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xylophone

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Everything posted by xylophone

  1. You make a very good point, and it's one that I have been pondering for decades, and without going off track too much, when I had bouts of prostatitis many years back, it would often result in an aching left testicle, so much so that it became unbearable, and my doctor in NZ referred me to "the best urologist in Auckland", so I thought I would be getting some expert advice. But to cut a long story short, he said he didn't know what was causing it however he could cut off my left testicle. I likened it to me inadvertently walking into a brain surgeons office and because brain surgery was the only thing he did, he would recommend removing part of my brain to cure the pain in the testicle!!! You see what I'm getting at. Sorry to hear that your TURP isn't proving too successful for you, as was the case after my TURP (but a few years further down the track) and a urologist here said that I had scar tissue around the bladder neck which was hindering the urine flow, so after some consideration I decided to let him do a bladder neck incision, which he assured me would be straightforward and not cause any side effects. However it did and I was left with retrograde ejaculation, despite his promises at the beginning that this wouldn't be the case. In short, I can't offer you anything helpful because all of my experiences on this and similar procedures have resulted in me not being able to pass water in any way, shape or form (actually I do manager a dribble every so often), having to use a catheter daily, and having retrograde ejaculation, so not sure that I can be of much help. Having said that, there are several tablets that can possibly help, especially if it is still the prostate "playing up" so it may be worth trying one or two of those, so have you thought of discussing this with your urologist, because it might work. And the more I read on this and other threads, and take into consideration my own experience, the more I remember the quote by a top urologist who likened this part of medicine as being like, "a medical wasteland" even though we seem to be moving along a little more these days, what with the new devices and procedures becoming available, although not that available in Thailand unfortunately. On another note, and as regarding "an infection" one of the things which has helped me, I believe, is that I am taking a tablet recommended by a couple of professors I was in touch with, and this tablet is called "Hiprex" and is a "urinary antiseptic" for want of better terminology, and helps prevent any bacteria from taking hold in the bladder, and since I've been taking these, I haven't had a UTI, which unfortunately were quite frequent before I came across these. You can find them online, but I haven't found them here in Thailand, however I do order them direct from a pharmacy in Australia. Sorry I can't be of much more help with your situation @Pumpuynarak, however I only wish that I could. Best of luck.
  2. Hi again GarryP, long time no hear from and I hope you are well. Just looked at your post and it coincided with a friend of mine who is in Canada at the moment having prostate problems, and he tells me that the iTind procedure/device is now carried out at the BNH hospital by that very same Dr you mentioned, and he knows this because he's been researching his options when he comes back to Thailand! Looks like there are three options at the moment, aside from the TURP, with Rezum, Urolift and iTind looking to treat one's prostate. And there is more information about these on the net, although none of them will help me now because my bladder appears to have stopped working and the good doctor at Bumrungrad couldn't do anything for me, and had no idea why the bladder wasn't working any more – – so a nightly insertion of the catheter is needed in order to get some sleep. And believe it or not, I've gotten used to it now. Good luck my friend.
  3. I must have missed that part!!!! But if you really want to see a female bush, then watch the movie, "1984" with John Hurt, because towards the end of it when his GF/lover strips off, she reveals something akin to a Guardsman's Busby!!! Never seen anything like it.
  4. Another one of his: – "what a lovely day for sticking a cucumber through the Vicar's letterbox and shouting, "the Martians have landed".
  5. Mentioning Jeremy Thorpe reminds me that there was a very good series on BBC iPlayer about him and the scandal, and it was called, "A Very English Scandal" (Hugh Grant played a very convincing Thorpe) and it can still be found in their archives for those interested. Sorry about going off topic.
