Eye Surgery in Bangkok!

Now, we had the challenge of trying to rearrange our Burma trip. With the eye infection, the doctor strongly recommended that we postpone our trip. Medical facilities in Burma are fairly limited and the idea of draining an eye duct at a Burmese hospital didn’t sound like a smart idea. We were able to connect with the tour company and the airlines and everything looked OK for a Monday departure. It actually gave us a few days to really relax. It felt so good to just kick back, sleep in, read books, and have a “Sunday” kind of day for a change.
Dinner at “Lemongrass”- set in an old Thai house- was delicious….pomelo salad and shrimp marinated in coconut milk.
March 14, 1999 Surgery!
Our last day (hopefully) in Bangkok. Rather than spend $30 for a hotel breakfast, we walked across the road to McDonalds hoping for an Egg McMuffin. No such luck- the morning offering consists of a hamburger with your choice of drink.
We spent the morning at the hospital. The waiting room was crammed with people- and we arrived with 6 people already ahead of us. We actually got to see the entire Holyfield/Lewis boxing match while we waited. The doctor finally saw John about 12:30 (2 hours later)…and said that it was time to “cut”.

The technician led John into a room, laid him down on a bed and we waited for the doctor. When she came in, she applied some kind of local anesthesia around his eye, put a green mask over his face to leave only his eye exposed and told him not to move. One of the technicians stroked John’s hands while the doctor alternated between a hypodermic needle and tweezer, occasionally blotting up blood with cotton balls. The entire procedure took about 15 minutes and John got a patch on his eye and instructions for the next few weeks.
The only thing to do at this point was to head for McDonalds for a Big Mac. With any luck, we would be on our way tomorrow morning.