Earlier this year I broke my left ankle in a climbing accident. It was literally and figuratively a pain. Though the standard of medical care of Thai doctors is excellent, I discovered new levels of frustration with the 70's style of nursing in the local public hospital. Despite this, I discovered a number of advantages of having broken ankle in Thailand, instead of back home in Australia:

1. Wet bathrooms - Thai bathrooms are designed to get totally wet. A common bathing style is to scoop water over yourself from a large bucket of water. This allowed me to sit on a plastic chair with my left foot up on another chair while I washed. A friend even rigged up a shower head with a small tap on the end of the shower hose so I could turn the shower on and off as needed. Brilliant!

2. Warm weather - Thailand has warm (often hot), balmy weather all year round. I never had to worry about my toes getting cold or trying to walk with crutches on snow or ice. 

3. Private hospital clinics - After trying to work within the public hospital system a couple of times, I gave up and saw an orthopod at the local Christian hospital. They arrange a private clinic on certain days for the doctor. I found I could turn up without an appointment, wait a few minutes and go straight in and see the doctor, get my x-ray done and then be out of there within half an hour. 

4. Split cast - Despite my requests for a nice, light fibreglass cast, the doctor decided my split plaster cast was fine. This cast has a top half and bottom half all held together with a long elasticed bandage. It was heavy and didn't always sit perfectly, but I discovered the silver lining about two months into my healing process - every week or so, I could sit on the floor in the bathroom, take off the cast and wash my foot! People kept asking me, "Does it itch?" "Doesn't it smell?" Nope...I had a secret way of taking care of it, thanks to my split cast.

5. Automatic mopeds - After sitting around the house for a month I was ready to get out. I borrowed a fully automatic motor-scooter from a friend, strapped my cructhes onto the back seat of the bike and was able to get around everywhere easily. These mopeds have no foot controls. They have no gears and both brakes are on the hand controls. Simply twist the throttle hand-grip and away you go. They also have a nice flat platform in front of the seat for resting your poor damaged limb. Only - when you stop, remember to lean in the direction of your good foot!

And no, my son's foot was fine - he just wanted to be like dad!