Success

We are back in our apartment and all is well. The surgery went really well, the doctor is amazingly skilled. The big recovery bummer is getting over the anesthetic, which is no fun but she is through it now. The doctor stopped by this morning and said all the implants were set firmly and that there should be little swelling. Good news. So we are on the other side now and the healing is in process as I write. We will celebrate tonight with a feast of instant mashed potatoes and maybe even some gravy. I might even splurge and get some Haag and Das for $10 a pint! More later, Patti

Land of Smiles

Thailand is called the land of smiles. Sometimes this seems so odd, but it appears like everyone here always defaults to a smile; even when telling you really bad news. We watched a documentary yesterday about the brutal beating of a young Buddhist woman that was a grade school art teacher in southern Thailand a couple of years ago. An incredibly heinous act. As the filmmaker interviewed the parents and townspeople they would speak about this terrible beating and then smile at the end of each sentience. It was across the board; clearly something cultural but I just don’t get it? Today Janet has had a variety of standard pre-op test, blood pressure, blood work, lung x-ray and EKG. The nurse comes back later and says the EKG is abnormal with a smile and the doctor will be in to discuss it. Kind of a bomb; does this mean the surgery is off? Is something wrong? Oh no, smile, the doctor will come see you, smile. So the doctor comes and asks if Janet has any heart disease or history of heart problems, No? Okay smile. Maybe just a silent heart disease, smile. What do you mean? Silent? Like maybe you had a heart attack and didn’t know it,smile? Maybe sometime you have a pressure in your chest and not think it anything. Janet:” I think I would know if I had a heart attack” Janet’s Dad had 2 heart attacks, one at 55 and a fatal one at 76. All this unexpected news accompanied by smiles and very bad English is unnerving. Janet tells him she has swum 2-3 miles in the ocean every week for the last 14 years. Oh,wow. Very good. Smiles all around. No, surgery is not off, just need to check and ask questions to see if you are okay. He did show us the EKG graph where it looked like a lump and should have looked like a spike. We asked him for copies of all the tests. When we go to India we will double check what all this is. This is all just a little scary to hear 30 minutes before she goes under. Her big fear is going under and never coming out. So now I wait. Surgery should almost be over and then an hour of recovery and then back to the room finally.

My bed is made and I got them to change her mattress to a softer one.
Other than the EKG bomb this hotel like hospital experience is interesting. All the test were done in the room which has a kitchenette and really nice bathroom with robes and slippers for both of us. Did I mention the flat screen TV. Unfortunately most channels are in a variety of other languages. We do get Aljazerra and CNN which is great. We even get a little toiletry kit and a tray of snacks, and they brought us a fruit tray too, I have no idea what fruit it is but it tastes great. There is also room service but the menu is all in Thai. It is also very quiet, no noisy hallway sounds and we have a lock on our side of the door. The only drawback is that we are in a hospital and we know it is a hospital and of course there is no pool. Plus not such fun things are going to happen here, like surgery. So no matter how nice all the amenities are, coming out of surgery is no fun and pain is always a drag. The only antidote is good drugs and ice packs and sleep. Then back to our apartment where I can nurse Janet back to happily being one step closer to a truly happy Smile!

Not a Wat in Sight

Sawa Dee Ka,

We’re almost to the end of week number two so I thought it was time for an update. First off, we’re flunking as tourist. We haven’t seen one Buddha, Wat, gone to the Grand Palace or any other tourist attraction. So what have we been doing, well, we’ve been busy traveling to Singapore, the Philippines, China, Columbia and are planning on visiting Iran after our massage later today. We’re doing all this thanks to the Bangkok Film Festival. It’s been just great! We’re seeing films we’d never see on Maui (although we’re going to recommend a few to Barry). If you have Netflix see if you can get PVC-1 by Spiros Stathoulopoulos or Rain of the Children by Vincent Ward. Don’t under any circumstances watch Alice in the Land or When I was a Child Outside unless you’ve had a frontal lobotomy first. The Q&A session after the movie is always interesting. For the film made in China there was a Chinese, a Thai and an English interpreter so each time a question was asked or answered it was interpreted into three different languages.

To be truthful we’re not really flunking as tourist because we’ve been getting inexpensive massages (1 hour foot/arm/neck massages for $8, 1 ½ hour full body massages for $30), shopping (a national past time) and eating from street venders. Every sidewalk is covered with carts selling some sort of fried food (in this 90 degree weather…), espresso yen (iced espresso with sweetened condensed milk, yum!) CDs, DVDs (all pirated copies of course), house wares, fruit, watches as well as bras and underwear (just the sort of thing I’d want to buy on the street…not!). The tangerine juice here is worth the cost of the plane ticket. It’s sooo sweet, fresh and cheap.

