azt219

On 2/3/2024 at 7:03 AM, daveAustin said:

You dared to question/push the doctor so they essentially relieved themselves of you. It happens. I hope you didn’t call them honey-bunny, too. 🙂

This is pretty much it, I'm pretty sure it's the same in US/UK as well these days having a lot of friends who are doctors there and they all say something similar, but doctors are tired of fighting with patients, and now a lot just placate you and send you out the door.  

If you're not interested in their advice, they're not going to spend time trying to convince you why they want to do it their way or explain, they'll just do what you want, let you walk out the door feeling smug, and try and end the consultation as soon as possible.  

They have a list of 30 other people to see usually and they're probably already behind, just not worth the effort.  

can you see any rashes?

Difficult to tell without an exam, but potentially Shingles, does it radiate from back to front?

15 hours ago, bokningar said:

So even a 2 years license can be renewed up to 1 year after the expiration date?

Yes that is correct.  A 2 year license has up to 1 year after the expiration date for renewal in order to be eligible for a 5 year lisence.  

Are you looking for a welder or the equipment (TIG welding machine and stainless steel welding wires)?

For welders, it's quite difficult if you don't speak Thai.  

https://bangkok.immigration.go.th/en/re-entry-permit/ 

This is such an odd thread, now it's basically people just commenting on other people's comments but no one is actually talking about the cons of an EV.

I'll throw it out there from my point of view.

I bough an ICE last year and my wife will be buying another vehcile this year or next year.  

I've advised her either ICE or EV is fine because we already have an ICE.

IMO, for Thailand, and our type of travelling (live in Bangkok most of the time,  but monthly excursions outside of bangkok to places like Khao Yai, or Hua Hin further drive would be Khon Kaen, any further and we fly), we need an ICE for the out of Bangkok Excursions, and if we had a second car then EV is fine because it'd be for city driving in Bangkok only.  

If we were to only get 1 car, it would have to be ICE at this stage in the EV cycle and Thailand's infrastructure. 

The main cons for me personally are:

1. Charging time - I'm not waiting anything more than 5-10 mins at a station, depsite how well equipped many fuel stations are in Thailand (practically shopping districts), I just don't like waiting around.

2. Charging avaliability - Thailand's Charging stations network is certainly growing and growing fast, but even in the UK it's not exactly universally avaliable yet, but let's say I go for a 3 day trip in Khao Yai, finding a charging station near me can be difficult, and our hotel will likely not have one, which means having an EV becomes more of a liability to me.  Even in my Condo there's only 2 EV chargers and there's like 20 EV cars already, which means odds are, my car won't be charged while I'm at my condo, when the <deleted> am I supposed to charge my car?

3. Distance/Range - It's still shorter than tradiational ICE for most EV's and definitley compared to hybrids, so it's not suitable when I travel outside BKK

4. Battery issues and replacements/maintence/damage - If your battery needs replacing, currently it's the same price as the car, this is a huge issue, from what if you get a faulty battery? what if you're in an accident? Currently I just hear many nightmare stories about having to replace batteries with EVs and the longevity issues are a big concern to me.  

I'm actually very pro EV, because I do think it is the future, and I'm sure these issues I've raised will be addressed very soon since they are very obvious issues that EVERYONE knows about already and every EV maker will continously try and address these points.  

I think it's likely within the next decade they will figure out -

a) Make battery range equal to a normal full tank from a ICE

b) Make charging so fast that 5-10mins of charging you'll get around 50% of the batter range, enough to get you to your destination for a full charge up

c) Charging stations will be plentiful and everywhere.  Condos/Malls/Parking areas will have charging station for (almost) every parking space.

d) Batterys are much more robust and maintain same performance for at least 10 years without any drop off.  

I'm sure there will also be many more improvements over time.  For now I would prefer to have an ICE as my sole vehicle, but happy to have an EV as a secondary vehcile.  I look forward to the day I can say I'm happy to have an EV as my sole vehicle.  

Yes there's been some sort of ban for lazada and shopee to sell actual melatonin.

