Here I stand, once again, in my apartment in California.
Five busy weeks have passed since my return, jury duty on an arson case
(they didn't get a conviction) and there was that monstrous pile of mail to paw
through. Last but not least the most enjoyable part of my return is re acquainting me with my friends and family.
Being away for months and months allows
for a lot of things to happen. In the gross category was the death of my
refrigerator. While most of its contents in the lower part were cleaned out
before I left, but the freezer, which had as you know has frozen stuff - fish,
meat and an assortment of frozen dinners that are fine if they stay frozen but
don't do so well when exposed to room temperatures for days or maybe
weeks on end. Lucky enough for me, my son stopped by to the replenish basics foodstuffs to ease my transition into life here and
found the mess (more to the point smelled the mess) and in keeping with his
wonderful guy persona, cleaned up the rotten mess and aired the place out before my arrival. New frig. up and running and re stocked now and life goes on as normal.
The leg I injured while exercising at 9-23
park in Saigon has complicated getting all the things that need to be taking
care off cleared away. After the injured I visited a couple doctors with
most giving me the poor old guy look while blaming the cause of my problem not on my over zealous exercising but on arthritis.
Thought one, Dr Pedro at the Family Medical clinic was very kind and
ordered up an ultrasound of my upper leg which came up negative so he referred me on to an ortho guy. Who looked at me and said arthritis After that I
had a go at traditional Chinese medicine using acupuncture, herbal oils and cupping
but still no real success in getting me walking without pain.
Back in California now and I'm giving a sports medicine doc. at Mercy General Hospitals clinic a try. On examination he gave me a diagnosis of a hip flexor strain, four session of physical therapy offering little relief to
the pain of walking. So he revised his original diagnosis and scheduled me and my hip for an MRI. This is all confusing to me as the originally injury and pain was my thigh but every doctor I see except for the Chinese medicine one poo pooed my thoughts of it being my upper leg and says arthritis of the hip. So at my wits
end I gave in and later this month I'll get the MRI of my hip.. Meanwhile, two
months will have passed by here in California and in total close to four months of me hobbling around in
pain.
Some facts comparing medical treatment in
Saigon compared to here in California. Appointments wait time in Saigon
- a few hours to a few days and in California a week to a month or so.
Appointment cost with no insurance at a primo expat clinic in Saigon $35.00 -
$40.00, my insurance deductible cost in California $20.00 - $30.00 per
appointment. Also my experience shows that a big difference in dealing
with doctors in Vietnam as well as Thailand is that over there they take the time to talk
to you and are respectful and treat you in a kindly
manner.
I'm on my way back to regularly posting about issues effecting us who hang out in Saigon and beyond and will be headed back in September, so lets stay in touch.
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| As always, I'm here for you. Doug |
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