One night Alan had a tachycardia attack that lasted about on hour. It was a little scary and we called Dr. Stewart and he gave him some techniques to try to stop the racing heart beats. It would work for a few seconds and then start up again. We were just getting ready to call our translator and a taxi to head to the emergency room when it suddenly stopped. We were so thankful. Anyway, Dr. Stewart said Alan should have an EKG and Ultrasound and we had to wait until Monday before we get it done. This is the hospital in Khovd where it was done.
EKG and Ultrasound
The doctor was a woman doctor and she was really good. She also had an ultrasound machine in her private office, so we went and had that done too. Apparently, he was having an incident while the tests were being run and he didn't know it. That concerned Dr. Stewart a bit and he suggested we come to UB for further tests. He wanted Alan to wear a heart monitor for 24 hours and the one the doctor had in Khovd didn't have a battery that would last that long. Side note: the cost of the ultrasound was 10,000 tugs or $7.50. We went to the market on the way home and bought a famous Khovd watermelon that was also 10,000 tugs. We found it interesting that a watermelon would be the same cost as a heart test!
After the tests we made it to the YSA FHE
We taught English one day and then found out our flight to UB was scheduled earlier than we had expected, so we cancelled the rest of the classes that day and went home to pack. We only took clothes for 5 days expecting we would be returning to Khovd after the tests were completed.
We got to UB and the next day went to the hospital. The doctor, Munkhsaikhan, is the head heart doctor in UB and he said Alan could either take a week to get all the tests run as an outpatient or stay in the hospital overnight to expedite the testing. We, of course, took the overnight hospital stay.
We got him all admitted and into this room that looked like the best room in the hospital! It was on the 6th floor and was connected to a lounge/exercise room .
This door connected his private "penthouse" room to the exercise room and artifacts room.
He also had a nice view of the city.
They ran many tests on him from another EKG and Ultrasound, to a treadmill stress test, blood work, urine analysis, echo cardiogram, CT heart scan, and sleep apnea test. They also had him on oxygen overnight. He never did get the 24-hour monitor to wear. They said the one they had scheduled for him was needed for an emergency heart surgery and one would be available the next morning, but it never showed up before he left the hospital The total bill for the 1.5 day stay was less then one day room charge in the hospital I worked in. They then explained all the tests in English to me. The doctor said there was blockage in two arteries and he wanted to do an angioplasty. Dr. Stewart was not comfortable with that invasive of an action and suggested we decide whether we wanted to have it done here or go home. We prayed about it and decided that we would stay and have it done here.
(These are pictures of the penthouse suite. The living room area, the bathroom and the bedroom.)
Dr. Stewart came back in the afternoon to visit us and said he had talked to the Mission President, SL Medical and Asia Medical and they all recommended we go home. They said stents have only been performed in this country for a few years and a by-pass had never been done. If he needed that, they felt he would be better off at home where that is a common procedure. So we made the decision to return home with much sadness at leaving this country, but happy that he would have the medical help he might need. Overall, the stay in the hospital was good. The staff was great, the medical care was excellent, but the food wasn't all that great! Otherwise, no complaints.
These are some Mongolian artifacts collected by Dr. Munkhsaikhan that were in the adjacent room.
Alan really enjoyed the pieces which depicted the daily life of Mongolian herders.
We checked out of the hospital and walked back to the mission home, stopping at Broadway Pizza for dinner. While there, President Benson called and invited us to tuna casserole at their house. Sadly, we declined as we had already ordered the pizza.
We flew out of UB on a Monday morning, went to Tokyo and then to Minneapolis and Salt Lake City. It was a long flight, but we had good seats--mostly in the back of the plane where there were only two seats and we could get up and stand if necessary. We were also close to the bathroom so that was nice. We were thankful for an uneventful flight.
1 comment:
Was this recent?
Post a Comment