Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
This is Dr. Long Chhour, an eye specialist, who has been testing and treating me for Age-related Macular Degeneration in my left eye. AMD in my case causes a fuzziness to appear in my central vision in that eye. The electronic unit is for testing with Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT). I have been lucky to find Dr. Chhour in Phnom Penh.
These are the OCT test results. The shallow part of the green curve indicates degeneration of the macula. It is a really interesting testing procedure.
Today I decided (sadly) that it is time to start carrying my rain poncho in my bike basket again. The rainy season is on time and we’re starting to get both daytime showers and heavier rains at night.
In the last year I have spent quite a bit of time in the Surgery Department at BNH Hospital in Bangkok. A routine physical exam in May, 2022 discovered cancer on my kidney and I had surgery then. After that I was back in November for a post-op follow up and in going through that they found more spots on the kidney. So I had to come back this week for CT scans to see what they were, but two scans indicated the spots were not cancer but scar tissue from the previous surgery. So all is well. Deo gratias.
The other part of BNH where I spend a lot of time is the fourth floor, the general medical area where I have my physical exams. This is an interior courtyard on the fourth floor. It used to be all grass and landscaping but during the Covid time, they added some small offices and consultation rooms for an allergy unit. They made a good mix of work space and pleasant landscaping.
The architects created very comfortable and aesthetically pleasing connections between the existing interior rooms and the now-more-visible garden area outside.
For me, one of the real irritants in air travel is waiting for luggage at the big airports. I don’t mind the waiting so much, but people crowd up right to the edge of the carousel so that others cannot see the bags that are coming. And it’s even worse when they bring the luggage trolleys up to the carousel. Bangkok puts this red-and-blue line around the carousel and asks people to stay behind it, and then everyone can see. Obviously (see the photo) not everyone follows this directive but it sure makes things better.
This is one of many Buddhas at Wat Tuek Thla in Phnom Penh. Many Buddha images are common in the wats but this large image is a bit distinctive because the facial features don’t portray the normal visage.
This morning at 7:15 AM I was riding my bicycle home from mass with Mother Teresa’s sisters and heard someone calling me. It wasn’t my name because he is deaf but I stopped and it was Samath, our former staff artist who now is on the staff of the National Institute of Special Education. He was off today and was taking a 30 or 40-mile bicycle ride to Kandal Province to see some deaf friends. It was great to see him again! I didn’t know of his bicycle-riding interest.
The sun is not yet up and your entree at a swank upscale restaurant tonight might still be in a tub at this Phnom Penh wet market.
Musica Felice is one of the artistic treasures of Cambodia. Ms. Miwako Fujiwara, a most talented professional musician, is also an amazing organizer and she combines those two gifts in producing Musica Felice concerts to benefit deserving NGOs and organizations (such as the Deaf Development Programme). Miwako has three or four concerts a year in the Sofitel Hotel and they are always impressive performances. This photo is from today’s performance with presenting music from Beethoven to Queen.
After almost a one-month hiatus, I finally have access to this website again! The technicians at EsoSoft that hosts my website found two plug-ins that had stopped functioning and disabled them so now I think things will work OK.
This is just a quick test that I can post again and a notice that I should be on the air daily from now on. I’m sorry for the silence! I hope you can come back again!
It’s 7:00 AM Sunday morning here in Phnom Penh. I’ll be back later today.