Easter Cantata @ Evangelical Church of Bangkok

You lived, you died
You said in three days you would rise
You did, you're alive.

You rule, you reign
You said you're coming back again
I know that you will
and all the earth will sing your praises.

I'm complete no more

For this blogger the second week of April 2009 in Bangkok will be remembered by four things: 1. The red-shirts demonstration, 2. Songkhran, 3. Easter cantata and 4. APPENDECTOMY!

It started with a vague pain around my belly button at 9 pm and increased in intensity while finally localizing 12 hours later at the right lower quadrant . All I had to do was walk a few hundred meters from the house to the OPD of Yanhee Int'l Hospital and ask for the doctor to take a look at me. After doing an exam on me and taking one look at the results of the lab, I was made to sit on a wheelchair and was whisked from x-ray to EKG then up to my room at the 8th floor. In an hour I was on a stretcher being rolled into the OR and it was point of no return for me.

red shirt demonstrators

song khran revelers

easter cantata in church

contemplating on the swift turn of events while wating
for the orderly to take me to the operating room.

the longest ride on earth. it was like i was traveling
through a tunnel will the lights zooming above and it
took like... forever.

Just a  moment before i am wheeled into the OR a thai nurse came to 

my side and in her limited english announced " I want to clean my hair!" 

She proceeded to expose my very private parts and unceremoniously

 got into the job of mowing the lawn.

Point of no return... no cameras inside the OR. I chose spinal 

anesthesia over general anesthesia just so I could experience how 

it feels to be without the lower part of my body.

Jo Ann was up this point only Yanhee has 40 operating

rooms and it is here were the creation of God is reversed...

male to female and female to male.

Recovery room for an hour I was touching my thighs and it felt 

like rubber to my fingers. I tried to feel for my manhood 

just to make sure they didnt do a sex change on me. 

There were three other patients inside the room and our 

monitors were droning out a marathon of beeps.

Ray's turn to wheel me back to my room...

...where he and Reggie dump me on to my bed.

Morphined! 6 hours of painless bliss while my uncatheterd

bladder was filling up. When I woke up I had to ask for a

nurse to get a catheter in and we got 800 ml of pee.

First visitors while I slept.. my precious granddaughter

and her mom.

she liked my room... and started to mess things around.

My wife, watcher, financier, etc..

Biggot the clown... left his post at the main entrance

just to make me laugh

JP, Nok and Francis Tion

Dr. Sumate Hutpattanasilp - Internist

Dr. Wajarapong Yothathai - Surgeon

Nok and P' Ning

Rocky, Dan, Lyn, Joan, Don, Penggot, Francis

Ikoi

Mawi

The wound

Arroz caldo by Mama Joan Naypa It was my first soft

diet and I was starved after being on NPO for 2 days.

Thanks Mama Joan

Downtown Bangkok from my hospital window,

where all the demonstrations were taking place

Discharged! The nursing staff on my floor. The nurse

who pulled out my IV, after some time in thought blurted

out "You are coming home now?" That was music to my

ears albeit a little off key.

Hua Hin

200 kilometers south of Bangkok is a seaside paradise that most Thais consider "holy land." The kings in the past to the present reside here. Pensioners from western countries also have made Hua Hin their retirement home and it is common to see "farang" walking around just like they were natives to the place.

One sun-shiny day Edmund, Kai, Kailee and myself decided to check Hua Hin out. This was a spur-of-the-moment trip and Kai was off duty... so we just took off and enjoyed the day.