Such a kind offer

Dee.  I would be delighted to take you upon your kind offer.  I was going to be very English and say, no, of course I'll be fine.... but the thought of being home at 10pm rather than midnight and withso much less hassle.  My flight from Bangkok is due to arrive at Heathrow at 1910.  Robin

Show methe way to go home

It is nearly 5pm on the afternoon of Wednesday 28 November, my last full day in Thailand.

I can’t really say that I have enjoyed the past week or so.  The candida infection at the break of my thighs has been slow to resolve, leaving a sore area which has considerably interfered with sleep, as I tend to turn on my side as I drift off, so bringing the sore areas together and so wake me up.

This has also put paid to my idea to use one of my last days in Phuket to see the sights, tthe Old Town and the Patong clubs.  Can I say that I am very disappointed?  Not really.

I am a little concerned about the travelling tomorrow.  I have a 30 minute taxi ride to the airport, a 2-hour flight to Bangkok, then the 11-hour flight to the UK, a 45 minute coach ride to Woking from Heathrow and then a 2-hour train ride home.  This sounds like a lot of sitting.  Today I managed a 30-minute lunch with one change of cushion, but sitting is still easily painful.  Oh well, at least home is at the end of it all.

Now I just have to hope that I can get all the dilation and other medical paraphernalia into my suitcase.

I’ll keep you posted.

Robin Moira White

An uncomfortable few days

By Thursday last the rash in the angles of my upper thighs hadn’t got any better so I called into the hospital first thing in the morning.  Dr Kunaporn saw me virtually at once and prescribed a zinc oxide cream.  Unfortunately it has gradually got worse over the past few days to the point where I got virtually no sleep last night.  Every time I came close to falling asleep I would turn over on my side and the irritation would be compounded and I would wake up.   I thought I would wait until Monday but wondered if the hospital would be working today, Saturday, so I called into Dr Kunaporn’s clinic at 1.30.

I have to say that the service was astonishing.  When I arrived there was just a receptionist and a nurse on duty at what was the end of the Saturday morning clinic.  Within 50 minutes they had called Dr Kunaporn at home. He arranged that I see the duty dermatologist.  The dermatologist took samples, worked them up for microscope study and identified an opportunist candida infection which he was able to show me on the screen attached to his microscope.  I was then prescribed and dispensed an oral anti-fungal and a topical anti-fungal cream.  I am so glad that I chose to stay close to the hospital.

It is now 10pm on Saturday.  It definitely is no worse, and it might be psychosomatic by I am certainly calmed and reassured and think it is on the mend.

Meanwhile, I am plugging on with dilation and I do seem to be more comfortable sitting down.  This all bodes well for the flight home on Thursday.

I’ll keep you posted.

Robin Moira White

A little more progress

It is Wednesday 21 November. I awoke this morning at 6.30 in the middle of a violent thunderstorm with torrential rain.  That in itself was progress as I had fallen asleep about half past midnight and so slept for a whole 6 hours – the first such period for a couple of weeks now. 

Yesterday I obtained some Bepanthen from the local pharmacy to deal with the area of redness along my inner thighs which has persisted since my surgery and isn’t helped by the very itchy regrowing pubic hair.  But what a relief!  Able to lie quietly on my side again and sleep.

Another bit of progress was to be able to sit for my evening meal in a local (Australian?) chain restaurant called ‘Wine Connection’ and enjoy some well done beef.

I still had to shift position half a dozen times during the meal and the cloying constant distracting ache is still ‘down there’.

But a week today I should be packing to come home.

I’ll keep you posted

Robin Moira White

Cleared to fly

This morning I had my post surgery appointment with Dr Kunaporn.

I reported to the Aesthetic Surgery Clinic, which seemed to be highly polulated with thin Australian girls considering breas augmentation.  After taking my blood pressure (what is about that particular fixation?) I was walked down to the operating theatre floor below and helped to change into hospital clothes.  I was then stretched out an operating table with legs akimbo in stirrups attached to the table to await Dr Kunaporn. He was a little delayed but was pleased with his handiwork when he came and took some internal stitches out.  This last process was not without some pain. Dr K then went over the dilation regime for the next six months with me and that was that.  I collected my surgery certificates from the clinic counter and I was free to go!

I do still have 10 days before  I fly back to the UK, which is  probably just as well as at the moment, I can sit comfortably on the front edge or a seat or tolerably on my ‘doughnut’ cushion. Laying down is still quite painfulat times.  I get a little less sore each day and last night even got a tolerable few hours sleep.  The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

I’ll keep you posted

Robin Moira White

Transsexual Oubliette

Medieval torturers worked out that if you imprisoned a person in a 4 feet square cell it was especially cruel as the prisoner could neither stand up nor lie down.  That’s a bit like how I feel now.  Sitting is very uncomfortable as is laying down.  The only really comfortable position is standing up.  Sleeping is  balance between the pain and fatigue.

I can feel the healing going on and there is progress all the time.  Bowel movements were very restricted until early this morning when an hour mostly spent on the ‘throne’ seems to show that the blockage has freed up – another sign of swelling going down.

Sitting is a bit of an issue as there is an 11 hour flight back to be ready for in only 12 days time.  At the moment I would have difficulty sitting down for take off or landing!

It is Saturday morning here and I next have a medical appointmenton Monday at 9.30 with Dr Kunaporn.  I then just have ti grin and bear it and get ready for my flight home.  I can’t say that either the bars and clubs of Patong, the old town of Phuket, or the other Thai attractions hold much attraction for me.  I’d raher be home.  So I’ll just grin, carry on reading my Kindle, and wait for Thursday week.

I’ll keep you posted.

Robin Moira White

A change of scene

And so today I was efficiently discharged from hospital in Phuket and moved to the modest ‘Baan Suan Hotel’ a few hundred yards away for the second fortnight of my stay in Thailand.

|Regular readers may remember that my surgery was brought forward by 3 days, so my 10 day stay here will now be a fortnight.  Just as well, perhaps, in case of complications and given that it is an 11 hour flight back to the UK on 29 November and that sitting down is still a little problematical.  I feel absolutely fine standing up but finding a comfortable sitting of laying position has been difficult.  The fact that the thoughtful Dr Kunaporn has provided a ‘doughnut’ cushion for me confirms what I have gleaned from others who have been along the path before.  Sitting can be a bit sore for a while.

The hotel is fine, modern and fully furnished, if a bit Spartan.  But then who’s complaining for £250 for a 2 week stay.The local hypermarket is a couple of hundred yards away and a wander along this afternoon funished me with Alpen for tomorrow’s breakfast, after a KFC lunch and a macaroni and vegetable snack for this evening’s meal.

Then the evening dilation (still only comfortable up to number 3) and then time to update the blog before turning in.  I think I will have a further wander around tomorrow. The streets have a particularly developing world feel, with shanty cafe’s and chaotic power lines on roadside poles.

I’ll keep you posted

Robin Moira White