Don’t worry, I am fine and still in perfect health. Just as my work visa required a trip to Laos, my actual work permit required a blood test and a physical at a hospital. So on Tuesday last week, Michael, Meredith, and I took a trip to the government hospital. This is a busy, busy place! There were people everywhere, including some not so happy looking people on stretchers in the waiting room. We checked in (with the help of some instructions for the medical staff that our school had written down for us) and then we were led to the blood drawing room. We were quite the spectacle! Everyone in the room ran out to grab other associates to view the show. We had about a dozen people watching, talking and laughing in Thai, while we covered our eyes and had blood drawn. One lady took pictures with her Blackberry! We think they were expecting our blood to be a different color.
They told us the doctors weren’t available to do the exam and that our results would not be available for 24 hours anyway, so we each set individual appointments to return. Mine was for Wednesday and, even though I had been there just the day before, I still managed to get twisted around and a little lost wandering around the hospital on my second trip.
I finally handed my patient card to someone and they had me sit down. Sure enough, they began all the trappings of a physical: took my temperature (thermometer under the armpit), checked my heart rate, etc. Then they asked me: “what are the symptoms?” I quickly informed them that I was OK and that I was not sick! That confused them—so what was I doing there? Luckily for me, at about this time a nurse from the day before recognized me and came to the rescue. She had me go to another room and I met with the doctor briefly. He spoke great English and asked a bit about my medical history. He only asked about five questions, it only took all of three minutes, then he told me I was healthy and sent me on my way. Blood tests all came back clean of course. Believe it or not, my short physical was actually more in depth than my roommate’s, Michael’s. The doctor simply asked him: “are you healthy?” And he answered “yes.” That was that. Altogether, the cost for the blood work and expedited physicals were only $3.30 USD. The second trip was much less of a spectacle, probably because we all went individually instead of as a group of foreigners. And the second trip was also a little more grisly: I saw two different patients in stretchers with stitches along the top of their head, and the hair shaved away in funny patterns to allow the doctors to do those stitches. Bad enough they were in pain, the poor fellas also were stuck with a bad haircut for the next several months! From the looks of it, these patients had not been wearing helmets on their motorbikes. In the words of my momma: “always wear your helmet!”
Editor’s Note: The health care system in Thailand is actually quite good. This fact was first brought to my attention by Ivan’s parents in Vietnam. Both of them work for the US State Dept. and told us that, when foreign nationals require good medical attention, they are flown either to Singapore or Bangkok. The quality of medical care they spoke of us was confirmed to me when I visited my local friend, Thanawat, at Ekachai Hospital. He works in the Pharmacy of Ekachai, a private hospital. This was practically an isolated island of America in a sea of Asia—the hospital looked and felt just like hospitals back home! Well, except for the food in the cafeteria, which was my purpose for the visit. We shared an English conversation and a tasty lunch together in the hospital’s canteen. The food was, you guessed it, traditional Thai food. We talked about cell phones, tv, and hospitals in Thailand. Clearly, there is a big difference between the government hospital and the private hospital here in my city. If I ever have the bad fortune to get sick, I know which hospital I’ll be visiting.
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