I had to go out and buy some at a supplement store in Central

Got the Natrol 10mg Gummies, and it seems all legit from US etc but it's not having the same effect as my last stock (same brand) so not sure if they're fake or something.  

21 hours ago, sandyf said:

You missed the point, when she came back to Thailand with her medical degree she was effectively a foreigner. The exams being in her native language was superflous.

I mean, a better way to put it is simply, if you want to practice as a doctor in thailand you need to take and pass the Thai medical lisencsing exams.  Doesn't matter where you're from passport-wise, or what medical schools.  Everyone takes the Thai ML,  Thai's from Thai medical schools, forginers from foreign medical schools, thai's from forgien medical schools etc.  

It's the same as the US with USMLE, you need to pass the USMLE to practice working in the states.  You can simply call the thai one TMLE.  

Also the TMLE, 2 of the exams are in English, and the last one is in Thai (some parts).

2 hours ago, Photoguy21 said:

In order for a foreign doctor to practice medicine in Thailand, from what a doctor has told me, is that they have to pass the medical exam in the Thai language. This may not be correct but that is what a doctor told me.

This is correct, barring a few exceptions

On 12/23/2023 at 12:06 PM, Stevemercer said:

No. My Thai is crap, but Thai people usually say how good my Thai is. I assume they are being polite or want to make a positive impression.

 

It's the same when Thai's speak English. I always encourage them. 

Reminds me of this guys bit

Hi all

I had the 2 year driver lisesnce (or however long the first one is) and it expired end of last year but the DLT told me I had 12 months to renew it.  I've now lost the drivers lisence.

If I go to the police station to declare it lost, can I still renew the driver lisence for the 5 year version?

On 12/17/2023 at 9:37 AM, sandyf said:

Quite. I was one of the first to use VFS back in 2014 and after about 10 weeks got the embassy to intervene. Never going to chance it again, but I suspect I have just obtained my last passport.

 

oof that sounds dark

On 12/17/2023 at 9:16 AM, Lemsta69 said:

 

Out of curiosity, did you use the Cambodian e-visa system or did you just rock up at the airport?

 

If the former, would you mind sharing what they stamp into your passport on entry? Pretty please 😀

 

I haven't been to Cambodia for a while so haven't had the opportunity to see for myself, but I read on another thread that they still put a sticker in your passport even if using the e-visa system.

Just rocked up at the airport, visa on arrival was very convenient, little pricey though.  

On 11/2/2023 at 12:30 PM, Sheryl said:

Never choose the hospital. Choose the doctor - in your case a colo-rectal surgeon. As success depends totally in the surgeon's skill.

 

The best colo-rectal surgeon in Thailand  is Prof. Chucheep. He can be seen at either Bumrungrad (expensive) or Bangkok Christian Hospital (less expensive) -  https://www.bch.in.th/find-doctor/doctor-profile/?smid=4581

 

He can also be seen through the public channel at Chulalongkhorn hospital but there will indeed be long waits, lots of red tape, you'll have to arrive very early (i.e. crack of dawn) to get in the queue and much of your interaction will be with residents in training under his supervision.

 

 

@Sheryl  Just curious why you consider Prof. Chucheep as the best colo-rectal surgeon in Thailand? By the other poster it seems it's probably true seeing as he seems to be well sought after, but just wondering how he got that reputation.

I thought your wife was taken to a private hospital, where? Usually they have english speaking staff.

All very bizzare.

Oxygen concentrators are rarely insisted on, as most medical professionals would recommend getting an O2 tank with 100% O2 and ask you to have one at home if you required O2 at home.

Oxygen concentrators are less reliable and don't have the ability to give that high a flow rate for emergencies.  

The only time oxygen contrators were really used were when O2 tanks were in low supply like during COVID so they were used as a surrogate.  

1L versions are fairly useless and 5L and 10L models can be quite expensive.  

You can order them from this shop via Line (@Kovet) otherwise:

 

1 hour ago, OJAS said:

 

The British Embassy plays no part in the renewal of UK passports from Thailand these days, unfortunately. Instead we are required to deal (either in person or through an agent at an extra cost of 5,000 THB or thereabouts) with a local outfit called VFS acting on behalf of His Majesty's Passport Office back in the UK. This entails a couple of trips to one or other of their offices in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, firstly, for the submisison of paper applications, and, secondly, a few weeks later for the collection of replacement passports.

