17 replies to this topic

[bkkldby]

i was going to put this in the Health thread but decided it was actually more of a Work Permit/Visa topic.

this will not effect many members but a new law/regulation concerning the issuing of WPs came into effect in October.

all new, and all renewals, of a WP must include the submission of a doctors certificate and a blood test certificate stating the applicant is, among a few other things, free of syphilis.

so when i found this out i went to the hospital to get a test. imagine my surprise when i am told an hour later that i have syphilis and i am not eligible to work anymore, will have to forfeit my non-im visa, leave the country, and only be allowed to return as a tourist. this is after 20 years of being here and having paid thousands of USD in taxes with the goal of qualifying for a residency permit next year.

i asked if there could be some kind of mistake and they told me no. i then asked to see my physician of the last 15 years and he advised me to see a specialist, and to also take another test. all well and good but i had only 18 hours remaining to accomplish this before everything would start to automatically go into default and be lost forever.

i then went and consulted my good friend and lawyer who is helping me with all of this and he told me to relax and take it easy as it was probably a fekked test. easy to say when you are a Thai national who never has to suffer this sort of bs.

so this morning i woke up early, went to another hospital and took not only the syph test, but also all the others. i figured if i did have it, then i could also have something else. (i was also mulling over in my head all the girls i would have to contact and have this very difficult discussion with. that would be all the girls i have been with in the last 6 months #%$&@*! ......................... i also figured i would be tagged as the 'Typhoid Mary of Nana', a pariah of the streets. but i figured it would have to be done and i was formulating that discussion over and over in my head as i tried to sleep last night.)

now i have not had unprotected sex in years, and i have had other exams in the recent past that were negative, so i was trying to figure out how this happened. well, the CDC says on their website that unprotected or not, oral sex is now considered to be the #1 cause of the spread of syphilis transmission. GUILTY AS CHARGED ... i was starting to think i deserved it if i really did have it. i was waiting for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightening to strike me where i stood for all of my depravity.

turns out i am not positive, and i have none of the other dreaded STDs either, and i am going to be able to continue to work.

the reason i am relating this all is that this is the second time i have had a false positive test and i advise anyone who is tested for anything here in LOS, and the results are not satisfactory, to get a second opinion.

if you know you are coming up for application i suggest you go for the test a few months ahead of time so that if you do test positive you can get the shot and be clean by the official time to make application.

what is nice is that the HIV results are computer generated and put in an envelope with a special seal to protect your identity and the results. you will see in one of the images below that it states the results are confidential. the other doc shows the confidential one.

BTW: the staff at Sukhumvit Hospital told me that the doctors/labs/hospitals/clinics are not compelled to report the results (gun shot wound anyone? 55555), so that is also in your favor if you test positive and need time to get treated and clean.

what is also soooooo crazy is that i could have full blown HIV-Aids and no one will ask me a thing. apparently there are over a million Burmese coming here to work, and they are over 10% infected. the whole process is in place to screen them and all others must also be screened so that there are no cries accusing the Thais of discrimination.

image 1: not what you want

images 2, 3 & 4: much better results

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Edited by bkkldby, 07 December 2011 - 04:23 PM.

[luv u long time]

Wow that is great news for you (eventually)
My heart sunk for you when I read how bad the consequence was going to be for you.
Thanks for sharing mate. Quite an eye-opener.

[mardhi]

The fun we have to go through every year just to continue paying taxes is often quite beyond me. I am just waiting for the day someone tells me I have elephantitis whatever the heck that is.

[transgirls]

False positives are very common, in fact, the probability for false positives is over 50%.

Read this:
http://healtoronto.com/pospre.html

[bkkldby]

luv u long time, on 07 December 2011 - 03:02 PM, said:

Wow that is great news for you (eventually)
My heart sunk for you when I read how bad the consequence was going to be for you.
Thanks for sharing mate. Quite an eye-opener.

as mardhi says below, the shit we must endure in order to contribute is staggering and every year it gets more involved and more expensive.

mardhi, on 07 December 2011 - 04:37 PM, said:

The fun we have to go through every year just to continue paying taxes is often quite beyond me. I am just waiting for the day someone tells
me I have elephantitis whatever the heck that is.

onetruesaxon, on 07 December 2011 - 05:03 PM, said:

Nice to see it all worked out for you mate ! After reading the start I thought WTF that's unfair.

which was exactly what i was thinking before i got the second test's results

transgirls, on 07 December 2011 - 09:02 PM, said:

False positives are very common, in fact, the probability for false positives is over 50%.

Read this:
http://healtoronto.com/pospre.html

true, what is amazing though is given the statistical probability, and the ramifications of being positive, i found the first doctor to be a complete ass who showed zero concern and could have cared less if i was out on the street without a job and a 15 day tourist visa. TIT

Edited by bkkldby, 07 December 2011 - 10:05 PM.

