Home Health Care

[nkrejci]

I will be recovering from oral cancer surgery and will need assistance with basic living needs after I'm discharged. Food preparation, shopping, cleaning, and basic communicating in English would be a necessity. I'm not sure how much nursing will come into play, but some experience would be helpful.

I'm considering locating tp Pattaya, so if you are willing and able, or know of anyone who is, or is aware of a service that deals with this sort of situation, I would really like to hear from you.

Kop,

Nick

[Sheryl]

Some hospitals have home health care units which can provide such staff, but it will cost more than if you can arrange to hire someone privately.

I know Sikarin hospital in the bangkok Bang na area has this. In pattaya, I think Bkk Pattaya Hosp does but likely to be very expensive.

[nkrejci]

Thanks for your reply. It's good to know that perhaps something can be arranged, even if expensively, until a more permanent, less expensive option appears. I am actually replyng on behalf of my brother, as tomorrow he goes in for the surgery, and is trying to make last minute preparations. He HAD a plan in place, as he had a girlfriend of 4 years to care for him and a house in Prachuab to recover in. A little over a week ago she told him she had found another boyfriend!

The rug has been totally pulled out from under him. I've flown in from the States to help any way I can, but he needs something set up for far longer than I can stay. He's thinking about going to Pattaya to recover. Perhaps for the short term, a nurse from the hospital there might be his only recourse, but money is a concern, for sure, as the surgery is not totally covered by insurance. The whole situation really sucks! Anyone out there know of a nursing student (or any other capable, compassionate person) in need of extra money in the Pattaya area??? ?Heartfelt thanks, Pam

[Sheryl]

Dear Pam,

So sorry to hear of this circumstance. We usually don't allow for multiple postings but in order to maximize chances for a reply I have put a cross referenced inquiry in the Pattaya Forum.

Where is he having the surgery?

[Phil Conners]

Don't know if this is interesting, something I fell over in facebook at some point. No personal experience with them.

[Sheryl]

Thanks Phil. That appears to be these folk http://pattaya.olxthailand.com/nursing-home-service-iid-261771661, the web page has a skype address and email

[nkrejci]

I'm totally new at forums, so I don't know if this reply goes directly to who sent me a response, or to no one at all...Guess I'll try to find out how to do this properly when the smoke clears. In the meantime, thank you for your help and concern. My brother's surgery was on the day before yesterday at 5pm.at Bumrungrad. He was told it would take 7 hrs, but was completed by 8:30 pm.They felt he had no need to spend 2 days in the ICU, as they had predicted, and took him directly to his room after Recovery. He was also told that he would have to re-learn how to speak (which conjurs up all sorts of images and obviously would create all sorts of problems), but we spoke together the following morning! His speach was a little muffled and garbled, but hey, he has a facefull of bandages at the moment, and obviously there is going to be some impact after having all your lower teeth, some of your lower jaw, a tumor, and some lymph nodes remove! But, it's just such unexpectedly good news. He's still not out of the woods, of course, as he will need other therapies (hyperbaric), and eating will be an issue for 6 months until he is able to receive teeth to his lower jaw.Hopefully, finding help will be a little simpler (and cheaper) if nursing skills are not required and it's more along the lines of meeting the day to day needs of food preparation, shopping, etc.

I'm hopeful that this will be the case, but we still need to explore all options, as he has just begone his recovery.

We'll definitely be getting in touch with the folks that you suggested, Phil.

And Sheryl, what can I say? What a wonderful world we would live in if everyone had your compassionate heart.

Thanks so much, Pam

[craigt3365]

This member's wife does housekeeping services around town. I don't know anything more about it than this, but might be worth a shot? I've met him and his wife and they both seem to be great people. He's heavily involved with an expat club here and his wife has a few Filipino friends who might fit the bill. Worth checking into:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/user/1290-bob4you/

[craigt3365]

P.S. My neighbor is a doctor in Bangkok. His wife runs a nursing home down near Bang Saray. If you are interested, I'll contact her and see if she can set something up. They are a fantastic couple, perfect English. Let me know...

[Sheryl]

Glad to hear the surgery went so well, pam.

Craig's leads look worth following up on. To contact the person he mentions in post #8, click on the link and then when you get the member's page, click on "send a message"

[Sheryl]

Pam, also go to this link and see post #3

[nkrejci]

Thanks so much to all for your responses. As things settle down, we will be looking into them all. I have my brother's computer at the moment, but when he recovers a little more, he may want me to bring it to the hospital where he can read and research them himself.

He is till unsure where he wants to complete his recovery, and obviously that is critical to his decision-making. He's leaning toward Pattaya, but has friends in Chaing Mai, and even has house in Prachuab rented until January. He just has no help there, and it's pretty far to the nearest hospital that can perform the still recommended hyperbaric treatments.

The bandages were removed yesterday and Nick looked, well, like Nick!I was expecting some disfigurement from the procedure,

but apart from the removal of all but 2 teeth on the lower jaw, he looks pretty much the same. By the time he leaves the hospital, or within a few days afterwards, the feeding tube may not even be a necessity. So, hopefully his needs will be more along the lines of preparing meals, shopping, and housekeeping.

Evidently, some of the procedures were not deemed necessary (lymph node removal, for one) by the doctor. This causes me some concern, as his decision was based on a CT scan, not a biopsy, but it is what it is, and at this point we can only assume he knows his stuff...

Again, thanks to all for your responses. It's wonderful that Nick has information and options that he can sort through when he feeels up to it.

Peace, Pam

[nkrejci]

Happy to say that my brother is doing very well and we will be heading to Pattaya tomorrow to follow up some leads. Thankfully, he's off the feeding tube, but eating is still going to be his biggest challenge until he can get implants or dentures. I've been using a blender to whip up some pureed meals and he'll have to eat very soft food for quite a while. Anyway, nursing skills end up not being a necessity, so that ought to widen the field in his search for help.

Thanks to all for your responses. We'll be checking things out over the next few days.

[Sheryl]

Thanks for the update and glad to here things are goin well