MeaMaximaCulpa

@Poilu I appreciate that, I just wanted to give a bit more background for my position on fat metabolism, and thought it was a good opportunity. I don't want to pick a fight over this with anyone, since we are all different both in physiology and preferences. So all good! 🙂

I'm glad to hear that @Poilu ! My comment on "proper fat metabolism" was referring to higher than average amounts of fat, seen when eating low carb high fat, keto or carnivore diets, where fat may go as high as 70-80% of calories. Some people may argue against this dietary approach, and I am not saying it is for everyone. But with this kind of diet, often combined with intermittent fasting, eating one or two meals per day in a narrow eating window, will be difficult without a gall bladder to buffer the bile. On a lower fat diet with several smaller meals spread over the day, it is not much of a problem for most people. Update @Sheryl , the patient has decided to do the GB removal soon. The decision was made based on the following: The mass had grown fairly quickly, her father had experienced cancer of the GB, and her family originates from Isaan. So too many things pointing to caution and speed to reduce the risk. Thanks for pointing all this out!

I fully support @mstevens in this. And it is unfortunately true in many other areas of medicine as well, especially with "lifestyle related diseases". Acute, trauma medicine I will not question, there I am happy to trust the docs to save my life 🙂. The problem arises in seeing the difference; i.e. when is the "conventional" doctor correct, and when can an alternative approach perhaps be better? And is there time to explore it? I have no definitive answer to that question except to learning as much as possible, be open to new information and at the same time very critical to where it comes from and the science it is based on.

Thanks again @Sheryl for that valuable information, I am sure it will be appreciated by the patient!

Thank you so much @Sheryl, and sorry I didn't have more information about the patient or hospital she went to. It may seem it was some kind of cyst, if that is even a thing in the gall bladder? Anyway, your advice will be passed on to the patient.

@Sheryl I am asking for a friend of my wife who has been told she will have to remove the gall bladder. I do not know the reason for the diagnosis at this point. But before doing so, it may be a good idea to seek a second opinion with another doctor, to see if it can be avoided and alternative treatment can be found. I am aware that gallbladder removal is a fairly routine and simple (usually laparoscopic) procedure, but it will be quite limiting for proper fat metabolism, so if it can be safely avoided it would be better. So I need recommendation to a Bangkok specialist doctor in this field that is open also for other solutions before resorting to surgery. As an aside, I was myself told 16 years ago that I had to remove the gall bladder due to something the doctor THOUGHT MAY look like a TINY gall stone on ultrasound. I refused and have never had a problem. And this was at a famous Bangkok hospital. Just sayin'...

It is of course not so easy to do as with a savings account also used for daily expenses, but here is a plausible way it can happen: Say I have 890,000 in my FD account, the 90K being accumulated interest over some years. I want to withdraw 89K, but mistakenly put 98K on the withdrawal slip. Teller doesn't check before withdrawal, and now it is too late, my FD account has indeed dipped below 800K for a few minutes, until I repair the damage. Not saying it is likely, but certainly possible. So 2nd account even with FD is not pointless to me, which this is all about. Not what it is to you.

The post is not at all absurd, since it addresses a real issue affecting several people on the forum on a regular basis. An issue of great importance if you live here long term. So perhaps tone down the condescending and resentful language a little bit would be a good idea? And I belive I saw a post where the amount dipped momentarily below 800K, and the specific IO did not approve using another account to plug the hole since it was not "registered" in advance. And you understand full well that what I mean by this is listing it on the bank letter. And how on earth do you know that "nothing will happen"? Finally if you wish to give unsolicited investment advice, perhaps you should not only say what I should not do, but also what I should do? Like what (near) risk free investment that I can access here in Thailand will give a substantially better return? So if you have no intention of addressing the specific question asked (any downside to doing as I suggested?), then perhaps better to not respond at all?

Yes thanks, that takes it to another level, not only protecting against an account mishap, but also against "debanking issues". My initial thought was to use BBL since it would be easy to do with one visit to the bank, just ask them to add another account to the bank letter. I do also use Krungsri, so I could move some money there as you suggest. I might end up having a third bank in the long term, not for immigration but as a precaution against "strange things" happening. I did talk to BBL the other day about their recent "behaviors", and the person I spoke to said "oh no, you're a very long standing customer on one year extensions using an FD account, so you're ok". For whatever that is worth going forward. But to my initial question: Can you see anything (except for a bit more hazzle once per year) talking against using two accounts, from Immigration's point of view? I can choose year-by-year what to do as long as the amount is above 800K?

I am very risk averse, and happen to have two FD accounts at BBL with more than 800K in each. Is it a good idea to register both for retirement extension, just in case something should happen with one of the accounts (I know, quite unlikely...), or am I just worrying too much? Is there any possible negatives with this approach, and can it in any way lock me in for the following year(s)?

@NanLaew Update to an almost five year old thraed, amazing how time flies... I went to your recommended repair shop (Honda Piya) alone, and since I do not speak Thai, had to abort. Went again with my wife, and we were not impressed. So left it for a while and used Honda across from Ambassador Hotel. I don't want to risk being sued for defamation, so suffice to say, we felt compelled to try the local guy (Honda Piya) once again. And suddenly things changed! He has since helped me a lot, with big and small things. A new seatbelt and driver's side window lift cluster official Honda couldn't get me for the love of God. He found both, the seatbelt was new, the switch second hand. He has also repaired clutch, catalytic converter, transmission oil leak, fixed several small, niggly things and arranged to retrim seats and console, put new roof lining and will also arrange for respraying of some panels, saving me the hazzle of hunting around for sub-suppliers. When a car approaches 20 years old, parts are getting hard to impossible to find, but this guy will track down either privately owned parts (I almost wrote private parts, but that is for another day 🙂) or find good second hand parts. So if at first you don't succeed, try and try again. Car is now 19 years old and in great shape, 160,000 km service coming up, drives well and looks almost new inside and out. I have a few smaller things still to do, and hope I can keep using it for a few more years. It will be sad to see it go, so when the time comes I will try to find it a new home with a young enthusiast who will see the usage and upgrade value, if not the financial resale value of such a car. So thanks a lot for that recommendation!

