GarryP

Neighbors daughter started have periods when she was 10. Her mum put it down to hormones in food and said most of her daughters' friends were the same. I can't recall how the conversation started though.

What caused that? I'm asking because I can't work out where my prejudice/discomfort comes from. I have worked with some great overweight women, but for some reason would always try to avoid spending any free time with them. Being in close proximity makes me uncomfortable.

Went for my appointment on Saturday and did the usual Uroflow and retention tests. Flow was about the same as pre-treatment levels but there was little retention. The doctor wasn't happy with the results and asked if I wanted to go back on meds for a while, but I declined. He said that he had done the treatment on more than 50 men so far who had passed the 2 month post procedure time frame. He said that all but one had greatly improved flow at 6 weeks. The one who had not was an 80 year old man whose condition greatly improved by the 8 week mark. I am still feeling burning from time to time when passing urine so there is still some inflammation. Hopefully, this will improve over the next couple of months. My next appointment is 6 weeks down the road so it is just a wait and see approach. I do think my condition is improving, but I need to stop peeing so frequently (suggestion of the doctor was to try to hold off peeing for longer). The doctor offered meds to relax the bladder muscles so it should be able to hold more without the urge to pee, but again I declined. I'll just let nature take its course for now as there are many cases that take up to 4 months or more before they see the full benefits. Fingers crossed.

The cool season in Bangkok seemed to be much longer and the temperature quite a bit lower about 35 years ago. I wonder if there has been a change in the average temperature over the years.

Been here 39 years and haven't spent a winter in Europe or any country in colder climes since I was 19 so it is certainly chilly for me. But what really gets me is the lower humidity at this time of the year that leads to my skin drying out and looking bloody awful. Were I to be back in the west, I'd probably look like a leper every winter.

For most of my supplements, I usually buy via iHerb. Even with shipping they are often much cheaper than Lazada or Shoppee.

By the time we have our next office Christmas party I won't recognize anyone. The benefits of covid.

I agree with you on this. Perhaps some would prefer we say "that unwhite fellow over there" or "that fellow who is not white" rather than mentioning his actual skin color. All rather silly.

As I mentioned before, I had the Rezum treatment at Bamrungrad on 21 October. I was under full anesthetic so the treatment was painless (I have read that many doctors prefer going with full, rather than local, anesthetic because the treatment can be a bit painful and some patients find it difficult to tolerate). I had 4 steam injections of the prostate. For the first 7 days I was catheterized with a Foley catheter. As I am working from home it was not a big deal. When I had the catheter removed I continued taking tadalfil despite it not really helping (the Doc asked if I wanted to change . For the first couple of weeks there was a burning sensation and urinary urgency but the flow was getting worse. With this treatment, many clinic/hospital websites seem to indicate an improvement after two weeks, but the more reputable websites indicate that there will often be a worsening of the condition after two weeks and you do not return to pre-treatment levels until about 4 weeks after the treatment. In my case, I got much worse and ended up going in to see another doctor for medication as I was worried I would not be able to urinate at all (my doctor was not on duty that day). I was prescribed Saw Palmetto and Silodosin to help relieve my symptoms, but within 36 hours started to suffer from severe diarrhea so stopped taking the Silodosin. I battled away that week and went for my appointment a few days later. The doctor was worried that the Uroflow test was much weaker than pre-treatment so put me on 2 weeks of Xatral 10 mg (Alfuzosin). Luckily the Alfuzosin worked and I did not suffer any side effects. I have been off that drug for about 8 days now so am not taking any medication for BPH at the moment. Tomorrow I will have another appointment with my doctor at 8 weeks and 2 days post treatment and see what he says. However, I understand that it can take up to 6 months to fully benefit from the treatment. Would I got through the treatment again? I think so, but I would not be so optimistic about when I would see the results. Current situation: The biggest improvement has been in urinating at night. I still get up 2 or 3 times a night to pee, but instead of waiting forever to get started and then dribbling for 2 or 3 minutes, by which time I am fully awake, I just point Percy to the porcelain and he is off and I can go back to bed and drop off immediately. Flow with a full bladder during the day time has improved somewhat, but not to the levels of when I was on Xatral. Still it is slightly better than pre-treatment. What has not improved and in fact has got much worse, has urgency and frequency. Sometimes I feel the need to pee even though I know there is not much in my bladder, and at such times the flow is not really good. But I would rather let it go in the toilet than down my leg so I follow the urges. I can confirm that I have not suffered from retrograde ejaculation, although there was blood in it the first couple of times, which is normal. I am still confident that the treatment will work for me, but I just have to give it more time. I would also warn others that they should skip the hype and read some actual medical studies of the treatment. It is not some magic treatment that will put you in order straight away. It may take quite some time to improve. Everyone is different. Some have much larger prostates than me and would require more steam injections and the inflammatory response of each person can vary considerably. Apologies for the length of the posts, but I think it best to share all information, rather than pick and choose.

