by nightblooming cerius » Tue Aug 16, 2011 6:58 pm
update on panic attack (I think that is all it was)
I called Sen Sok University Int'l Hospital and the person who answered the phone had such a weak voice I couldn't hear her. All I wanted was the address. To expect her to ask for symptoms and give any telephone first aid would have been asking too much. I was impatient due to circumstances and gave up trying to understand her and gave the phone to the internet cafe operator who also took five minutes to get it down. All the while these delays seemed like a million years. Then a tuk-tuk took what seemed like a billion years to get there, and of course he is out of gas and has to stop for some. In retrospect, I should have called a cab. Which one tends to have faster service?
Sen Sok is way the hell out in Phnom Penh Thmei (Tuol Kork). I got my nose out of joint seeing Canadia Tower, Vatanak in process and the two Mussolini-looking presidential council palaces or whatever the hell they are - yet there is no good standard hospital downtown, unlike in Vietnam and Malaysia. Ah yes, but I am staying in a country more on the level of Nepal I remind myself. Bangladesh has superb foundation clinics and private hospitals with 24 hour care. We are truly in a hellhole of medical care, more like some sub-Saharan African failed state than South-East Asia. But I still can't believe all those guys in SUVs at KTV clubs would rather spend their money on $100 Vietnamese hookers than split it between medical care taxes and $50 Vietnamese hookers. Where are they going to go when their gallstones explode at 3 am? Will hostesses heal them? I doubt it.
At Sen Sok I was offered a blood pressure test by the nurse-receptionist-cashier (at any Thai private hospital this would be three separate persons). But only when I asked for a basic test as I wasn't willing to 'come back tomorrow' when the cardiologist would be in. Deja vu. I could have a consultation with a specialist for $30, as usual mispronounced as 'thirteen'. I double-checked. "Wonderful, what is her specialty?" 'Gyneocology.' Uncertain as the value of a woman's complaint doctor interpreting cardio test I just had blood pressure checked. She was professional enough to do it twice as she could see I was agitated. I considered the EKG but no information was provided as to whether there would be a technician competent to interpret the results or whether it would be the gyn MD guessing. There is an ATM machine in the lobby but I did not have my card I I might have sprung for it anyway. They would not accept partial payment, coming in the next morning (today) with the remaining smaller balance. I asked for a card with my hospital ID number on it to save another paper work procedure should there be a next time, but she could not provide me with one.
Sensibly, the friend who accompanied me had the tuk-tuk driver wait so there was not more wasted time.
Lessons:
1) Don't come to PNH if you have any serious illnesses
2) bring cash plus ATM card on all hospital visits
I never even got to the emergency rooms, the exterior access to of which was blocked by parked motorcycles.
update on panic attack (I think that is all it was)
I called Sen Sok University Int'l Hospital and the person who answered the phone had such a weak voice I couldn't hear her. All I wanted was the address. To expect her to ask for symptoms and give any telephone first aid would have been asking too much. I was impatient due to circumstances and gave up trying to understand her and gave the phone to the internet cafe operator who also took five minutes to get it down. All the while these delays seemed like a million years. Then a tuk-tuk took what seemed like a billion years to get there, and of course he is out of gas and has to stop for some. In retrospect, I should have called a cab. Which one tends to have faster service?
Sen Sok is way the hell out in Phnom Penh Thmei (Tuol Kork). I got my nose out of joint seeing Canadia Tower, Vatanak in process and the two Mussolini-looking presidential council palaces or whatever the hell they are - yet there is no good standard hospital downtown, unlike in Vietnam and Malaysia. Ah yes, but I am staying in a country more on the level of Nepal I remind myself. Bangladesh has superb foundation clinics and private hospitals with 24 hour care. We are truly in a hellhole of medical care, more like some sub-Saharan African failed state than South-East Asia. But I still can't believe all those guys in SUVs at KTV clubs would rather spend their money on $100 Vietnamese hookers than split it between medical care taxes and $50 Vietnamese hookers. Where are they going to go when their gallstones explode at 3 am? Will hostesses heal them? I doubt it.
At Sen Sok I was offered a blood pressure test by the nurse-receptionist-cashier (at any Thai private hospital this would be three separate persons). But only when I asked for a basic test as I wasn't willing to 'come back tomorrow' when the cardiologist would be in. Deja vu. I could have a consultation with a specialist for $30, as usual mispronounced as 'thirteen'. I double-checked. "Wonderful, what is her specialty?" 'Gyneocology.' Uncertain as the value of a woman's complaint doctor interpreting cardio test I just had blood pressure checked. She was professional enough to do it twice as she could see I was agitated. I considered the EKG but no information was provided as to whether there would be a technician competent to interpret the results or whether it would be the gyn MD guessing. There is an ATM machine in the lobby but I did not have my card I I might have sprung for it anyway. They would not accept partial payment, coming in the next morning (today) with the remaining smaller balance. I asked for a card with my hospital ID number on it to save another paper work procedure should there be a next time, but she could not provide me with one.
Sensibly, the friend who accompanied me had the tuk-tuk driver wait so there was not more wasted time.
Lessons:
1) Don't come to PNH if you have any serious illnesses
2) bring cash plus ATM card on all hospital visits
I never even got to the emergency rooms, the exterior access to of which was blocked by parked motorcycles.