@save the frogs I agree that inlay soles are not the answer in many (most?) cases. I only used them to take the strain off of my badly inflamed achilles tendons for a limited time until I could start exercising and reduce the inflammation.

I'm not sure if he is still around, but you can try to contact Rudolf v.d. Lubben on 087-133 1280 or https://podiatry-thailand.com I saw him some years ago to get inlay soles. He is Dutch I believe and seemed to know his stuff. He was recommended to me by a doctor at the Bangkok Pattaya Hospital. He's office was in Jomtien.

I forgot to mention that instead of an expensive and difficult to find test using NMR for lipid particle size/type, you can get a standard lipid panel for a few hundred baht, and calculate the ratio of triglycerides to HDL. This is a good proxy for particle size/type: If Trigs/HDL < 1 chances are good you have the big/fluffy LDL, and if ratio is well over 1 or 2, it is the bad type (small/dense). You're welcome 🙂

Prices below are from N-Health, but will give you an idea. Solid lab used by hospitals. Test 2 not listed with the name you use, so ask them to find it, often they have the test but called slightly different name. I don't think you will find the lipid tests showing particle size and number in Thailand (test 6 + 10, 11, 12), so to get these you're looking at a whole new level of complexity and high price. You have to find a good lab in the US (or UK/Oz) and ship a blood sample there. N-health may do this for you but it will cost! Hope this helps! 1. High-Sensitivity Troponin (hs-Tn): 400 2. KRAFT Test (Kraft Insulin Survey) or the Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT): Couldn't find in list 3. Insulin: 600, C-peptide: 580 4. Lipoprotein (a) (Lp(a)): 500 5. Apolipoprotein B (Apo B): 410 6. Small dense LDL (sdLDL) 7. High Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hs-CRP): 200 8. Homocysteine: 700 9. TSH: 200, T4 (free): 150, T3 (free): 350, TOP (TPO): 350, TgAb: 350 10. LDL-P (Low-Density Lipoprotein Particle Number) 11. Small LDL-P (Low-Density Lipoprotein Particle) 12. LDL Size

Dr Tapasit at Aden Za clinic on North Pattaya road (near Healthland). US educated and he also worked there before coming back here. Excellent english, very competent, all in all: A great dentist! Good luck with your dental work!

If you don't mind a drive out to the dark side, go past Siam Country Club (golf course), from there the roads are very nice and smooth, low traffic usually. I would explore that area, very nice both from a traffic viewpoint and nice nature to experience.

There have been som slight delays recently due to adverse weather conditions, stated on their website. I am not sure if it has/had to do with the flooding in parts of Thailand recently or weather elsewhere.

I have good experience with Japanese brand Tanita

Since I almost never agree with @Jingthing on anything, I must say here I certainly do. I have never been asked for an updated book (I get the bank letter the day before) and never had to show savings acc. statement (I use FD account for the 800K). And Dr., I promise to take two aspirin and call you in the morning!

OK, my bad. Sorry

Haha, of course nobody is ever wrong. I did point all that out twice, and it is important to know, because it is not only you who reads a thread like this. If you feel I have overstepped and insulted you I shall of course not come back after this post, I don't want to waste our time bickering. But finally, my FD account does roll over automatically but it does not change interest rate to same as a savings account after a year. It just stays in the same account (FD) with the same number. The rate is however adjusted from time to time according to the market conditions (usually down of course... 😕). I don't know if you can seamlessly change to another FD account and keep Immigration happy at the same time, I would be very careful about doing this myself. Anyhoo, I hope you'll find a good solution that suits your situation, because immigration and banking is going to get progressively more difficult going forward it seems. Good luck!

If by BKK you mean BBL (Bangkok Bank) you are wrong, unless they recently have stopped locking FD accounts. Not all of course, but the ones used for people without work permits that still want a Thai credit card. Perhaps not so relevant any longer since debit cards are available everywhere and these will do for most of us most of the time (I never use the credit part of the card anyway). But when I had my credit card guarantee account with BBL a few years ago and wanted to end it, they locked it 100% for 3-4 months, to see if any charges came through. You don't have to use such an account also for your immigration 800K of course, but for many of us that "seemed like a good idea at the time". It was not, and I am now glad I kept my separate 800K FD account at the time, so no big deal. To reiterate a point I made earlier, and also repeated by yourself above, be careful about the fact that some banks will terminate your contract on expiry and park your funds in a savings account, and you need to restart the process. This is common if you for instance take a promotional FD account with extra high interest rate, and it may well also be for only 11 months. So before going the FD route make absolutely certain that the bank automatically rolls over your account seamlessly, or else it is going to mean a full restart with immigration. If you can manage to get an FD account with BBL (difficult now, but probably still possible with some good connections), you can get a balance update on the day of the letter and a seamless roll-over. That is by far the best system and the IOs love it, makes their lives simpler.

Perhaps worth it to peruse this website that debunks (mostly) Trump hoaxes. May I suggest starting with "The fine people hoax", called a "tent pole hoax" by a very smart man (Scott Adams). Browse through and pick a few favourites, but be warned, you may find some disturbing truths! https://americandebunk.com

I know and pointed out where my experience is from and that it may differ. To reach a wider group of people that may benefit, not jut the OP.