Sukhumvit Hospital Visit

Wednesday, July 16th, Phyllis had her first hospital visit. Prior to leaving the U.S. Phyllis had surgery to implant (2) permanent tubes in her ears. She has always had chronic problems related to getting infections and having fluid build-up behind her eardrum. After several years of having temporary tubes they finally recommended that she have permanent ones. Even though we had insurance it was still a couple thousand dollars. Just days before departing the U.S. on July 4th she started having problems in one of her ears. We went to her ear specialist and he removed some residue crap that had resulted from the surgery. Thinking it was taken care of we were off to Thailand on schedule. Less than two weeks after arriving she again started having problems with the same ear. It continued for days so we decided to go to the Sukhumvit hospital which is not far from where we live. They had a resident ear, nose, and throat doctor. Well...what an experience it turned out to be. They took her right in and after examining her we were told that her tube had dislodged and had come out. We immediately told him that these were "permanent" tubes. His reply was that there was no such thing as permanent tubes. "All tubes can come out." With our permission he removed the tube quite easily and showed it to us. Well, you can imagine how we felt after going through all that in the States. The examining room was state-of-the-art with a ceiling mounted TV monitor in which we could observe the work he was doing in her ear. After removing the tube he gave it to us and then recommended the inner ear be cleaned thoroughly. When he inserted a tube and applied a solution I thought Phyllis would come up off the table! After the cleaning you could see the inner ear on the TV monitor, it was nice and pink the way it should be. However, now came the real problem. When he was finished he asked that she sit up, and upon sitting up she quickly experienced vertigo. Thinking that if she just sat for a few minutes everything would be alright...wrong! This vertigo was so severe and lasted for hours. When we got her into a wheelchair and into another room she could barely move without vomiting. Then she had to go to the bathroom but couldn't because she couldn't move without vomiting. They kept bringing her fresh bags and she was so loud that everyone on the floor heard her. They finally gave her a shot of Dramamine thinking it should help...wrong again! All in all we were there for about four hours at which time they were talking about admitting her. When she heard that all she wanted was for me to get a taxi and get her home. They wheeled her down to the main lobby where they waited with her while I settled the bill. The bill, in Thai Baht was 1,400. In U.S. dollars that mounted to $41.79 After the taxi arrived they helped her in and we were off to our condo which was only a short distance. Arriving at our condo I had to assist her and her "puke bag" out of the taxi. It was interesting to watch the expressions on our doormen as they held the door open for us to enter the lobby. Phyllis later said that they probably thought she was drunk. It wasn't until after midnight that she started to feel better. So much for having "permanent" tubes placed in your ears! She is much better and has no plans to return to the hospital, even though they had done a good job.