John Gaquin wrote:
"cjcampbell" wrote in message

And as I sit here this morning, waiting to catch a plane to Manila
where I will have surgery for a hernia,

Just out of curiosity, why are you travelling to Manila for the surgery?

The local hospitals are substandard, to say the least. Also, doctors
here have a way of prescribing whatever procedures are most profitable,
whether they are necessary or not. A number of our missionaries have
been threatened with unnecessary appendectomies when all they had was
gastroenteritis. The best Filipino doctors and nurses have a habit of
leaving the country. Actually, I am not all that excited about Manila,
either, but at least we have an American doctor there who will review
everything.