So I can now report on the range of health care options in Thailand.  Well, at least Bangkok.  I take a necessary pain med which can be difficult to obtain and needs a doctor's authorization.  So first the two students, Vic and Toon, who have been assigned to helping me with visiting professor stuff like how my mobile phone works, how to catch the Campus Shuttle bus, and doctors.  So they figured I should go to the hospital connected to the university.  I had no idea what that meant until we found it, after wandering around through a complex of Red Cross clinics.  I began to realize it was the public health clinic.  I'm sure compared to some it was a pretty good one.  But, after we stopped at I think eight different windows, and I got my first health card (I now have 3), we found our final destination.  I was just number 437 on a waiting list.  The receptionist suggested I come back the following day at 5:30 am.

So Toon suggested we go to the Christian Hospital.  Which was a step up. Like going from Motel 5 to Best Western.  Waiting list much smaller.  The doctor less than receptive.  He read a letter from my Doctor for ten minutes.  I suspect he wasn't reading it (he did speak English) so much as trying to figure out what to do with me.  The final outcome.  No we don't have that drug in Thailand.  Then a confusing conversation took place.  From it the best I could deduce is we have same drug but higher dosage.  No matter how many ways I tried to suggest, politely...well if its higher dosage why can't I just split the pills.  So I gave up.

Then a friend suggested the Place to go was Bumrungrad International Hospital.  As soon as the taxi dropped me off at the front Lobby I entered a different world. Like health care after the revolution.  Everything about it was like a 5 Star Hotel.  Every wait was less than 5 minutes.  The cafeteria had selections for at least 10 cultural appetites, and cheap.  No jello.  There comfortable waiting areas, and a book store.  I loved the one selection area:  "Chick books, "(see photo).  It was so smooth.  I felt like I was gliding through a system the opposite of the movie Brazil.  And the doctor visit took all of ten minutes to come up with a reasonable strategy.  I arrived at 12:30 and was back to my apartment by 2pm.  And I was a first time patient which meant some of that time was filling out initial paper work.  And the price for the whole thing?  $65.00 including lunch and prescription.  So if you are about to get sick just get an apartment near the Skytrain here and you're set.  Humm...also very cheap plastic surgery.  What do you think, for $300--$500 take some wrinkles and bags away and look ten years younger.