  6. I saw the movie "Stargate" mentioned somewhere so I thought I'd download it and watch it again as I could remember nothing about it whatsoever, and it was a bit of ancient Egyptian/sci-fi nonsense and much to my surprise it would have to be the first LGBTQ (or whatever it is) movie from more than a couple of decades ago. I say this because in the last quarter of the movie where the "gods" are revealed, then the cast of the "gods" and their helpers and servants looked to be of an indeterminate gender, and I wonder if this was intended? I can't recommend it as it was less than average IMO. What I can recommend is a series on BBC iPlayer called, "Walking with Beasts"and each series is about 30 minutes long and absolutely brilliant, and the special effects are so very well done that you would think the series was shot in real life millions of years ago!!
  7. I would agree with that comment, and as I've already posted, the slow start seems to have put a couple of posters off, but sticking with it is well worth the effort.
  8. I don't know whether it's old age or the hot weather, but I don't feel inclined to go out much at all these days, either during the daytime or the evening for that matter! However the couple of times that I have ventured out over the last few days in order to get some shopping, I have noticed a severe decline in the tourists here, and once where Big C was pretty crowded with tourists, and Russian accents could be heard everywhere, now that's not the case, but never fear, the Chinese have arrived. Even before I had spotted the Chinese contingent, I bumped into a farang with his wife and young child all of them wearing masks, so my question was is there a new outbreak of which I'm not aware – – his response was that the bloody Chinese have come back and will be bringing with them all sorts of nasties, so he was taking no chances!!!! Speaking to him and other friends with regards to this, it would appear that the Chinese are about as popular as a rattlesnake in a lucky dip! I often wonder what they live on back in China, because just about every shopping trolley I see here, being pushed around by Chinese, is full of dried noodles, dried fruit, dried this and dried that, along with packets of dried stuff that doesn't look at all appetising – – yet they supposedly live to a ripe old age?? Jungceylon is coming along and I must take a good look round as soon as the demolition and rebuilding work has completely finished, and I sincerely hope that there is a "Subway" in there somewhere, because it serves up far better fare than Starbucks which now seems to major in sweet, sticky, waistline expanding rubbish. I notice that the "Long-time Bar" (adjoining the Rock Bar) is being demolished and the French guy who leased it was standing outside of it looking at what was going on, so he is either overseeing a major rebuild, or complete demolition? Whatever the case, I think it suffered from the fact that the "Rock Bar" was opened right next door to it. On top of that, I noticed that several bars just don't open any more, so perhaps the owners have gone back home, wherever that is, to see out the low season. Having said that, the owners of the two small bars attached to the road side of the Makro building are hanging on, despite just one or two beer drinkers per night, with one of the lady owners sitting behind her bar looking out forlornly, and I know she only recently leased this from a guy who wanted to sell it because it wasn't doing very well, and guess what........things haven't changed. As was recently mentioned by @Patong2, the roof in part of the recreation area of the Chang Hotel which had previously partly collapsed, has now completely done so and it looks a mess, and some. The owner must be in severe financial difficulties to let a huge building like this disintegrate, not to mention the large hotel next to it being empty and looking run down. I do think that this low season is going to be one hell of a difficult season for many of the businesses here, just when they thought that they were over the Covid lock downs, so perhaps more hard times ahead for many.
  9. I've been to Da Nang and found it very pleasant, with the people being extremely friendly and many of them can speak good English. Also travelled to the little, supposedly picturesque fishing village a few kilometres south because it's supposed to be a tourist attraction, however it was so full of tourists that I didn't find it attractive at all! The beach at Dan Nang was not that appealing, however I'm not a beach lover anyway. There was some nightlife which was quite interesting and I liked the Vietnamese cuisine, and also found a superb and not expensive Italian restaurant, with some excellent food and when I asked the owner if the chef was Italian, he said that he was Vietnamese and trained by an Italian chef – – whatever the case, the food was great. I could well visit again, as I have got a friend coming over from Australia, and would like to see a little more of it.
  10. Biden has been nowhere near this. Cut the conspiracy theories unless you can link to evidence other than mere accusations.. I'm afraid they can't help themselves @ozimoron, I think it's something genetic that they can't overcome and one only has to look at MTG to see that.