 

No question of us Brits being permitted to avail ourselves of even snail mail "hi-tec" dating back to the mid-19th Century as part of this process, let alone the internet!

 

The UK passport renewal process from Thailand is, not to put a too fine point on it, a complete and utter bureaucratic shambles, and certainly appears to stand in stark contrast to the relatively sleek efficiency and convenience of the Dutch process as you have described it.

 

When renewing your passport in the UK, however, you ARE allowed to use the internet (and, indeed, this method is actively encouraged by His Majesty's Passport Office these days)! Go figure why that is the case in the UK but not here in Thailand!!

 

Yea I spoke with the UK embassy who were spectacularly unhelpful as they said they have no involvement with passport issues now and it's all done by the HMPO team back in the UK, so tried to redirect me back to the UK directly, even asked me to call the UK directly.

Went the Chaeng Wattana in the end, and the immigration lady (after waiting in line with the other extension people just to ask a question) was kind enough to explain that they can stamp anywhere in the passport (doesn't have to be sequential) so she found a couple of half used pages and said it'd be ok to extend with my current passport still but would need to renew pretty much straight after the extension.  

Then went back the next day and did my visa extension, no problems, going to get the stamp on 5th of Jan, extended until then, then need to sort out work permit on 6th of Jan as that expires Jan 30th, and have an appointment with VFS for a new passport on 15th of Jan, so hopefully new passport will arrive around 15th Feb (website seems to advise renewal from Thailand takes about 4 weeks in total to receive the new and old passports).  

11 hours ago, novacova said:

Why not “lose” your passport then file a police report, and get an emergency/temporary replacement from the embassy. Be sure to have photos and photo copies of the necessary pages. Then process an application for a new passport here.

Yea, nice one, I think if I really didn't have any options I might have done this, not sure what the implication to Visa extension would be though. 

19 hours ago, Gottfrid said:

No, these things just not happen to people. Last time you looked in your passport, your were made aware of the lack of pages, but you decided to overlook that little thing.

Yea this was my bad but I'm not sure if I could have done much in my case as I had more than 10 pages left in my passport about 3 months ago.  Unfortunatley I've had a change in role in my job recently which means I'm travelling in and out of Thailand weekly if not twice a week sometimes so my passport suddenly just exploded with stamps and I calcualted that I would have 2 whole pages left by the end of all my work trips, but did not account for Cambodia burning through my pages, luckily UK doesn't require visas to a lot of places so it's just stamps.

Immigration also don't care about your page issues sometimes so they stamp more wastefully (sometimes I only get 2-3 stamps a page, somtimes i manage 8 stamps if the officiers are nice and tidy).  

Hi

So I'm due for a visa extension (non-imm O) by 30/12/23.

Unfortunatley I just ran out of pages on my UK passport (Business travel and I didn't realise Cambodia uses a whole page for their visa, thought it would just be a stamp).

I'm not going to be able to renew my passport in time I don't think, spoke to HMPO who gave me an appointment on 15/01/24 in Bangkok but I assume i'd over stay my visa if that's the case.

Just wondering if there's any solution where I can get my visa while i'm still in Thailand, can I get a short visa extension without any pages in my passport? (there's some small space left in the penultimate page for an entry stamp size)

Currently the only solution I can think of is to just return to the UK so I don't end up overstaying my visa and then renew my passport in the UK.

If I go back to the UK and my visa lapses, do I have to restart the whole non-imm O visa extension process (as compared to renewing? - since the first time doing it seemed much more ardous than renewing) 

5 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

Thanks very much for explaining that!

 

I quit smoking 10 years ago; I was heavy from about 19-39. 

I found I couldn't breathe so well after Covid and the first doc I saw gave me Serotide 50/500.

He thought is was asthma but said I'd need a special test to find out for sure. Then, a few months later, when the spirometer test had no increase after the  ventolin, he said emphasema. I run 20 km a week so found this odd and went to another hospital. I see the specialist next month. 

