On Wednesday we had an appointment at 6:30 pm. We were on time but this time we didn't have to pay the 1,000 ks ($1,20) for 'services' aka having one of the nurses measure your weight, blood pressure, and temperature while 3 of them are watching.
At half past 7 we finally met the lady who was going to do the operation. First of all we had the normal preliminaries of report reading, checking of Thandar's tongue and a but of question-and-answer. She then asked us if it was possible to come in on Sunday at 5 am for the actual operation. 5 am ?! I told her that that was way too early. Sorry.
Ok, half past 9 on Thursday (yesterday) the? Ok, that would work. Thandar could drink things like ovaltine and milk up to 3:30 am and juice or water till 5:30. So I asked her if she was going to give her a general anesthetic? No no, but Thandar might be nauseous after and this could help her. Ok, sure enough. The lady kept on being vague though about what she would do ultil after a good while she told us that she would give Thandar a local painkiller-shot and that would be it. Then, minutes after she said she was going to insert a small tube like one used for babies and she made motions like it was something she would do in her hand like a drip or so. It satyed quite vague but oh well. So we did make that appointment for the next day.
We got Thandar some juice in the early morning and she and I went to the hospital on time. The nurses had asked us to come at 8:30 for preparations.
We had to come to the nurses room first so that was what we did. We were then escorted back to the general reception area for the necessary 1,000 ks fee for services. That paid, we were taken to the cashier. The nurse who accompanied us told me I had to pay a deposit. I thought I could understand this since not everyone has money in Myanmar and this might be the hospital's way of making sure they got paid.
The amount I had to fork over was mentioned in Burmese. I thought I'd heard it wrong. After all, my Myanmar is rather lousy. So I asked them if I had heard it correct and had to pay 20,000 ks (about $22) deposit? So far on all our visits over those 4 days I had only once paid 16,000 ks (about $17) and that was for the hearing test. Every other time it had been a couple of dollars. No, said the woman behind the desk 200,0000 ks. Excuse me? I wrote it on my hand just to make sure. Yes, 200,000 ks. ($240). I was in shock. For one thing, I think they should have told me it was so much before. Second, it was a deposit. What about the total price? Nobody could say but if the procedure was less expensive, they would give me back the remainder. Yeah, and what if it is more?But, they said, we needed to pay for the surgeon, the operation room and all these things... It sounded like she was scheduled for open heart surgery.
I cancelled the appointment right there and then. Sorry.
So, now we're going to ask around at some other places and in Thailand. The biggest drawback is that this place has a speech therapist and it is close to our home. Of course, we also wasted a fair couple of hours there as well.
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