All day at Bumrungrad

Bumrungrad International Hospital is a great place to people watch.  It turns out that people from all over the world come here for a head to toe physical. During the four hour program as they call it here, I met people from United Arab Emerites, Holland, China, Korea, Japan, US, Myanmar, and Australia. Of course there were lots of Thais around as well. There are several levels of physicals available, our insurance covers the "regular" physical. It includes a complete blood panel, chest x-ray, mammogram for the gals, urinalysis, stool occult blood test, prostate check for the guys, At the end of the exam, you have a consult with a GP who goes over the results and you go home with a packet of the results. The place was very well organized and when you left one location someone made sure you knew where you went next.  For any of you who've had a blood panel, you'll remember that there is a fasting requirement. The blood work came first and once that was complete, the clinic provided a light breakfast that included cereals, bread, juices, yogurt, and coffee.

 If any issues or concerns came up during the physical the clinic set up a follow on appointment right away. In my case, I had a neurology appointment set up to check in on my trigeminal neuraligia. Now, having fasted since 8pm the night before, and having to start a new fast at 1pm for the bunion surgery I really wanted to eat lunch. So I set up my neurology appointment for 1:30 after I ate a big lunch. I even suspended my low carb diet for the day. I ate a hamburger, fries, soda, and pizza bread with a yummy marinara. That morning the hospital had called and told me I needed to go to admissions at 1pm to have my intake blood test, and EKG. But during the physical they could see the order for those tests so I had them earlier in the day. I figured, I'd check in with admissions and then come back at 7pm for the surgery. Nothing doing. It turns out that my surgery was scheduled for 9pm and that once I showed up at admissions I was theirs. No going anywhere. So at 1pm I was in the hospital. A nice porter took us to room 935, a double occupancy room (that's what my insurance pays for). I could have paid out of pocket for a single occupancy room but they didn't have one available. Looking back at the whole experience I think I would pay the difference if the room had been available. More about that later.