[bkkldby]

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[Solice]

You would have known if you had syphilis, red rash all over your body, incredible weight loss and you always get a sore where the disease entered your body, which goes away after a week or two. Not a nice one to have and will kill you if left untreated, however the antidote is far more painfull than syphilis ever could be.

Glad your in good health mate, but it must have been a bit of a scare.

[cesar67]

even though i always have protected sex in los, always take a course of tablets, that deals with chlamydia, ghonorea and syphilis, after being back home for a fortnight.
as with chlamydhia there can be no symtomns, so better being safe than sorry.
just ask for them at a pharmacy, they will know what you are on about, you take 4 one day in one go, then the next day take the other 2

[grandy]

Pandemonium, on 08 December 2011 - 05:59 AM, said:

even though i always have protected sex in los, always take a course of tablets, that deals with chlamydia, ghonorea and syphilis, after being back home for a fortnight.
as with chlamydhia there can be no symtomns, so better being safe than sorry.
just ask for them at a pharmacy, they will know what you are on about, you take 4 one day in one go, then the next day take the other 2

There is no course of tablets for Syphilis , I hope you know that.

None, Zero. Zip. Zlich. The ONLY treatment for Syphilis is Penicillin (Benzathine penicillin G 2.4 million units) and only by injection. in dire circumstances one can take tablets as an alternative for much more than 4 days and this is not recommended. In fact it is preferable to treat the Penicillin allergic for the Penicillin allergy (with steroids or antihistamines) than to try pills for Syphilis.

Find a better pharmacy or better yet, see a doctor if you think that you have these diseases.

I wonder now what you think you are taking for Chlamydia or Gonorrhea. There is no 4 pills one day 2 the next for these two diseases either.

Ironically there IS a treament of just one pill for each one day , one time. FYI since you all think self-medication is a good idea, for Gonorrhea it is 400 mg Cefixime or 125 mg Ceftriaxone by injection, and for Chlamydia it is 1000 mg of Azithromycin in a single dose.

I just commented on another board that for some reason Pattaya boards are full of what has to be the worst, most inaccurate medical advice I have ever seen, and I am a physician ( and I can assure you that 99.99999999999% of you are not).

Solice's list of symptoms of Syphilis are wrong as well.

Transgirls false positive rate for VDRL (Syphilis) testing is wrong.

A reputable lab, and not just to earn more $, will retest a positive (reactive) VDRL test, and will almost insist on a 2nd test, Western Blot for a positive HIV test.

Edited by grandy, 08 December 2011 - 08:16 AM.

[hanz]

Excellent info grandy...thanks for posting.

[bkkldby]

too every one who has replied thanks.

grandy, on 08 December 2011 - 08:09 AM, said:

There is no course of tablets for Syphilis , I hope you know that.

None, Zero. Zip. Zlich. The ONLY treatment for Syphilis is Penicillin (Benzathine penicillin G 2.4 million units) and only by injection. in dire circumstances one can take tablets as an alternative for much more than 4 days and this is not recommended. In fact it is preferable to treat the Penicillin allergic for the Penicillin allergy (with steroids or antihistamines) than to try pills for Syphilis.

Find a better pharmacy or better yet, see a doctor if you think that you have these diseases.

I wonder now what you think you are taking for Chlamydia or Gonorrhea. There is no 4 pills one day 2 the next for these two diseases either.

Ironically there IS a treament of just one pill for each one day , one time. FYI since you all think self-medication is a good idea, for Gonorrhea it is 400 mg Cefixime or 125 mg Ceftriaxone by injection, and for Chlamydia it is 1000 mg of Azithromycin in a single dose.

I just commented on another board that for some reason Pattaya boards are full of what has to be the worst, most inaccurate medical advice I have ever seen, and I am a physician ( and I can assure you that 99.99999999999% of you are not).

Solice's list of symptoms of Syphilis are wrong as well.

Transgirls false positive rate for VDRL (Syphilis) testing is wrong.

A reputable lab, and not just to earn more $, will retest a positive (reactive) VDRL test, and will almost insist on a 2nd test, Western Blot for a positive HIV test.

grandy, thanks for the clarification.

[transgirls]

Quote

Transgirls false positive rate for VDRL (Syphilis) testing is wrong.

True. for Syphilis, the CDC reported 18% of false positives.
I was referring to HIV tests, as the article I linked shows.

[Solice]

grandy, on 08 December 2011 - 08:09 AM, said:

There is no course of tablets for Syphilis , I hope you know that.

None, Zero. Zip. Zlich. The ONLY treatment for Syphilis is Penicillin (Benzathine penicillin G 2.4 million units) and only by injection. in dire circumstances one can take tablets as an alternative for much more than 4 days and this is not recommended. In fact it is preferable to treat the Penicillin allergic for the Penicillin allergy (with steroids or antihistamines) than to try pills for Syphilis.

