Good shoulder

Joe had "Shoulder Surgery---Part Deux" Monday night at nine. It went well and he was released from Bangkok Nursing Home Hospital this afternoon.

Like last year's, the surgery was more complex than the surgeons had anticipated. Dr. Somsak told Joe last year that the shoulder is a complex mechanism and about 20 percent of such surgeries have complications. Joe's was one of them, it turned out. Scar tissue formed, causing pain and limiting range of motion in his left arm. Monday's surgery was meant to break up scar tissue, and it did. But Joe's scarring was so voluminous that one big scar could only be stretched, not broken up. Also, Dr. Somsak found a loose screw that could have been the source of Joe's considerable pain when lowering his arm. The doctor fixed that.

Although Joe apparently will not regain 100 percent of range of motion in that arm, the improvement is vast and he is satisfied. Also, he is no longer in great pain. There is pain from the incision, which will heal, but this pain is not nearly so severe as the pain from the scarring and the---no cheap humor, please---loose screw.

BNH Hospital worked like a dream, as before. The medical staff are honest, straightforward, competent and good-natured. The rooms are pleasant and the food superb. Visitors can order room service. I ordered a pork larb (minced with herbs and chillies) for lunch yesterday from the a la carte menu, and it was as tasty as any larb from Bangkok's best restaurants---i.e., those on the street corners.

Also, the thugs at Massachusetts Blue Cross-Blue Shield agreed this time to reimburse the hospital directly. Last year Joe paid out of pocket, and it took BC-BS ten months to reimburse him. Those people should all be in prison, along with the elected officials who enable them and take a cut of their grotesque profits. Single payer now! Single payer now!

Friday we are off for two weeks at the seashore while Joe exercises his arm and otherwise recuperates. We're going down to Jomtien Beach, near-but-not-too-near satanic Pattaya, the Gulf of Thailand's sun-splashed playground of the fallen. After a few days in Pattaya last year, I was reminded of the old verse about Lynn, Massachusetts. "Lynn, Lynn, city of sin/You never come out the way you went in."
Somtien Beach, just south of Pattaya, is quieter and marginally more Presbyterian, though still just a few hours from Bangkok.

Then it's back to Bangkok---some good Bangkok pix will be up on the blog soon---and then March 9 we head for sad, beautiful Burma. Two Burmese acquaintances visited Joe in the hospital yesterday and we had some stimulating talk about that place, which has its own set of loose-screw problems.


An added complication was the Hill-Sachs lesion which had developed as a result of a fracture a some point. This further destabilized the shoulder making dislocation more likely.