  11. It matters not how many times you and other posters like you have reiterated this, as well as a few other reasons why this is a serious offence, and for trump to plead "not guilty" to the charges laid out against him, is plainly stupid. So here we have a man, an ex-president, who took documents (many classified and containing potentially damning information to the US and other countries) not belonging to him and stored them in various rooms in Mar-a-Lago, when law clearly dictates that they should have been handed over to the NARA. The PRA requires that all records created by Presidents (and Vice-Presidents) be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) at the end of their administrations – – no arguments, no pleading, no stalling YET trump supporters keep finding arguments against what is clearly a plain and straightforward law...... The PRA makes clear that, upon the conclusion of the President’s term in office, NARA assumes responsibility for the custody, control, preservation of, and access to the records of a President. 44 U.S.C. 2203(g)(1). The PRA makes the legal status of Presidential records clear and unambiguous, providing that the United States reserves and retains “complete ownership, possession, and control of Presidential records.” 44 U.S.C. 2202. There is no history, practice, or provision in law for presidents to take official records with them when they leave office to sort through. What's going on at the moment clearly deserves a place in a "Dumb and Dumber" movie.
  12. Fear not, avid movie watcher, because that which I quoted as the ending has nothing whatsoever to do with the main movie, and it looks just like what it is, an add-on!
  13. Even the people standing either side of her/him look embarrassed!
  14. Although I'm not a trump supporter, far from it in fact, I would have to say that the allegation by this woman seems a bit flimsy to me – – no witnesses, unsure of the date on which it happened and well over 25 years since it supposedly took place. Will be interesting to see how this pans out, but I think the slippery orange one may well duck this.
  15. Thanks for the recommendation on this movie, and I watched it last night, I thought it was very good although IMO it started off a little confusing, but I soon got into it and found it quite intriguing, especially as it is based on a true story. Meryl Streep was superb in it and probably the standout actor throughout, although Hanks went through it well. As you've probably gathered, it was about the Washington Post and a decision to publish certain documents. The movie ends with some flashlights being seen in the Watergate building........
  16. It's been a long time since I saw the movie, "The Sixth Sense" and although I remembered parts of it, not much really, so I downloaded it last night and watched it. What struck me this time round was that it was a very, very clever movie and the acting by Haley Joel Osment was superb, and the scene at the end when he was in the car with his mother, Toni Colette, was a bit of a tearjerker. IMO, well worth a second viewing.
  17. I have to say that my experience here with hospitals is mixed/varied, ranging from the treatment received in the public and private hospitals (as is to be expected). Examples here would be my ex-girlfriend's mother who had mouth cancer and who was being treated at a hospital in Phitsanulok, and when I say treated, it was a visit to the hospital, painkillers dispensed and then sent home, which happened every month until she died. No other treatment was offered or available. A similar thing happened to my ex-girlfriend's brother here in Patong, who developed a very large lump in his throat, which started off about the size of a ping-pong ball and grew to about the size of a tennis ball, making it very difficult for him to eat/swallow, hence he lost a lot of weight and didn't look well at all. The treatment given to him by the local government hospital was iodine tablets, which didn't seem to do much good at all and he was getting more sick by the week, so I decided to take some action and took him along to the Bangkok Phuket hospital and saw a specialist there who said she would need to take a biopsy and would advise further steps from thereon in. It was a tumour and it was benign, and she said she could operate at a cost of 120,000 baht, which I agreed to and footed the bill, and he has been healthy ever since and that was about 12 years ago. My main worry was that the government hospital would keep supplying him with tablets until the day he died, which didn't seem too far away before I took some action. Trying to balance this out somewhat, I have had good treatment at Bangkok Phuket hospital, even though the urologists there are sadly lacking in knowledge and experience IMO as compared to others I have seen. Staying on the "balancing" aspect, my father in the UK was diagnosed with throat cancer and when it became obvious that it was incurable and that he was going to die, he (actually his wife) was given some very strong painkillers to administer, before being sent home, in effect to die, and looking back, there was probably nothing else that could be done, and it doesn't seem that different from what often happens here in such cases. I agree with the posts here which state that in the case of terminally ill patients, where not a lot can be done other than administering painkillers, patients can be sent home to die with some dignity in the care of their relatives/families, and I'm not sure that the treatment for terminally ill patients differs greatly between, for example, the UK and here.
