Category: Mission Journal

Hospital Day 16

Good News

This morning I went back to BNH Hospital for follow up with the surgeon. He said the tumor on my kidney was cancer but because it was so new and so small, they got it all and that I don’t need to worry about it.. It’s always best not to have cancer at all, but this was good news after they did discover the renal carcinoma.

Hospital Day 16

…and Bad News

After I got home, I started noticing a scratchiness in my throat so I took a rapid test. I’m positive with Covid-19. Bummer. I will have to find out what I have to do according to Thailand rules but I am sure I cannot fly to Phnom Penh on 2 June! And probably I can’t fly to the US on 7 June.

Hospital Day 14

I was discharged from BNH Hospital on Thursday and have been up and about since then. I have been surprisingly free of pain. Today I went to mass at the Bangkok cathedral with Fr. John Barth and then we had lunch with some Filipinas here working with Maryknoll.

The Cathedral of the Assumption is a large downtown church that is invisible from the streets. It fronts onto a courtyard and is surrounded by the cardinal’s residence and church schools and offices.
The 100+ year old church is reflective of the French influence of the century before last. It is quite beautiful and very well preserved.
The black structure jutting from the wall is the pulpit from which the priests used to preach in the days before microphone systems. (I’ve always had a secret desire to try one some day.)
Fr. John Barth and Charlie at a dim sum restaurant after mass. With us is Arlene Sale (white top) who has been a lay missioner with Maryknoll for many years, working with refugees. Two of her neighbors joined us.

Hospital Day 10

Greetings… The surgeon said that I should be able to fly back to Phnom Penh on Friday or Saturday but that is because I am supposed to fly to the United States on Sunday! That is not a good arrangement but this unexpected surgery has complicated things. The photo is the incision on my side and the drain hole underneath it.

Hospital Day 5

I will be here at BNH Hospital in Bangkok for the next five nights. In a routine physical exam here, the doctor found a tumor on my kidney and wants to remove it. Surgery was to be the next day but the blood bank did not have my A-negative blood so they had to postpone the operation until the right blood type was found today. The surgery will be tomorrow (Saturday) morning. I will not be posting here for the next few days, but as soon as the anesthetic wears off I’ll try to get going again.

Hospital Hangout

I have spent a lot of time at BNH Hospital in Bangkok the last four days, putting in 4 to 7 hours each day as I went through a series of tests and examinations as part of my three-years delayed physical exam. The last exam I had at BNH (where all the Cambodian Maryknollers go) was July, 2019. It is a really pleasant hospital but also a highly rated one. There are a lot of good people here. One of the “people” is this floor-cleaning robot seen here on its “lunch break” in its charging corner.