As a fair skinned Northern Euorpean lady nudging towards 47 years old, I’m more likely to suffer from cancer of the skin than many other darker skinned nationals. Since we’re going to be in the sunnier parts of the world for the next couple of years, I thought it would be prudent to get the moles and skin blemishes removed as a preventive measure.
In Bangkok this is no problem and it is relatively inexpensive. When we set out on this journey we did take out Health Insurance, but as this would be an elective procedure it’s not going to be covered. So I’ll have to use my own dime for the moles and skin blemishes.
Bangkok City has some of the best hospitals in the world. Many non-Thai nationals come here to have cosmetic surgery and other highly specialized procedures done, at a relatively inexpensive rate.
The Hopsital I chose, Bumrungrad, is so well attuned to servicing foreign nationals that it has the sense and feel of a Western Hospital. As far as I know it’s actually American owned and run. Packages available range from a ceasarian section, heart surgery to reconstructive and cosmetic surgery. Included in the packages are stays at the Hospital Hotel-like Residence, connected to the main building hospital by an overhead walkway.
Bumrungrad’s web site lets you search for and get details on Doctors from disciplines. I found it easy to search for a dermatologist, read their bios, see their photos, and feel happy about making a choice myself. There is no need to have a recommendation from your practitioner to attend a specialist like in the States. You simply look them up and make an appointment.
From Bumrungrad’s web site I emailed them the day and time period I wanted an appointment. Within 30 minutes I had a reply giving me an appointment time close to my chosen window with my chosen Doctor.
Bumrungrad’s entrance is a little whacky in that it’s down a very small side street, more like an alley. But there is signage so you can find it fairly easily.
Amazingly there is no smell of hospital at all. It seems more like a huge Hotel , with food and shopping areas on the 2nd floor. It even has a McDonalds. Weird.
The Skin Center is on the 3rd floor of the Residence building and as I’d come in the entrance of the Main Building used the overhead walkway to get there.
Around me there were patients and visitors from many countries. Over hearing people talk I could make out that there were Northern Europeans, Americans, Arabs, Japanese and Thai at the least.
One Arab looking gentleman who had some sort of a reaction or allergy problem on his arm arrived with his friend who took great care of him. He was already missing half his left leg and moved around on crutches. It seemed that the leg injury probably happened quite some time ago.
A tall young guy who I think was Japanese looked to have just finished his facial laser surgery. His skin had that redness and spottedness I associate with the procedure.
The Receptionists speak English, some better than others, but they’ve got enough to smoothly get you through the sign-in sheets and paper trail process and hand you over to the relevant appointment administrator. Curiously they ask you if you have a fever today as a standard part of the check in process. I wonder what they’d do if you said Yes?
Your blood pressure, pulse, temperature, height and weight are taken by the assistant nurse. The nurse apologies while she measures your height as in Thailand you it’s not acceptable to touch the top of a person’s head. Mind you she wasn’t touching it, the measuring bar was, but the society is so polite she apologized anyway. After that I sat in the waiting area for about 15 minutes.
A Thai lady sat down beside me and shortly thereafter struck up a conversation . Such a nice lady. Her name was Gaew and she was married to an American. They live in Bangkok. He had been in the hospital for about the last 3 weeks with some sort of problem on one of his legs. She had broken out with a small spot on her face and was at the Skin Center to have it looked at. I think she was a bit lonely from spending so much time in the hospital looking after her husband and just wanted to talk with someone.
I was greeted very pleasantly by the Doctor as I entered her office. She asked what I wanted done and then asked me why I would like the moles and blemishes removed. I had been wondering if I would be asked that question or would it be assumed I was there just for cosmetic reasons?
In about 10 minutes she had reviewed the moles and skin blemishes, explained to me the differences between each of them and gave me options on what I could do to have them removed. Most of them will be removed by laser, while the two moles will be surgically removed and sent for biopsies. I don’t have to get the moles biosied but I chose to as I feel it’s better to do it than not. We made an appointment for the following Wednesday to have the procedure done.
After leaving the Doctor’s office I spent a couple of more minutes talking with Gaew. She said she’s in room 889 with her husband most of the time and she’d be happy for me to visit, she’d even teach me a little Thai. Then I checked out by paying a whopping 80 Baht ($2) for the office visit.
All in all a very nice experience.
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