How many hospitals does it take to complete a vision test?

If you would have told me two days ago that I would still be holding on to our driver's license applications for the States, I wouldn't have believed you. I seriously wondered how hard could it be since I clearly remembered waltzing right into the AR DMV office, breezing through the eye exam, and renewing my license. If they could complete the eye exam right there in the office, could it really be that hard to complete it overseas?

Rusty and I thought the first logical place to start was the local eye glasses shop since they have a sign on the window advertising free eye exams. We were interested in shopping for glasses anyway and thought it wouldn't hurt to check prices. After explaining to the staff what we needed, they proceeded to check Rusty's glasses, eyes, and the price of new lenses ordered from France. We left knowing that new lenses would be over $200 and not knowing what Rusty's vision was with corrective lenses.

Since we were unsure where the communication broke down (we tried in English and Thai), we decided to go to the private hospital that is part of one of the universities here. We thought that since you have to get a health certificate from one of the hospitals in order to get a Thai driver's license, surely we could get one for the States at this hospital. When we checked in, they didn't even ask us what we needed, they took our hospital i.d. card (one of many that we now have, just see the picture) and just asked us to wait outside of the examination room. While we were waiting, they turned off the lights in the rooms. That ruined our plan of talking to the doctor in order to get some answers. Rusty found a nurse who told us we needed to see an eye doctor, but the eye doctor was closed for lunch as well. They wouldn't be open again until the afternoon, but Rusty had to teach.

So off we went to the next hospital where we had been before for our health certificate. We showed the nurse the form from the States, and she told us we had to go to one of two hospitals in town. Finally, we were out of time for going to more hospitals so we decided to go eat lunch. We felt that way we would at least accomplish something. :)

After Rusty finished teaching this morning, we were off to the private hospital again to see the eye doctor. Yes, we went back to the first hospital we went to yesterday thinking they could surely do it if we could just get in to see the eye doctor. We started the whole process over again with explaining to them we wanted to see an eye doctor, but they took our weight and blood pressure and had us sit outside of an examination room AGAIN! Rusty said I was going to have to try to talk to them this time. OK...here I go.

I told the nurse that I needed to see an eye doctor, but they told me I was going to have to come back in the afternoon. I can't remember what I said, but she went to the eye clinic to find out what could be done. Finally, a nurse looked at the form we needed and came to explain to us that they couldn't do it at that hospital. Finally, we had the answer that they didn't have a machine at that hospital, and we needed to go to the big government hospital or another hospital that we were ufamiliar with. At this point I still didn't know what kind of machine they were talking about because all I've ever known is the little machine at the DMV office.

When we got confused about the second hospital name she gave us, we ended up at the big hospital that most of the westerners use downtown. It wasn't really that bad that we went there because it was one of the hospitals that was suggested to us the day before. However, they said we needed to see a specialist and could only do that in the evening. That wouldn't work because we teach English in the evening. So they sent us to the big government hospital where the specialists are there all day every day.

I wandered into the huge government hospital while Rusty drove around forever trying to find a parking spot. I got us registered at yet another hospital (notice all the registration cards we now have) and sat down to wait. By the time Rusty made it in (after a few phone calls to Tawm for directions...so thankful for helpful friends) I had already made it through my tests. Now I finally understood why it was so difficult to find a place to get this test done. It was a pretty high-tech machine where you use one eye to look at one single light, and you press the mouse button when you see an outside light moving in towards the center. Unfortunately, she had to have me do it a couple of times in order to pass, but I finally made it. Rusty completed it also, and all we needed was a signature on the form. They wanted us to come back at 6 to see the specialist, but I explained we couldn't since we have our ESL class. Finally, after telling them we didn't have to see the doctor, they had the doctor sign the form, and we were ready to pay. I wondered how much it was going to be, but we really didn't have a clue at how much it was going to cost. It was almost $70 for this little high-tech test! That was quite a shock to us, but I must say we felt good that it was finally finished!

