Montezuma's Revenge

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American Readers. I haven't written in awhile because I was ill. We are not really sure why I got sick and my husband did not. Anyway this blog will focus more on the local health care than of any fun travel trips.
So on Saturday I came down with a good case of Montezuma's Revenge. Being the nurse that I am, and how we make bad patients I decided I could just fix it or wait it out. Well I learned my lesson and learned it hard. I thought i was doing everything right, drinking Gatorade and Electrolyte packets so not to get to dehydrated. Taking Tylenol for my fever (which I knew I had but no thermometer). So after knowing my hotel bathroom intimately for about four days i decided it was time to go to the hospital. First let me say I have found one thing that is not good about living in hotels all the time. My husband and I have to share one bathroom, which under normal circumstances would be fine...at this time was one of the not so glorious times of being a newlywed :) But in sickness and in health---i just was testing that!

Troy drove me to Bangkok Pattaya Hospital (its in Pattaya not Bangkok). We got to the ER and within 5 min was being seen by an actual doctor who spoke English. I had lost about 20lbs in four days, had a 103 degree temp and was so dehydrated that i couldn't stand on my own. And then with in 30 min after arriving i was in my own, private, room. Now i love my hospital that i worked at back home in Colorado, but man we don't even touch on the efficiency these people do. Turns out I had a bacterial infection. And I had it bad. It took 6 Liters of IV fluids before I had to go #1. Yep thats dehydrated.
The room was amazing. It had a kitchen, couch, dinner table, flat screen TV and what a view of my balcony! I know what your thinking...i got some suit. Nope! This was just a normal room. Apparently when in the hospital Thai people's families stay with them and help take care of them. They even do the cooking. That would be nice in the states-more help from families. Since my husband can't cook they had a local hotel bring in food for me! Once i was eating again i realized it was really good food to. The nurses there were always on top of what ever i needed. However those poor women are still wearing the all white nurse dresses with the hat and all. Most of them wore white heeled shoes also...i really felt bad for them. I did realize how great it is to know who everyone one was though. In the states everyone (nurses, aides, dietary, housekeeping) all wear scrubs. You usually can't tell who is who. Not here though. Everyone had a uniform, and I hate to say it, but i preferred that. Especially if you don't know the language you at least know who you are dealing with. Which is good since I dealt with so many people. I had a person come in from the hotel to find out what i wanted to eat, I had someone from billing come in and get all the information for my insurance company so that HE could call them and get everything arranged for me-wow was that great. I had turn down service and everything there. It rivaled my hotel The equipment and technology was the same as if i was in the States also. I felt i got better care than i would have back home.
I was able to leave the hospital the next day (they let me out early since i was a nurse and could do the follow up on my own!). That was nice since it is thanksgiving. They had a couple other little things i liked that i think we should maybe adapt in the States. When I was getting checked out I had to go to the billing department. I had to pay my bill or have a letter from my insurance company saying they would pay. Since the billing department already called and took care of it all i was done. But we have all been or known someone who has had their hospital bill messed up so i asked what happens if the bill has errors on it or there is a problem with it, how can i get that fixed. Well the billing person i was talking with said that if she made a mistake in processing my bill then it come out of her paycheck-WOW! This did slow down my leaving by about 10 min, but totally worth it to me. Overall I was very impressed with this hospital.
So what did we do for Thanksgiving...well we found a local pub that had a buffet of turkey and normal Thanksgiving food. We ate and went back to the hotel.