new hospital new treatment

Once I checked back into the lush ViengTai hotel, I taxied downtown to the Bumrungrad Hospital. Wow. It looked more like a high class hotel. The taxi drove me up to the imposing entrance, a nice man in a white suit opened my door for me, I wakled inside and about three "customer service representatives" came rushing up to help me. Amazing. Just the sort of place I was looking for. Yes, I know, not a true travellers experience, but I had had that yesterday with my emergency hospital trip - this time I wanted safe, reliable, Western care. Come on, I have a dog bite! I am running a high risk of infection!

So, I hobbled over to the escalator that took me to the clinic, past a starbucks and a mcdonalds, and over to patient registration. I am now a fully registered patient in Bangkok, and have an ID card to prove it. After that, I limped to the surgery, where I was told I was the next patient in line. I was enjoying this standard of service! First they weighed me, and even their scales were nice, telling me I had lost 3kg. I personally thought I had put on weight, but maybe my tummy is just bloated from too much white rice. Then it was my temperature, and my blood pressure. Finally, I was allowed to see the doctor. My doctor was a Thai man who had great English - he should do, having practised as a GP for twenty years all over Scotland. He was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, and a Fellow at both Glasgow and Edinburgh University. We had a lot to talk about. After an argument over whether I needed another rabies vaccination - he said no, I said yes, he being the doctor won - he looked at my wound, and gave it a good clean out. I was slightly worried, but unsurprised that the hospital yesterday had not dressed it well, by "packing in" my deep puncture wounds, but they have now been cleaned propery, and I have been given more antibiotics, as well as a whole bag of medical supplies for me to clean the wound myself. Yippee. Actually, I really am not looking forward to cleaning it out myself, since it will give me the heebie jeebies dealing with a big hole in my leg, and every time I have it cleaned it is so painful the doctor has had to hold my leg in place. Still, I have to be a grown up sometime. And at least this way, I can trust the cleaning, and monitor it myself. First sign of any problems, and I am straight back to the hospital. Unfortunately, after having spoken to my mum and my sister, as well as doing a Google search, chances of infection are reasonably high - around 20%. Not quite so reassuring. Kate tells me if I am infected, I'll need my leg cut off. But then, I can have an attractive stump, and nike are making a customisable shoe that will look good with my springy prosthetic leg. I've got all my options covered.

Sigh. Another evening downpour in Bangkok. Not good for the girl who can only hobble. Think I will be doing a lot of websurfing here tonight until it clears up.