NancyL

drenddy, has your wife investigated the situation for her mother if she received her dialysis from a public hospital? I live in Chiang Mai and patients from the large CM University hospital receive their outpatient dialysis at a nice clinic located near a mall where there's easy parking. It's the same clinic used by private patients, both foreign and Thai; very well regarded, run by the retired department head at CMU. The only difference in the treatment of the private and public patients is who pays the bill. All sit in nice lazy-boy loungers, can select which room they want, each with a wide screen TV tuned to a different channel or a quiet room. The staff is equally as nice and friendly to all. Family members can go the nearby mall to pass the time while their loved ones receive their treatments. Oh and it's open from 7 am to 11 pm (or at least it was before Covid), so it's very convenient.

I understand that you're in Chiang Mai province. The Facebook group "Chiang Mai News In English" is a good source of vaccine distribution information. Ben Svasti Thomson is leading the efforts on getting foreigners vaccinated in the province and he contributes to that group. I believe the latest info is that they will open up availability of Pfizer to the over 40 age group sometime later this week or next at Promenada. You may not get a confirmed appointment, but once you see that they are vaccinating that age group, you can go to Promenada (around 8 am) with your passport and 13 digit registration number from the Wall of Chiang Mai registration; that's the number that starts with 600. I know, I know there are so many registration websites and some are totally useless, but the Wall of Chiang Mai site is the one that the provincial health dept is using to keep track of everyone and if you show up at Prom. without the Wall of CM number, it will just slow down the process for everyone.

From the photos in the news story, it looks like he was relatively fit when he came here 15 years ago and probably had no pre-existing conditions. That was the time to take out a good international health insurance policy -- one that can't drop you as you age or file claims, but understandably will increase rates as you enter higher age band. Not a Thai policy -- those are cheaper for younger people, but they have upper age limits, increase rates if you make claims or drop you outright. Hubby was age 59 when we arrived and getting a comprehensive health insurance policy was a top priority. He had no re-existing conditions. The insurance agent had a chuckle when Hubby filled out that part on the form about prior hospitalizations by listing "birth". Took the agent a moment to realize Hubby was talking about his own birth as the only time he'd been hospitalized. Now Hubby is age 73, has filed claims with this international health insurance company for several hospital stays and procedures, takes meds for some conditions that many old guys have and yes, his rates have increased as he has aged, but anything he needs is covered because he took the policy when he was young and healthy. And while the annual premium is high, it's nowhere like the money this family said the hospital needed for their father's pacemaker.

I wonder if this could explain some unauthorized charges on my U.S. bank-issued credit card last month? I had used it for a Bangkok Air flight in early July, making the reservation in late June. Fortunately, it's a card from a U.S. financial institution, so I won't be liable, but it's still a pain to be without a Visa card for a couple weeks while a new one arrives. The Visa-card lady asked me if I used Google Play or iTunes; I do use Google Play from time-to-time so I had assumed that was the culprit since she asked about. The unauthorized charges were not from Google Play, however, but a supplier of vitamins and supplements that is well-loved by the expat crowd in Thailand. We've never ordered from them.

Do you mean, John Montagu, the Earl of Sandwich, as opposed to John Montague, the Irish poet?

You could come to Thailand with a tourist visa and convert to an O visa in country and then obtain an extension of stay due to retirement. Your questions really belong in the Visa subforum, not the Chiang Mai forum. You're trying to obtain an O-A visa, one of several paths towards what is commonly called a "retirement visa". It isn't the only way to obtain permission to remain here from year-to-year as a retiree. With your situation, it may not be the best path for you. And yes, if that's the route you choose, you have to submit every document requested even if it doesn't make any sense. Just like if you come now, you'll have to do Covid quarantine even if you're fully vaccinated and have a negative PCR test just before departure. You've got to play the game according to the rules. No exceptions.

I was released from ASQ in Bangkok this past Thursday, August 12. I hired a driver and private car, recommended by the hotel, with Bangkok plates. We encountered two roadblocks, one of which wasn't staffed. At the second one, in Saraphi, the driver was of much more interest than me. he explained that I has been in the U.S. for vaccination (technically true; I'd gone to Guam) and had just completed ASQ in Bangkok. I had a ream of documents available with proof of vaccination, home address, PCR tests; but no interest from the officer. Instead, the officer made the driver, who claimed he had received two doses of Sinopharm, download a QR code onto his phone and promise he'd turn around right after dropping me off at home and leave CM province. I've read multiple sources that indicate I don't need to do home quarantine in CM now since I just completed ASQ, got in a car and my first stop was a toilet break outside a red zone and I had no contact with anyone during that stop or any subsequent stop. We didn't eat or drink anything during the quick eight hour trip in order to keep wearing our masks.

It's not just "living here" that he needs to accept that everything is his fault. It's just sound relationship advice 101 that everything is his fault if called into question. Haven't you guys figured that out? Hubby has and we're close to 50 years of marriage.