All things good, bad or indifferent must come to an end

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In the 10 years since I began blogging, I have posted on this site my insights, quibbles, news, analyses, complaints, observations and random thoughts.

The blog evolved from the darks ages, when I emailed (then e–mailed) a weekly newsletter about real estate in an effort to market my business as a broker.  Its name changed from “Service You Can Trust” to “I, on Cambodia.”

This post is my one thousand-four hundred-twenty-ninth.  This post

With defenses down anywhere, bad things can happen

We dodged heavy rain inside part of the NagaWorld complex before our unfortunate encounter.

As the tune will do after hearing it, ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” stuck in my brain.

I was humming it to myself when we left the NagaWorld complex, where we had caught an otherwise forgettable free show of singing and dancing on a Saturday night in order to outlast heavy rain.  The hour-long spectacle ended with the cast cavorting in the aisles and performing the Mama Mia hit.

So was I only faintly aware of

For many Cambodians, dental work takes a back seat

Some of the young Cambodians I encounter are enduring braces in a country where orthodonture and cosmetic repairs are a decided luxury.

Those fortunate Cambodians tend to be the ones who work in the service industry — the ones I see most often close up — and likely have come from families that may be poor but not dirt poor.  They usually are graduates of a university or still are acquiring higher education.  Some are offspring of astoundingly wealthy parents who make up the minuscule elite class.

With respect to individuals without resources

Mobile vendors suggest department stores on wheels

They remind me of my Uncle Herman, who was a butcher married to one of my grandmother’s four sisters.

In my mind’s unreliable eye, I remember him working from a pushcart outside a market in Boston’s Haymarket Square.  There was an associated store just behind him as well, and I’m pretty sure it had sawdust on the floor and butchers in bloodied white aprons.

I know Uncle Herman called me by a pet name that I recall was

Blind masseur recounts the inspiring story of his life

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  Front of massage business.

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  A closer look.

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  Not much privacy.

There must be scores of storefronts in Cambodia where massages are offered by blind individuals.  I gather seeing hands massages are available in other countries as well.

Although a massage here is not an extravagant indulgence for me and other expats, I have gone in five years to only two place where it is the blind who do the work.

My first experience — it happened to be in Battambang — was too painful for me to relax.  My second time was in Phnom Penh, when I was seeking relief for a shoulder that was sore for months.

A masseur named Hab also administered considerable pain, which my shoulder needed, but it was not until he uttered “no pain, no gain” in English that

Insurance decision will cost an expat no matter what

Part 4: It’s gonna hurt

(In my three previous posts, I explain the complicated decisions expats must face regarding their healthcare, especially when the unexpected occurs.)

Source: The National Academies Press

When expats consider medical insurance, they quickly learn the decision about getting or foregoing it can be complicated.

What they don’t always accurately take into account is how the costs of insurance will grow and how risky the lack of it can be.

Having it is expensive. Not having it can cost a bundle too.  Worse, not having it can be dangerous.

With insufficient insurance, inadequate personal resources or both, a patient who is unable to receive quality care in his or her adopted country or another one could end up permanently maimed.  Or

Deciding where and which treatment to get took days

Part 3: Lucking out

(In Parts 1 and 2, you can read how I came to be self-insured and how I struggled to decide what to do about my injury.)

The proof is the putting in of my bionic bone

Bangkok made the most sense to be treated.  But which hospital, which doctor?

Online, I checked three reputedly very good hospitals in Bangkok looking for a specialist whose training was not confined to Thailand.

I found an orthopedic surgeon at arguably the best and most expensive hospital in the country, Bumrungrad, which is among several there favored by many expats and medical tourists. A middle-aged Thai who has had training in the U.S., Dr. Siripong Ratanachai, telephoned me twice and answered my emails quickly before

Being diagnosed, picking doctor not a walk in the park

Part 2: New York or Bangkok?

(In Part 1, I discuss how exposed to major expense are expats who elect to go without medical insurance tailored to living abroad.  I also explain what went into my decision on purchasing a policy.)  

One day after surgery. I thank drugs for my smile and the hospital for my fashion statement.

Let me say that I never have thought of myself as the fragile sort of person who could easily break a hip like so many older men and women who topple because their bones give out while they are upright.  For them, such a fracture is usually the cause, not the result, of a fall.

After all, as I am inclined to boast, I work out daily with a combination of lifting weights or sweating on an elliptical training machine.  Then there are walks of several miles most days as well so as to help me manage my weight.

I also enjoy hiking, frequently upward, on vacations, so I’m unusually fit for someone my age, I like to think.

I confess viewing with horror the prospect of being referred to as “elderly” should I be so described as the victim of a crime or a collision with a motor vehicle.

My level of fitness undoubtedly contributed to my uneventful and quick recovery.  My bones, according to my doctor, are strong.

I broke my hip on a Sunday evening in July, and an x-ray Monday morning

An expat’s dilemma: Would getting sick break my bank?

Injured construction worker is to be transported to hospital.  Source: Phnom Penh Post

Part 1: Decisions, decisions, decisions

It began with my absent-mindedly stepping on a wet tile floor and falling down hard on my right side.  It ended with important lessons not only for me but for many others, especially older individuals, who also choose the expat life.

In addition, the incident could prove illuminating to anyone who seeks some insight into the complexities of obtaining first-rate medical care overseas, whether tourists or expats.

One of the lessons that I learned reinforced the importance of my paying undivided attention to where I walk, especially if I am outside in Phnom Penh.  I walk for miles everywhere, in large part for my health, despite the dangers that pedestrians face here. We cannot navigate cluttered sidewalks and must always be on guard in a city where the multitude of cars and two-wheeled vehicles pays virtually no respect to the right of way of pedestrians in seemingly chaotic traffic.

Equally important, the whole experience of my fall taught me that I had made the correct decision about medical insurance when I retired to Cambodia from Manhattan at the end of 2013.

Having done my research before my arrival, I learned that

Mental health little understood in much of Cambodia

Purportedly mentally ill man is chained by his leg to a support in an abandoned house in one of Cambodia’s provinces.  Source: TPO (or PTO) via Twitter

The first two photos in this post are said to have been taken in Cambodia, but I cannot vouch for their authenticity, date or anything else about them.  They showed up in my Twitter feed with “PTO” as the source but, in a subsequent message, corrected as “TPO.”

Whether as real as they appear to be, the photos strike me as emblematic of how misunderstood mental illness is in Cambodia, how inadequate is its treatment and how brutal can be efforts to control severe cases.

Below is the second photo in the Twitter item, included only below because, in my opinion, it is far too sensational to put at the top.