Medical tourism

This morning, Joe had his shoulder repaired.

As many of you know, he has been bedeviled for several years by a serious shoulder problem. From time to time, his left armbone has popped out of the shoulder socket. He has had to reinsert it with his right hand. That hurts.

Once, he landed in the Berkshire Medical Center emergency department to have the arm put back where it belongs. The unpredictable arm has been painful, disruptive and worrisome. It misbehaved recently during his Burma trek. The arm also slipped out of its socket while Joe was photographing a tribal woman in India. He said he kept grinning, so as not to frighten her. But he is sure his gyrations (and his grin) made her think he was possessed.

Specialists in the Berkshires examined this shoulder more than once but remained vague, inconclusive and unhelpful as to what might be done about it. Before heading off to Burma, Joe had the shoulder looked at at Bangkok Nursing Home Hospital. BNH is the fine medical center that successfully treated my leg last year after an insect bite in Vietnam developed a staph infection. Last week, Joe returned to BNH for more tests, including an MRI.

On saturday, Joe was informed that his problem was a torn cartilage that could be repaired at BNH. When asked when he would like the surgery done, he said as soon as possible. "How about Monday at eight?" asked the doctor.

This morning, Dr. Somsak Kupthiratsaikul performed orthoscopic surgery on Joe's shoulder. Minimally invasive, the operation is done with precision tools and a tiny camera inserted through a relatively small incision. There is no reason to believe the operation was not a success, although Joe won't talk to Dr. Kupthiratsaikul until tomorrow. Joe was groggy afterwards, though not too out of it to keep him from introducing me to a nurse named Lemon.

Joe will remain at BNH for two nights. He requested Thai food and was soon to receive some when I saw him a few hours ago. He is to remain in Bangkok for two weeks of check-ups and physical therapy. His motions will be restricted for a number of months. Full recovery can take 8 or 9 months, although he can be back in his studio this summer. (About 1 percent of these surgeries develop complications. So far, there are no signs of any with Joe's.)

We were to have traveled in southern Thailand in April. We'll still do this for about ten days later in the month. We'll also have to do a "visa run" at some point---probably take a four-hour bus ride to the Cambodian border and back.

This is all fortuitous. Joe gets to have this nagging problem put behind him. Blue Cross-Blue Shield gets to have this operation done for probably a third of the cost in the U.S.

And, we'll be in Bangkok for Songkran! This is the big holiday in Thailand, Burma, Cambodia and Laos that celebrates the lunar new year. Also a pre-monsoon "water festival," Songkran used to center on the bathing of Buddha images and on young people sprinkling water on the hands of elderly monks. Now, however, it's an (often alcohol-fueled) bacchanalia lasting for several days with most of the population giddily dousing anybody who dares to go out in public with hoses, buckets of water and, we have heard, high-powered water guns.

Some foreign residents flee the country during Songkran. Others barricade themselves inside their houses. But we enjoyed being in Yangon last year for the first two days of the festival---it was thrilling to see crowds of happy Burmese---and then we flew to Bangkok on the final day. We arrived just in time to hang our wet clothes over the bathtub and head out for dinner---and get soaked all over again. No one is spared. The trick is to keep your passport in the hotel safe and your money in a plastic bag.

How will Joe keep his camera dry? The Burmese were respectful of the camera---a couple of teenaged girls gigglingly asked if they could "pour" on him and then dumped ice water down his back. (The air temperature is around a hundred this time of year.) We fear the fun-loving Thais may be less polite. Whatever happens, though, we don't think Joe's arm will be constantly threatening to come loose.