Thanksgiving Adventure

So our plan was to go Khammouane Province for thanksgiving to the Kong Lor cave, a 7.5 KM long cave with a river running through it.

But I've never really recovered from when I was sick before, and woke up Thursday feeling particularly bad, with some other weird pains in my chest, which freaked me out. Anyway, a quick trip to the Australian clinic resulted in a trip to Bangkok to get further checked out.

Stens and Ford decided to go along, so we all piled into the car and went to Udon Thani for the flight.

Of course, prior to that, a check by the Australian doc confirmed that I wasn't currently dying of massive heart failure, that I had bronchitis or early pnuemonia (or, in a surprising twist when the doc mentioned it, TB (turned out not to be TB)), and that a trip to BKK for further tests was the way to go.

Katherine and I spent Friday at the BKK Embassy clinic and Bumrungrad Hospital. And if you need medical care in Bangkok, I recommend Bumrungrad. I got a stress test, X-rays, an eye exam (because we were there with time to kill), and some sort of scope to see that I didn't have some sort of atypical acid reflux. That came with general anestesia, which was nice. But I guess they were trying to save a little, because I didn't get enough. Woke up during the procedure; small camera on a big black cord (correct word usage) down my throat. Not pleasant.

Anyway, I'm fine and healthy, with no acid reflux and a strong heart (and a slightly changed glasses prescription), and bronchitis or early pneumonia that has been hanging around for about 5 weeks. We had a great time, even though I was pretty down for the count for much of the time. I at least had enough energy for a massage and for some lounging poolside at the Four Seasons.

Now we're back. Tomorrow is the big WIG (women's int'l group) Bazaar, so Katherine will be busy with that, and I'll be serving coffee at the US Embassy Booth from 2 to 3 pm.

If you are lucky, I'll put some pictures of my throat and stomach up on the web soon.