my last post mentioned michael’s type-2 diabetes diagnosis.  which might not be a correct diagnosis.  michael was in krung thep mahanakhon amon rattanakosin mahinthara yuthaya mahadilok phop noppharat ratchathani burirom udomratchaniwet mahasathan amon phiman awatan sathit sakkathattiya witsanukam prasit last week when we got the results from the doctor in the u s of a.  (and, yes, i do feel very smart when i copy and paste the full name of bangkok in to my posts.)  which meant we couldn’t do much about it.  he got back late saturday night, so we were up and at it early this morning.

i’d worked concessions at a badmitton tournament all day saturday.  (badmitton is big here in asia.  real big.)  and  i asked the lady i was working with if she knew of a doctor we might be able to use that could help us navigate the what and how of diabetes. and she did.  she gave me the name of a doctor who has a clinic on the moat and you can just walk on in.  no appointment needed.  so that’s just what we did.  he asked michael a few questions, looked at the results of the bloodwork and immediately doubted the diagnosis.  partly because there is absolutely no family history of diabetes on michael’s side of the family – that he knows of – and partly because the cellulitis hasn’t cleared up and he’s been on all kinds of antibiotics and those, combined with the infection itself, can do a number on your sugar levels.  he hasn’t totally ruled out diabetes, but he’s highly doubtful that’s what it is.

he did do a random blood test today and the results were 126.  which, from what he said, is great for a non-fasting blood test.  he then looked at a few more things, prescribed some more antibiotics that should finally kill the infection – hopefully – and told michael to come back in on saturday, so he can look at his legs.  and then michael heads out of town again.   when he gets back, he’s to call the doctor’s office to make an appointment for more blood work, this time fasting, and for an angiogram – because the doctor said there is definately something causing the blood to not flow correctly through his legs.  and after all that’s done he should be able to make a more definitive diagnosis.  so for now we wait.

and our new doctor’s not really puerto rican, he just told us he was.  he’s really 1/2 thai and 1/2 indian,  but when he was studying in new york and people would ask him where he was from he would say, “thailand.”  and they would say, “you don’t look thai.” and he would say, “well, my dad’s indian, my mother is thai and i was raised in thailand.”  and they would say, “you don’t look indian.”  so he asked them, “what do i look like?”  and they said, “puerto rican.”