Find a better pharmacy or better yet, see a doctor if you think that you have these diseases.

I wonder now what you think you are taking for Chlamydia or Gonorrhea. There is no 4 pills one day 2 the next for these two diseases either.

Ironically there IS a treament of just one pill for each one day , one time. FYI since you all think self-medication is a good idea, for Gonorrhea it is 400 mg Cefixime or 125 mg Ceftriaxone by injection, and for Chlamydia it is 1000 mg of Azithromycin in a single dose.

I just commented on another board that for some reason Pattaya boards are full of what has to be the worst, most inaccurate medical advice I have ever seen, and I am a physician ( and I can assure you that 99.99999999999% of you are not).

Solice's list of symptoms of Syphilis are wrong as well.

Transgirls false positive rate for VDRL (Syphilis) testing is wrong.

A reputable lab, and not just to earn more $, will retest a positive (reactive) VDRL test, and will almost insist on a 2nd test, Western Blot for a positive HIV test.

Nice to have a physician on board and someone who knows what they are talking about because I was obviously talking shit and utter bollocks.

Step back five years ago, while in Australia I started to get red blotches all over my body, about the size of a 2 pence piece, I also got major weight loss, I went from 13 stone to about 9.5 roughly losing about 1 kilo a day even though I was still eating well. Also had a sore on my body which went after a week or so.

Went to see a doctor who wasnt quite sure what it was but on the second visit guess what she said she thought it was? c'mon can you get it?
















Fuck me, amazingly it was Syphilis.

This was diagnosed by a young doctor who was just starting to work in her first practice and she just blew you away with her professional diagnosis.

These were MY symptoms and maybe they differ from person to person but rather than be impressed at you being a physician im worried that you dont recognise the disease by my symptoms when this newby to the medical profession did.

Back to your medical journal methinks, try not to kill any fucker will you.

Or guys if you want a good doctor go to OZ.

PS 99.99999999999% of the time with regard to forums I will only comment on something that I have experienced or know for sure that I am correct!! otherwise some smart arse makes you look a cunt.

Edited by Solice, 09 December 2011 - 05:00 AM.

[bob2011]

Now you have got me worried..........Could you have a false negative?????????

Happy for you that your problem was sorted out but I guess it could go the other way and you wouldn't check it out any further and hence you wouldn't know.

Scary!

Edited by bob2011, 09 December 2011 - 01:01 AM.

[icebergjr.]

Great to see everything turned out OK! Pheeww! this must have been scary as I can bet you didn't want .to return to the USA after 20+ years of living in Paradise .

Selfishly, all I could think about was "How am I going to replace such a great wingman in phuket,and also where am I going to get such great smoked ribs! LOL!in LOS!"

Glad your OK,and this always reminds us to get a 2nd opinion!
Cheers,
Tony

[American Eagle]

I had a false positive for HIV once when I donated blood.

The Red Cross sent me a letter and it stated that it was probably a false positive because they get a lot of them, and that I should get re-tested (but they didn't say they would do it for free), so I went to my Dr. and showed him the letter. We did a HIV test and full Liver panel and all came out AOK.

Later I told a friend of mine that is a micro-biologist who tests food for samonella, etc. and he got pissed. He said if they are getting a lot of false positives, then it's because the lab they are using are using bad tests or doing a piss poor job testing the blood. He said he has to deal with that kind of BS all the time with the FDA that uses out-dated testing methods.

Anyway, that was my little moment of fear, and I'm glad Bkkldby is ok.

[pied]

Just encouragement for all that partake in this hobby to get yourself tested regularly. I know there is risk and if i catch something I don't want to infect others. I have been doing HIV tests every 3 months and a full panel of STD tests every 6 months. There are many places that do tests for HIV for free. In Phoenix I know two that do the test free and you get the results in 30 min to an hour. Forget the exact time. The Maricopa Health department does a full panel for $20.00 and it includes treatment if you have anything except HIV. Almost every large city will have these free or affordable services available. I did get a Shot and Three pills to take once for gonorrhea that I got from a blow job. LGBT community is an excellent source of information. They are very helpful and do not judge.
Pied

Oh the full panel also includes a swab of your mouth and ass.

Edited by pied, 19 December 2011 - 11:20 AM.

[bkkldby]

as it turns out the health report requirement was the first of three items that immigration forget to ask for prior to my applying for my extension. i was to return with the health report only to be asked on two consecutive trips out there for more documentation. all of which is not listed on the schedule of docs required, or on the website. each time they simply smiled, giggled,,and sent us packing only to return with what they asked for and then asked again for something else.

each time i had to get a visa extension and the entire process took 2 weeks instead of one day.

i think they simply enjoy screwing with us.

i have now got my docs in hand for the next year and hopefully by the time i have to go back next year they will not have added anything new and not listed on the website.