  18. Another trait we have in common!! You stay well too ????.
  19. I like that, because I am the same as you by the looks of things, and I always remember something that my first and only wife (in the UK) shouted at me as we were getting divorced....... "you will end up being a lonely old man", to which I replied, "alone, maybe, but never lonely", and that's one thing she couldn't understand. I more or less had to bring myself up and fend for myself from a very early age, for reasons I won't go into here, so I became very independent and that has stayed with me, and although I am alone I'm not unhappy, and I still have farang friends whom I speak to on a fairly regular basis, and occasionally like to meet up for something to eat and a wander around the nightspots here. Luckily, one friend and his Thai partner own a very lovely restaurant, so that is a reasonably frequent meeting place. In addition I have made friends with various Thai folk here and especially Thai women who own massage shops, as I do like a bona fide massage (lots of old football injuries to contend with) and I do like to give them some business by frequenting them for a manicure or pedicure or even a foot massage. In addition I will often ask what they are intending to eat that evening, and then give them a few hundred baht to be able to buy what they want. Although they like Thai food, they are not averse to large pizza from across the road, which I will happily pay for. I try to make friends with just about everybody with whom I interact, and that includes some of the lovely ladies who work in the supermarket here, who always call out to me when I am wandering around doing my stuff, and give me a big smile and a wave. The only downside I have found is the fact that one particular farang will ask for money by way of a loan to see him through, and I did do this until I put a stop to it, saying that I was not going to be his fallback banker. I am lucky in as much as when I split up with my Thai girlfriend and her 7 yr old daughter, we stayed friends, and indeed I financed them for quite a few years, and I still do for the daughter, whom I have unofficially adopted, and am putting through university, where hopefully she will become a teacher. We are in almost daily contact and I think the world of this beautiful and bright young lady, and she considers me her "real" father. I think there are people in this world like me and Laccessit, and probably many others, who are quite comfortable being on their own, but for others who don't feel the same, then getting out and making new friends and acquaintances has to be a priority.
  20. I will give you my genuine opinion, formed after many, many years of flying between continents.............I never thought about the weight problem until I boarded a United Airways flight between Los Angeles and Auckland (at least I think it was Los Angeles!). I was sat next to an extraordinarily obese man, and he could hardly fit into his seat; he was that large that he had to put his left arm in the seat next to him, which was mine, in addition to having the fat from his enormous waist and chest overlapping into my seat space, so for the whole journey I was being almost smothered by this obese thing, and it was most uncomfortable, but unfortunately the flight was full and I had to put up with it. Now being older and wiser, were it to happen again I would request a seat change and make damn sure that I got one!
  21. On a separate note, I have never downloaded an H265 setting movie because I thought it wouldn't work on my TV?? However I downloaded the movie I have just posted about through my normal qBitTorrent and then transferred it to a USB which I played through VLC to my TV, and it worked just fine, so I won't be afraid to seek those out in future if I have to. Nice to know!
  22. I have just watched this series and wasn't overly impressed with it, although I could say that it was "okay"! I don't know if it was me or the loose storyline, but I never got to find out what the businessmen in the series actually did, especially one who had ties with a football club? Also, I never did understand what the old guy who was dying in his bed (in hospital) actually did and why there was a great deal of money supposedly involved in a potential payoff. I stuck with it until the end and retired to my bed, not really understanding what I had watched!
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