Posture re-alignment

Sawadee Khrap

It’s been over 30 years since I even thought about my posture, yet tried to do anything about it.   For that matter, I cannot think of a time when I did tried to develop it.  But now, in my “Golden” years,  (is that what they call them ? ) stiff necks, tight back muscles, sore knees and feet – it’s about time to look into the matter.  Thanks to “Flying Step”  I am doing just that and can happily report that after 4 days of using the back harness and about a month in the new arch supports – WHAT A DIFFERENCE.  Walking is becoming extremely easy – my morning walking distance is increasing every day and hip, leg, feet problems seem to be going away.  I say SEEM.  because just 4 days, of wearing the harness for just one hour,  is hardly time to say anything is back to normal – but that’s what I am beginning to feel like.   I’ll wear it for one hour/day for the rest of this week and on the first of August start the 4-6 hr./day – focusing on my time spent at the computer.   About Aug 4th, I will go and have the arch supports adjusted for full efficiency.   Check it out if you have any back or feet problems.

By the way, my blood pressure has been stable, averaging 123/56 for the last 3 weeks – and I also found that taking 1/8 of a 20 mg Cialis tab daily helps the BP and keeps an active libido. Turning 74 in Sept and need all the help I can get.

You can find and follow the whole story in the “Hospital/Medicine” links category on the right side.

Ciao

Posture corrector–FlyingStep

Sawadee Khrap

Back-Brace--Flying-Step-copyFlyingStep-BackBrace-webJust got my FlyingStep back brace posture corrector.   Sergey came over and helped me put it on for the first time – INSTRUCTIONS – wear ONLY for 1 hour/day for the first week.  After that 6 hours a day, especially while working at the computer.  This is also the first time in a long time that I could wear a “S” size, I have a 34 in. waist.       Real Quality.

What a difference !!!   I could really feel the change to my posture and the pressure it was putting on my back reminding me to sit up straight  -  I need a lot of correction and after one hour I could really feel the changes being developed and was glad to take it off.  I am sure that wearing this will correct my back problems and pain from being hunched over.  I’ll wear it for 1 hr. for the following week and report back before I start on long term correction.

Flying step logo 3-FinalIf your interested, you can get one from Sergey at Flying Step for 3,300 Baht. (see a earlier post for his company) or you can let me know by comment and I will pass it on to him.

Ciao

Checking Facebook

Sawadee Khrap

One program I DON’T like is “Facebook” – always trying to link you with other people, whether you want to or not, or actually know them  – just to get their numbers up – and people fall for it. 

I try to stay away but I do have a page and check every so often for birthdays, spelling of peoples last names and other events.  This time I checked it out and found some great links some friends posted – thought I’d show links to them here in case you missed them.

feet actmotorcycle bullBruce Lee

First is the “Pole Act” – amazing and then for a little humor – “the Bull and the Motorcycle” – and I think the most inspiring one “Bruce Lee – be like water”

Click on each to play

Ciao

Beauty & the Beast

Sawadee Khrap

Beauty_&_Beast - C2014-hidden-16x20 final

I started out painting the small image below but thought it was too provocative to include aspainting closeupBeauty_&_Beast - CC2014 - orig-16x20-final is, so I added the plant for a little concealment – I actually think it is a little more erotic this way .  Check out the full size view, zeroed in on the lion, so you can see the actual brush strokes – like all my paintings it’s a 16×20 Digital Acrylic, meant to be viewed hanging on a wall, not close up.  This particular one took 28 hours to setup and paint.  What do you think ?  Like it ?  I won’t tell who the model is that is why I have his face hidden, but you may see him on the beach.

Ciao

Boy with sword

Sawadee Khrap

23373-alexandr_fighting_50-flattened -CC2014-final16×20 in. Digital Acrylic Painting – “Boy with Sword”  a little more revealing than most of my earlier works as paintings can be more suggestive because they do not have the clarity to really identify all objects or people.  They offer quite a lot more latitude than trying to produce photorealistic or the ultimate photograph.   I think this conveys the message or story without needing the higher detail.     Since the statue was naked I thought the boy should be too.   What do you think ?

Ciao

A little humor from Paul’s Sunday Funnies

Sawadee Khrap

A pirate walked into a bar, and the bartender said, "Hey, I haven’t seen you in a while. What happened ? You look terrible."
"What do you mean?" said the pirate, "I feel fine."
"What about the wooden leg? You didn’t have that before."
"Well," said the pirate, "We were in a battle, and I got hit with a cannon ball, but I’m fine now."
The bartender replied, "Well, OK, but what about that hook? What happened to your hand?"
The pirate explained, "We were in another battle. I boarded a ship and got into a sword fight. My hand was cut off. I got fitted with a hook but I’m fine, really."
"What about that eye patch?" 
"Oh," said the pirate, "One day we were at sea, and a flock of birds flew over. I looked up, and one of them shit in my eye."
"You’re kidding," said the bartender.
"You couldn’t lose an eye just from bird shit."
"It was my first day with the hook."

Ciao

Stent operation progress–final outcome

Sawadee Khrap

I know many come to Thailand on Medical vacations, so maybe this will help some of you.   My situation with blocked arteries has been temporally resolved.  No operation now, temporary in the fact that there may be need in the future for a stent if my condition worsens because  I do not change my habits to promote healthy living through corrective exercise and diet.