Being back at Silom Dental has been an 'interesting’ experience. The doctors at the dental clinic, especially the oral surgeon are great. It didn’t take us long to see that the overly optimistic scheduling is common in Thailand and since we’re here for the doctors we can deal with the ever changing schedule. It’s called keeping your eye on the ball while going with the flow. My oral surgery is currently scheduled for Tuesday night (Sept 30) at 5:30 pm. Yup, you read that right, 5:30 PM. Strange time from a westerners prospective but with the film festival over I guess I’ll be available. Since it will be 12:30am in Hawaii, 3:30am in CA and 5:30am in Minnesota I imagine you’ll be asleep when they’re putting me under. Send me some good thought before you go to bed and again when you wake up.

Well it’s time to get our massage, see another film and then out to a Korean BBQ with one of the docs from the clinic.

Arrived In Bangkok

Well, I am finally getting around to writing that we got here fine and back in our regular Bangkok life again. Have we really been away for a year? We went to a restaurant tonight and the waiter recognized us!

I think we have been here a week but the days have been a little jumbled since we lost one coming over the dateline. When we first arrived it was so easy, we flew business class and what a difference that made in our jet lag and recovery. It cost us most of our saved up miles but wow, it was worth it. We got to the airport with little to no fatigue and got to our apartment, unpacked and settled in by midnight, fantastic! I think we were so confident and cavalier that we forgot to be a little cautious and gentle to our physical system upon entering a new zone of foreign flora and fauna. So our bodies were very good at reminding us to take heed! I beat Janet to the toilet by 12 hours at which time we were both experiencing Bangkok belly; fortunately it ran its course quickly and we are both fine now.

We are staying in a new apartment in the same building as last time. This time we see the city in the distance and have an area of green around us which is rare in this city. Nice cross ventilation and the monsoon is abating, thank god ‘cuz it is hot. So our life is similar to last year but now we are very comfortable moving around in the city and not so assaulted by the noise, crowds and general chaos of a big 2^nd/3^rd world city. With this familiarity, having seen all the must see’s of a first visit, we can now explore a deeper layer of Bangkok. We wander the streets with less timidity and explore where we would not have last time. We were wandering around on Sunday and started steering towards a patch of green we saw which is always attractive and found a really nice park. When we entered we saw joggers running on a track, basketball going, concrete checker board tables, weight and stationary machines, people picnicking, it was great the only oddity was that it was a graveyard. As far as the eye could see were above ground graves that looked like large loaves of bread with grass and weeds growing on top of them. Picture this with joggers talking on cell phones running on a track around them. We call it PLD; Park of the Living and Dead. What a wonderful way of integrating life and death in a user friendly kind of way. Not to mention a great way of sharing the precious commodity of open lush green space in the middle of Bangkok. I guess this is what I mean when I say we are venturing into new terrain which we might not have before! As we were leaving the area we saw another part of the graveyard that was not so well kept up and saw that people were living there amongst the graves. A small broken plastic toy leaning against a tombstone was quite a memorable image.

Today, we were back into scheduling dental procedures and setting up our new computer. We brought our little laptop but realized how much both of our lives are reliant on computers. We both want to write and send emails and sharing one machine is hard on the other person waiting for it. So, we thought if we could find a small computer that just did email and Word we would be happy. Bingo, the thought entered and the machine appeared. We found a 6” x 9” computer (2lbs) for $300 and for an extra $10 they installed Microsoft office/Outlook/ and Photoshop! What were we thinking, of course we would find the perfect computer, we are in Bangkok. So now we are both happy and have decided to take this little baby with us to India so that life and communication will be easier there too.

We are in the process of figuring out the surgery date for Janet’s implants. It was going to be Saturday, then it was Friday, now it’s ? we don’t know, the scheduling here is one to be in the moment with. We have opted to have the surgery done at the hospital and have Janet spend the night there. She will be having 14 implants done at once and does not want to be present for the experience, can’t blame her. This way she will be totally supported on all fronts, me..I’ll be fainting in the next room. They said I could have a bed too. So, stay tuned on as to when this all happens. For now we are eating as many good meals as we can because it’s going to be soft food for awhile (5-10 days) after the surgery. Luckily there is a lot of good Indian food here and now we know where to find it. We even discovered a takeout menu we can order from!

Hope all is well with everyone, feel free to write we love to hear from everyone. And stay tuned for the next adventures and the latest schedules.