Good to see Bamrungrad has a competitor. It may bring the price down.

The Rezum treatment was approved by the Thai FDA earlier this year. Around September I believe and Bamrungrad is the only hospital providing this treatment in Thailand at the moment. As pointed out by another poster, the price for the treatment is Baht 250,000, but you need to be prepared for additional costs for testing and consultation to determine whether the treatment is appropriate for you (I was lucky that I managed to get a promotional package and my office insurance also covered some of the costs - but that package is no longer available). The cost also does not include follow up visits and medication you may need. While the hospital is trying to get most of their urologists provide this treatment, the doctor who first qualified and who has provided the Rezum procedure the most is Dr. Teerapol Amornvesukit. At the time I had the treatment, 21 October 2021, I was about his 23rd case. First a bit of history. My BPH started to get noticeable when I was around 50 but was tolerable. After a few years I needed to do something but did not want to go on meds, so with a bit of research and exchanges with Xylophone, I started taking Beta Sitosterol, which after a few months started to improve my condition. I continued to take it for a year or more but after a while my condition seemed to return to where it was before. I then started taking pygeum which was suggested by Xylophone as another alternative which had research backing it up. I took this for a year or more, but eventually that seemed to stop working. During this time I had also been researching alternative treatments as I did not want to be on BPH medications for the rest of my life ( I tend to suffer side effects to many medicines and my father suffered terribly from BPH meds - like father like son), my wife is much younger than me so retaining sexual function was also a factor, and avoidance of retrograde ejaculation. I had decided on the Rezum treatment (it is approved and provided by the UK NHS) as I thought it met most of my needs so then started looking for where I should get the treatment. As I was going to be a self-payer, cost was also important. The cheapest I could find in Singapore was about Baht 300,00, but there were a few places in Australia providing the treatment for around Baht 130,000. However, I opted for the UK as I could also use the opportunity to visit my father. The treatment would have been about Baht 250,000 (I would not qualify for NHS unless I stayed there for 6 months). But then the $hit hit the fan when covid struck and international travel was off the cards. So it was off to the doctor to get a prescription for Cialis, which only helped for the first 6 months or so I took it. Then out of the blue I got a call from a friend at Bamrungrad, who knew I was interested in this treatment, who asked if I would like to be booked into the promotion package. I jumped at the chance even though I knew I would be one of the doctor's first cases. And after going through certain tests, the doctor confirmed that the treatment was appropriate for me. My prostate was only 37 gms and the treatment is normally targeted at men with prostate size of between 30 and 80 gms (although increasingly it is being used for larger prostates which requires more steam injections and takes much longer to heal). I will provide more details on my experience another time as I must sign off here today.

You are doing great for your daughter. I envy people like you who are able to invest so much of their time on their children's development. If I have another child (my wife wants a child but we are not sure it is going to happen because of age), I will try to spend much more time with him/her, which may be possible as I will be retired by then. I didn't give my 32 year old son (different mother) as much personal help as I should have. I did instill him with a love for reading and a hardworking attitude though, so not a total failure.

Nephew was offered 1,500 to return. That is the highest amount I've heard of. Most seem to have been about 500.

My father in-law stopped transplanting rice seedlings a number of years ago and went with broadcasting dry seed by hand. While the results are not quite as good, there is a great cost saving, as he does not need to hire anyone to help with transplanting.

Germany.

An avocado update. The wife just threw another 3 stones in the garden this morning. So I'll see what happens. The one that is already growing will get potted so we can take it with us when we move to Kalasin.

It's listed on the Thailand language version. https://www.nissan.co.th/vehicles/new-vehicles/new-terra.html But if you click to change the language to English it disappears.

Thanks.

I have both those funds. InnoTech has proven very good so far I am up 91% on that. For B-Care, I had to sell a load when I bought a house and that coincided with a big downswing, but still up 36% overall. Now investigating into ETFs. I am not looking into investing in funds from overseas as all my money is in Thailand anyway. I am willing to accept the higher charges of the Thai fund managers.

Were you friends with Harold Shipman?

I have seen Owl's trials and tribulations with avocados so thought I'd share how my wife handled it. She ate the avocado, removed the outer shell (thick skin) from the stone, couldn't be arsed sticking toothpicks in the stone as professionals (Owl) recommend, so threw the stone in the garden. Lo and behold it took off.

I used to only use a fan in the bedroom, but since I moved into another house and got married, we always have aircon on at night. Not in any other rooms though. Even working from home in April I don't have aircon, only a fan. When I retire to Kalasin in 2023 it will be the same.

At which temple will the funeral service be held?

Definitely can. My late wife's father drowned trying to swim across the Mun river to Warinchamrap (the bridge was out). His body was found by the steps of the house so he nearly made it, but the consensus is that he was well oiled when he tried it. About 45 years ago.

Yes, it says not to use chemicals to catch worms. So theoretically, if you just go in and dig around for worms, you won't get fined. Like you say, probably the chemicals are harming the palms.