So now hopefully we just have to send the forms to the States. Rusty remembers talking to the DMV before we left the States and the lady saying it was no problem to let our licenses expire. We could just come in and renew them when we came back to the States. Yes, that works as long as you don't have to rent a car when you first get back, you don't arrive on a weekend, or you don't have any appointments before you can get to the DMV. Lesson learned.

Return to the Village

We started off Sunday morning with a plan to pick up Pawn's grandmother from the hospital, take her back to her village, and return in time for church services. It sounded like a really good plan, but our plans don't always turn out the way we think they will.

When we arrived at the hospital, we found out they wanted to check her blood one more time to make sure she didn't need any more. So we picked up some breakfast from the 7-11 and went home to wait for church services.

After church services and lunch we went to pick up Pawn's grandmother. We decided to take her to a private hospital to get a second opinion before we left the city since the government hospital basically said the family could bring her in in a few days to have more fluid removed. The second doctor prescribed some medication and also gave her a shot to help with the fluid retention. He thought the medicine from the hospital was not getting the expected results. All of this for about $16 was not too bad and worth every penny to us.

Here are some pics from our return to the village.

Pawn and her grandmother--They kept trying to get her to smile at Rusty all day. She did one time in the hospital.

When people found out that we were there and wanted to take some pictures of Pawn and her family, the women went to put on their traditional dress. I really like the imagination and creativity the women put into their blouses. They added their own touches of femininity and originality.

This village also has a church. I thought you might like to see a building in a village that's somewhere in between a typical village on the mountain and a small town. This village had concrete roads, electricity, city water, and more concrete houses than some we've visited.I'm guessing this lady was walking back from or going to work somewhere.
The fields and mountains are some of my favorite landscapes anywhere. This terraced land was absolutely beautiful, and the poor air quality at least makes for pretty sunsets.
These little yellow signs can be seen high on trees and electric poles all across the country. We've seen them in just about every part we've been to it seems. They always say something about Jesus being the way, everyone being a sinner, believing in heaven, etc. I've heard different stories about they got there. I've never actually heard anyone claiming credit for them.
We also saw a tobacco field. It made us think of our good friends from Brazil who are here because of the tobacco companies. He works for an American tobacco company here and does a lot of traveling in SEA.

As we continued home, we stopped at a roadside market to pick up some supper and a little bit of dessert. It was a very tiring day but a good opportunity to serve Pawn and her family and to be able to meet more of her aunts and cousins.

The latest report is that her grandmother is feeling some better although she doesn't seem to remember much about last weekend. I'm sure she was feeling pretty poorly and that doesn't help.

Hospital Runs

Wednesday a week ago Pawn got a call that her grandmother was not doing well. Her grandmother lives in a village about 50 km from the city. Pawn went to visit her for a couple of days and then returned to our house early Saturday morning.

When Pawn got home, we talked it over with Pawn and decided that it was best that we go and get her grandmother to take her to the hospital. Trucks are not always available to drive people into the city so we volunteered for our first "ambulance" run. She had been retaining fluid, and although she was urinating every 15 minutes she was not passing enough. Her feet, stomach, and face were all swollen.

We started off at the government hospital. With the health care system here, you have to start off at this hospital if you want the government to pay for it. If they can't help you, they will refer you to the bigger hospital downtown.

Rusty and I had very different experiences at the hospital. Rusty was actually in the emergency room talking to the nurses and doctors and also watching what was happening to everyone else in there. They can separate the patients with curtains, but curtains don't really give that much privacy.

I waited in this outdoor waiting area. You can see the gurneys lined up and waiting. Actually I didn't seem them using these. They usually pushed a fresh one down the ramp to pick up the new patient. I was sitting in the back row of seats (the ones closest in this picture). I didn't realize how uncomfortable that would be. Every time a new patient was brought in, all eyes turned toward me to see the new arrival. Arrivals steadily came in all afternoon usually in the back of rescue pickup trucks. It was hard not to watch and find out what was going on, but it also felt very strange being able to see so much.

They drained 2 liters of fluid from Pawn's grandmother and gave her two bags of blood. They kept her overnight to make sure she accepted the blood well. We returned home to eat some supper and get a good night's rest because we knew we'd be taking her home to the village the next day.