Adventures in a Bangkok ER

     Before we left for Thailand I took a trip to the Pearl Market where they sell jewelry of all sorts.  I bought a cheap ring to wear while on holiday so I could keep my real stuff safe at home.  The ring I bought was actually three rings interconnected. 

      On our second day in Bangkok we met up with Kristina and Sara and went to a couple temples.  Sara complemented me on my ring and I took it off to show her.  When I put it back on it felt tight but I thought that it was just the heat and I would work on getting it off later when I could cool my hand off. 

     Later we went back to our hotel and I tried several things to get the ring off and it wouldn’t budge.  My finger was slowly starting to swell.  We got ready for our evening and headed out.  While at a beautiful rooftop bar I started to feel more anxious about getting the ring off.  I was feeling trapped. 

Here is the ring at the rooftop hotel before we decided it needed to come off.

     The bar was in a nice hotel so I went to the lobby and asked the front desk ladies to ask a maintenance person to come with wire cutters.  A little man showed up a few minutes later and tried his best to get it off.  He was clearly scared to hurt me.  I decided to wait for Matt to come down and I knew that he would try harder. 

At this point we're still able to laugh at the situation.  Here is my loving husband about to try and cut the ring off with wire cutters.

     At this point my finger has swollen significantly, is red and throbbing.  Matt comes down and tries two separate tools but cannot cut it off.  The ladies at the front desk were very helpful and got me ice to try and make the swelling go down.  After working on getting it off for several minutes, they suggested what I didn’t want them to suggest; go to the ER and have them cut it off. 

     We show up at the hospital in a cab where things look nice and clean and there were no other patients.  Several people dressed as medical professionals were eager to help.  They put me into a small exam room while Sara and Kristina sat in the waiting room. 

It was soothing to see a little piece of home on the wall of the ER in Bangkok.

Oh yes, its going to have to come off, the ring that is will have to be removed, not your finger.

     A man walked in, took a look at my finger and said “I don’t think that we will have to cut it off but we are going to have to get the rings off.”  Hmm.  What’s that?  You don’t THINK you will have to cut WHAT off?  All I could do was laugh. Hysterically.  Manically. 

     They brought in a small round saw that seemed to have been left in the rain  a tad too long.  They tried and failed to cut through just a single ring.  “Not strong enough” they said. 

Things get a little more intense. 

     Every time someone tried to cut one ring it would tighten painfully on all of the rings. I asked for pain medication.  They said that they were coming.  Liars.

The next method was a highly skilled, advanced medical procedure called “tie floss around the finger to make the swelling go down and move the ring up a little at a time”  This my friends, hurt.  Matt held me as I squealed like a Howler Monkey with snot and tears covering my face.  A nurse tapped sympathetically on my back.  45* minutes later, the ring was off. Then they gave me a pain pill.  The doctor* walked back in held to the room, picked up my ring and said “this is too small for you fingers.” Lesson learned.

Bri

*Possible Exaggeration