I had asthma, seemingly, when I was a baby but never again, leading a sporty life. 

 

Thanks again. 

 

 

You need to calculate your smoking pack years.  If you smoked 1 pack a day for 10 years, then you'd have 10 pack years.  

If your pack years is less than 10, then it's less likely COPD.

Given you had this after COVID, it's very likely COVID related lung changes.  CT might help to assess and get clearer pictures of the extent of damage to your lungs from COVID, but I suspect treatment won't change, which is what you're already on, the inhalers - some kind of salbutamol and/or steroid inhaler. 

Sherly is also absolutley correct, these lung function tests are completley user dependent, it requires you to follow the instructions of the test, so if you didn't the results would be massively misleading.  The worry here might be communication between you and the test administrator as they would have to tell you the instructions in what may have been broken English or in Thai, and you might not have been able to follow as correctly as possible.  

emphysema could certainly explain the lung function test results you show, but odd to jump to that given your condition isn't so severe based on your tests, still possible but I'd expect worse results.  but your doc is not wrong re: CT. if you had emphysema then doing a CT will either diagnose it or rule it out since it will be faily visitble on the scan.  

my hunch is that this is likely COVID related, but a thorough doctor (absoluetley depends on their experience and confidence, as well as how you present when you see them) may request further investigations to rule out autoimmune diseases or other immune conditions, that could cause this picture, and a CT certainly isn't a bad call I would argue.  

On 12/4/2023 at 4:22 PM, Neeranam said:

I wanted a 2nd opinion so went to the local govt hospital and got another test. 

 

See the doctor next month. Here's the results. 

I don't know if it's better or worse. 

 

 

It's basically the same as your last one, from your post in Feb.

I think Sheryl misread the last one.

Your FEV1/FVC is only at 65.9% which is very slightly below normal, your %predicted is 86% which means you're about 15% off normal currently.

The suggested clincal picture is that you have some sort of obstructive lung disease from your results.  The most common causes are Asthma and COPD.  Do you have a smoke history?  There are certainly other causes and if you're a non smoker, it's definitley worth investigating further, sometime it's very benign things like bronchiectasis caused by infections, but sometimes it can be more serious things like aspergillus, immune deficiency, or sarcoidosis as another poster suggested.  There's a lot it can be, and depending on how you're feeling, might warrent further investigation.  

I wouldn't fret too much right now, even at 86% %pred, it's only very mild disease.  If you smoke, the advice would be to stop smoking, as it will only get worse, and it will get to the point you require oxygen at home if you continue smoking heavily (that is if it is the cause of this)

@Wanderer555 any luck in the end?

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Kovet have various oxygen concentrators 1L,5L,10L versions.

They were being used in hospitals during the COVID pandemic.  

24/7 capable

can contact them on Line @Kovet

On 6/8/2023 at 8:39 PM, PPMMUU said:

The text was indeed written with the help of ChatGPT, but solely to transform my thoughts into coherent and understandable language. All ideas and points expressed in that text are completely mine. I apologize for any shortcomings in my English proficiency.

The weird thing about ChatGPT is that it's meant to be a natural language programme, giving answers that sound natural and useful.

But when you actually read and try and digest what ChatGPT says, you realise, more often than not, that it uses a lot of words to say nothing useful in particular.  It's not succinct, and its point don't always add to the conversation in a meaningful way.

It's really obvious when someone uses ChatGPT then copy and pastes because it reads like garbage to anyone who actually knows about the topic.  Not that ChatGPT is wrong in its content, but more just that it's poorly conveyed.  

41 minutes ago, Fairynuff said:

As far as I’m aware they’re open every weekday, don’t know about Saturday 

I was checking their online systems and they seem to only be avaliable 2 days a week, but maybe they're open and do walk ins as opposed to online bookings.  

Thanks.

15 minutes ago, Fairynuff said:

I used to do mine in BKK and it was never less than 3/4 with all the waiting around. Then I discovered that you don’t need to renew at your nearest office, you can go anywhere. Last year I was in and out of Cha Am in about an hour.

They only open on specific days sadly