We had out vital signs taken and my blood pressure was very high today. I think it may have been due to the lady that was doing the intake. She kept asking me why I was there and was it due to an accident.
I kept telling her I was there to see the orthopedist
and it was not due to an accident, it was because I'm old. I must have told her five or six times. I finally took my folder out of my case regarding the joint lubricant injections and she then said: "Well, you'll have to see the doctor about that." Yea, that's why I was there.
While we were waiting I took my blood pressure again and it was down to about 144/80.
We waited about 10 minutes and Daeng was called into the doctors exam room. I went with her. the doctor asked her a lot of questions and listened to her breathing. She said Daeng had some allergies and the jungle smoke was probably what was making her cough.
She prescribed some allergy pills and recommend wearing a face mask when she went outside.
When we came out of the Daeng's exam room, another nurse said I would be next to see the orthopedic doctor. He was a very nice man and spoke perfect English.
I showed him everything from Doctor Gibson in California. He was also very knowledgeable and told me that they usually used a different brand of sodium hyaluronate other than SUPARTZ. He called the hospital pharmacist into his exam room and we talked about how long to get it and the cost.
Because of the cost, the pharmacist only had enough to do one ejection in stock so they could only do one knee today. I need six, one in each knee for three weeks. The cost for the six treatments, three in each knee, over three weeks would be 19,320 THB or about $600.00 USD.
She told me they could have everything for me here at this care center by next Friday. The doctor and I agreed we would start next Friday at 9:15 AM.
My cost today for the consultation was 240 THB ($7.50 USD). For Daeng with the medicine was 550 THB ($17.00 USD). Daeng thought her doctor's visit and medicine was very expensive.
When I told her how much mine was going to be she just shook her head. I told her that I had to pay $699.00 USD to the doctor that did the same treatment in California last June just for my co-pay.
She said: "Are you telling me that it is cheaper here in Thailand?" I said: "Yes, by almost $100 US dollars and that was without any insurance here."
She had trouble understanding why I would have to pay that much in the United States when I had insurance.
I told her I have trouble understanding that, also!
By the way, we were out of the hospital/clinic at 10:30 AM. Everything including paying for the services was 1 hour and 20 minutes.
We then stopped at a bamboo/wood dealer by our house as we need to replace 3 or 4 of the bamboo poles that hold the clothes lines on the roof. We put the bamboo posts for the clothes lines on the roof about four years ago. For the four post replacements I want to try wood this time.
We found four straight 2 1/2" by 2 meter wood posts for a price of 120 THB, that is about one US dollar each. While we were talking I sat in a bamboo chair that he had made. It felt really comfortable. He said he would sell me four chairs and the table for 1,200 THB, about $37.00 USD. I asked Daeng if I was hearing that price correctly.
We then went to Tesco/Lotus to buy some milk, jelly, tire air pump, pick-up truck cover and batteries for our automatic night light.
I bought a small tire air pump for 299 THB, about $9.35 US. When I used the to fill Hlong's bicycle tires it worked great, filling the tires to 40 PSIG in less than a minute.
When we arrived home they were delivering the wood and bamboo chair and table.
It was a good day.
Also, the hospital/clinic called to remind me to see the dermatologist tomorrow at 9:00 AM. The research goes forward.
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