In Hospital with Pneumonia!

[daveduke007]

Hope your out and about mithering people soon Paccers  , all the best pal  

[pattayaobsessions]

(pacman @ Sep. 22 2010,11:30) I guess I should explain my absence. Several times in my thread "More of Pattaya's Finest" I mentioned picking up a cough. And several well meaning friends told me they didn't like the sound of it with Steff in particular advising me I should go home.

"It's only a cough, I have been a lot sicker than that in Asia & I can treat it just as well here as I can back home" was my reply to him. The thought of abandoning my long break over something so minor seemed ridiculous.

However while I coped with the cough, my body wasn't coping with the infection that was causing it - a virulent form of bronchitis that was developing into PNEUMONIA.

I eventually had to go to hospital for treatment by which time they admitted me as I could no longer keep food or water down & I was literally out on my feet. I thought it would be for one night, I am now typing this from my room on my fifth day. Today I had the Penthouse deliver my laptop & everything else I thought I might need.

I had spoken to Donnykey who recommended getting an IV drip full of glucose & vitamins as a sure way to pick myself up. I had experience of these back home in Oz & I was tossing up last Saturday whether that might be the way to go. One look in the bathroom mirror convinced me that I had to take control of my now parlous health situation. And I hadn't had alcohol for the previous 10 days. I was trying to do the right thing.

The Thai doctor looked over my test results, blood, urine, X-Ray, etc & held out the clip that goes over a finger to give a percentage of Oxygen in the blood. That sealed my fate. "Who's the wheelchair for?" I asked when one arrived in her office.

"You, you can't walk anywhere. Your O2 levels are 85% & you are likely to faint at any moment" she said.

Now I have had over a dozen IV drip bags, I have 250ml of the antibiotic Avelox mainlined into me every day, 8 to 12 Nebulisers a day, steroid injections every few hours, X-Rays, god knows how many pills & tablets & I am still not free to leave.

I have learnt a lot about catching pneumonia, about the dangers of trying to self medicate, the strange experience of a Thai hospital & Thai staff. Thai ways indeed! Plus the lessons for everyone as to having adequate health cover when visiting LOS. My bill is somewhere around 150,000 baht & I expect it to go a lot higher before I leave.

I am not going to address all that I have learnt in this post but I am happy to answer any queries about my experience.

.."GET Well SOON !" We all { well, Most of us ! } miss You !....

From All at The Penthouse. ... See you on your return ....

P.S. The cook says, it was her best night ever ! ... ?

[Steff]

DT, my medical and health insurance is private and has nothing to do with the Canadian public medicare system. If I make a claim the private insurer will petition the Canadian government for the amount they would normally pay for the same service if obtained in Canada. The difference (which can be considerable) is then covered by the private insurer. There is also no deductible that I am aware of. All they want you to do is call their 1-800 # to notify them of the problem prior to seeking medical attention. They will then assign you a claim number and advise accordingly as to how best to proceed.

Perhaps other Americans can chime in here and let you know how they've handled out of country medical insurance in the past. I cannot believe it is cost prohibitive when you weight the benefits against the horrors of what may occur while abroad. It is your choice but I still think you are completely out of your mind to go anywhere without proper medical insurance.

In the event you ignore this advice and then get ill during the GOTC week in Thailand I will give you my card and let you be Steff. However you will need to learn how to spell my last name and that I am sure will be more difficult for you than obtaining insurance.

[Jake_Sully]

Something like Monsieur. Steff LaCroix or much harder?

[ALASKAN BEAR]

take care my friend i am so sorry to here about this. all my wish's go to you. get a sexy nurse to blow some life back in to you. always take care. tom

[jimslim]

Get well soon my old pal

[Bumblebee]

Just joining the chorus of well wishers Paccers. For all the joking, banter and piss taking we all give and take on the forum it's at moments like this when one appreciates all the good will that can be found in this special community we have. Speedy recovery my old friend.

[pacman]

Thanks again to all of you for your best wishes. It is reassuring to know that someone gives a damn. You forget that a kind word can be so uplifting...

And I take some comfort that people I have never met have gone to the trouble to post something... at such a low point in my life I will accept any recognition I can get.

[Rocket J. Squirrel]

All the best Pacman. Wishing you a speedy recovery.
RJS

[pacman]

I want to comment on the travel insurance debate. Don't even consider a trip to LOS without it. Or anywhere for that matter.

And don't lie on the application form. Under the rules we all have a Duty of Disclosure to advise the Insurance company on any pre-existing health conditions. For example, I can never take out Travel Insurance again without advising I contracted pneumonia this year. To do so would be to leave the door wide open for my insurer to refuse payment for any future respiratory illness.

I was admitted last Saturday, it took till Monday afternoon before my insurer advised that they had the all-clear from my doctor back in Oz. They wanted to know about any previous medical history they could argue was denied to them before they agreed to insure me. As I explained to the people on the 24 hour number I could call, how was pneumonia linked to my medical history. They sympathised but rules must be followed.

And I was surprised to learn that the Bangkok Pattaya Hospital has a long black list of Insurers around the world they won't deal with due to problems they have experienced in collecting their money. They came to me on Saturday afternoon asking for a deposit as there would be no answer from my Insurer till Monday. The deposit? 20,000 baht. I told them I was too sick to go back to the hotel for a credit card & they agreed to wait.

And I had another scare, my policy clearly showed the underwriter was AIG, the world's largest Insurance company, now broke & on life support themselves from the US govt. I wondered how their credit rating was. It was a relief to receive the phone call that all costs would be covered.

Whether I can afford to pay for this treatment myself is a moot point, for the cost of my policy, I would be crazy not to have the cover. And remember it also covers me for the cost of a private medical evacuation should I need to be flown home with full medical support. Those flights are north of $100,000, imagine the dent that would put into your budget!

[Jake_Sully]

Glad its covered for you paccie. Anyways I'm sure you've heard music helps heal.

Well this isn't Lady Gaga or Patts bar music or even a classic but here's a composition that'll help you heal. Enjoy "The Motzart Effect".

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[pacman]

Thanks Jake. I am well aware of Mozart & the Mozart effect. Unfortunately I can't play that clip as a message comes up advising it is blocked on copyright grounds.

But the power of music is never underestimated in my house. Good music that is, not the mindless repetitious crap that has been derived from legitimate writers whose music has been bastardised so it can be passed off as something new by the latest gangsta rapper wanna-be.

A pox on the bastards. A million of these wankers couldn't write a minute of Mozart if you gave them a 1000 years.

Damn, I seem to have mislaid my Milli Vanilli CD!!

[Jake_Sully]

Ack! Apologies. Try this Direct Link that I uploaded for you.

And yes I agree by your assessment. When I was a kid I loved hearing all kinds of music. When I bought myself my first guitar and tried learning it.. I learned what that trash was and now I simply prefer silence to music most of the time. That said some of my liked groups are Dream Theater, Savatage. As far as composers, Chopin, Yanni and Bear McCreary. And I don't know where to put Hendrix. He's in a class by himself.

[seamus]

Get well soon you old git

[El_hefe]

Pacman, take care of yourself & don't overestimate your strength when you get bored out of your mind there, at least you have a computer. This is similar to the thread a while back where I talked about getting a respiratory infection in India & self medicating it in Thailand & just flying home instead of going to the hospital. I was lucky & you were smarter, it took me 3+ weeks to get my old self back.

Speedy recovery....