Short Story with a long review – either nephew-in-law or grand nephew-in-law, hard to keep track of my extended Thai family, mid-fifties, 4-5 years ago had a benign growth removed from his tongue, advised to quit smoking - continued.
A few weeks ago, pain in the back of his mouth. Cancer. Step one, install breathing tube, step two, install feeding tube, step three, surgical removal of several large growths and many, many smaller ones. Prognosis – incurable/terminal.
Before surgery it was hoped he would be able to return home post surgery. After surgery ain’t gonna happen. He will remain hospitalized until he’s off to the crematorium.
Initially the family keep we away from the hospital. First was they didn’t want them to see a falang family member (might affect price?), second, didn’t want me to get sick (exposure to bacteria) – both bollocks. Finally relented. Went and saw him today. Yup, cancers eating him, head is a patchwork of red incisions, head is blown up (swollen to the size of a watermelon). Steel pipe installed to support his head (reinforce his spinal column).
What they have been doing is operating to remove scarring tissues and growths to improve his comfort level. High doses of pain meds keep him sleeping most of the time – until the water and mucous build up and wake him up. Can’t talk as they removed his voice box, can’t eat as they removed his palate and most of his teeth, removed most of his tongue. Really cut him up like a jig saw puzzle.
Prognosis is terminal – docs not pulling any punches of giving the family any false hopes. So Be It. We’ll be cremating him soon. (I’m off to Chiang Mai/Lampung for a couple of weeks to check up on family orchards and a planned house build. 50/50 if he’ll last until our return. End-of-month early Feb.
He’s at Phramongkutklao Hospital – a public Thai Military hospital located in Bangkok – as per my family it was exclusive for the military until recently – now open to the Thai general public. Interesting, the billing lines, about a dozen, had three English signs, “Foreigner” “Insurance” “Pharmacy” now I didn’t spend anytime in the billing area but did also see two additional lines that had signs saying “insurance” in Thai and one line that I believe referred to outpatient services in thai.
Now – what I saw – he’s in a ward. The third floor wing where he is located has one side dedicated to eyes and the other side dedicated to ear, throat and nose. Each side consisted of about a dozen ward rooms. Each ward room was sized for eight beds. Two rows of four. The wards I looked in were less than half full. Many only had six beds. Each ward had a large AC unit. A communal TV, a communal microwave and a communal refrigerator. There was plenty of space around each bed for chairs and visitors. Each bed had its own stainless steel cabinet, overhead/wall mounted fan and overhead lamp. Bathrooms and showers communal.
The ward he was in only had two other patients. Six beds total – three empty. Including the one in the “private room” naught more than a walled off two bed space with it’s own small AC unit and windows with drapes. Plenty of nurses caring for the patients.
All-in-all, not a bad place to die. And a damn sight better than my envisioned hospital ward scenario.
Pix not allowed. But, nothing worth seeing anyway. A couple of pix I took outside the ward.