on Singapore for its state of the art hospitals and followed the recommendation of a friend to select the best surgeon for Phil’s problem.
A+ facilitated the entire thing without any objections or delays. They covered us for private rooms, which made Phil’s recovery more comfortable and even allowed us to continue the post-production of our series.
We have always believed that success can be achieved through perseverance, courage and hard work. It was a difficult time for me, seeing Phil lying on a hospital bed with tubes coming out of his body… and obviously a difficult time for Phil. Yet, more than ever, we held on to our belief.
We didn’t let the surgeries stop us, and from sterile and unlikely environments the scripts of Dreamcatchers episodes continued to take shape.
Phil getting the all-clear from his surgeon, Dr.Michael Wong