Before I went to Chiang Mai, I was scheduled to have a stent put in the blocked kidney artery – but before the signup I developed an eye infection and had to cancel.  Going back home, I told my local Dr. at the Clinic next to my condo that I was also having problems with one of my BP medicines – Madiplot.  He suggested that I partially or maybe fully replace it with “Valpress” and sold me some to try out for a month – 160 mg/day  14 tabs – 1,300 baht.  Tried it and it worked great – so I eliminated the Madiplot  ( immediately the edema in my legs cleared up) and through monitoring I  found that I would need 160 mg/ twice a day.  (2,600 Baht/mo. ) to keep my BP in check.   Valpress is a med that causes the arteries to relax and expand therefore reducing the blood pressure. – It also meant the more blood was going to the kidney through the blocked artery.  I started to feel like I did before I started this adventure.   So now I only need -  1 baby aspirin, 1 Apolets (blood thinner), Valpress 2x 160, and Folic acid each day.   The Folic Acid is great for the kidney functions.

So well I was in Chiang Mai, I saw the kidney Doctor at Siriphat  (Suan Dok Hospital)  – great readings – no operation necessary at this time  – everything is stable now.  While there, I also checked several pharmacies to see about a generic version of my meds for a better price since I will be taking this stuff for the rest of my life – Valpress is a import – Swiss product  – lo and behold – Thailand produces a generic version “Valatan” and normal pricing is 680 Baht for my one month supply.  2,600 down to 680 Baht  — quite a savings.  So now I will look for a generic version of Apolets to see if this price can be brought to a minimum.  Baby aspirin and Folic acid tabs are really cheap. Possibly  getting the total pricing down to around 1,500 Baht/mo.  or  $50 US/mo.  reasonable and well within my budget.

What started out as needing a 700,000 to 800,000 Baht operation and continued use of the meds has now resolved itself to just the meds ( at substantially reduced prices) and change of life style – exercise and diet.   You can read about the full story in past posts.  Had I had insurance to cover the needs, I would have undergone a very expensive operation and God only knows what side effects would have occurred.  Without Insurance, I was forced to really evaluate my situation and seek alternative plans  – first contacting the local Gov’t hospitals and continued monitoring and adjusting my meds.  All the first drugs “thrown” at the problem had tremendous side effects and actually made the problem worse.   Thank God, the Gov’t hospital doctors were not so quick to jump to surgery – and when I was finally going to be admitted for the kidney stent, the eye infection that put that on hold, otherwise I would have never found out about the Valpress.

It was the Valpress that was the real answer to my present problem – relax and open the arties to allow more flow to the kidney and stop it from demanding higher blood pressure.  Voila, In retrospect, the simplest solution.  My kidney doctor states that Valpress is by far the best and safest med to use to reduce the BP and protect the kidney – case solved.  I feel great and looking forward to having my new arch supports bring my back and spine into proper alignment and posture. -  next will be a special strapping device to bring my shoulders back when sitting at the computer – thanks to Sergey and his company “Flying Step”  I may just be a new man, knocking 10-20 years off my apparent age.

If you have any questions concerning Medical Vacations in Thailand -  send me a comment and I will try to answer for you.  But my recommendation is to always check with the Thai Gov’t Hospitals for a first or second diagnosis before submitting for any procedures  – Insurances or not.   The side effects may not be worth it.

Ciao

Chiang Mai trip

Sawadee Khrap

IMG_144620140710_091350-EditJust got back from a great visit to Chiang Mai – first I went to see  ‘Kay”.   Got to spend a couple of days with him in between his working and we got in a visit to Doi Suthep – I’ll post some photos later.  We’re hoping to be able to get together when I move back to Chiang Mai.  The day I left he made this beautiful flower arrangement for me.  He has been my inspiration and helper during my visits at the hospital – I’ll post the results on that ordeal in a future post – but everything checked out OK and no operation is needed at this time – what a relief.


20140708_183655I stayed at the B2Geen Hotel, just around the corner from the Soho Bar on Huay Kaew Rd.  They have the greatest TukTuk I have seen so far – 20140709_182832 Used it to go to dinner with Jim and Mike at Pern’s the night before I left Chiang Mai  20140709_182511Here’s a  shot of Jim’s newly re-furbished Honda Motorcycle – what a beauty.


I also got to visit David Cooper at McKean Retirement Home at Dok Kaew Gardens  – Jim and I took him to lunch at IMG_1379the Marrakech Restaurant at the Shiek Istana Hotel – what a beautiful place and great food.IMG_1391IMG_1394


Nice trip – great weather , flight and time.  Took bus up and AsiaAir  flight back.

Ciao.

Detailed painting

Sawadee Khrap

This is my most detailed painting so far – nearly 20 hours work went into it.  Especially the detail on the walls – that was a bitch.  Every painting, or photos for that matter, should tell a Model_13_Photo_11-Edit-CC oil paint -2014 finalstory – In this one,  I left the story up to you. Who or what is he waving to – is it good bye or something else. – who’s room is this ????   many question – what do you think? 

As you can probably see, I’m having trouble doing hands – damn, just cant get them right so far – practice, practice, practice, I guess.  Too bad the initial focal point of this painting that I wanted to direct the eye  IS  the hand – I’ll do better the next time.  This is also a 20×16 Digital Acrylic Painting.  I haven’t started to explore the oil texture painting capabilities which will produce actual 3D appearing brush strokes – similar to Impasto techniques – this my next challenge.  Right now,  I,m just trying to get control of my brush techniques.  But I am getting better.

Ciao