While you are being prepared for surgery, there isn’t much for a patient to do other than to answer a litany of questions. Other than that, the patient just waits for all the procedures to be completed. While lying on the gurney, the nurse prepared the IV for the saline solution. I watched her unseal a dozen items from small plastic envelopes. She did it exactly how she was taught and had done it countless times before me.

Then it hit me. I asked the nurse whether she knew what I was thinking as she unwrapped all of the items for the IV. I’m sure she thought I might want to know about some of the issues related to my upcoming surgery. She merely responded that she didn’t know what was bouncing around in my head.

I gave her a truncated history of discovering Ti Ti, my granddaughter, a decade ago in Myanmar. It was the same story that I had written about countless times or told friends of mine. While visiting Inle Lake, Moh Moh, my tour guide, had to pick up my itinerary after leaving that area. It contained the tour guide’s name, my hotel, and sites I’d see.

I told my nurse that Moh Moh added that I could meet her oldest daughter, who was home on winter break. When we walked into their living room, I was greeted with this question from her nine-year-old daughter, “Hi. My name is Ti Ti. Do you want to play some games?” For the next hour, we played Scrabble, laughed, and enjoyed the time we spent.

I gave my nurse my website address so she could see hundreds of photos of my family and my three trips to Myanmar. Here are but a few of them.

This is a photo of my family on my third trip.

My family lives in a developing country in Southeast Asia. Since it gained independence as a British colony, it has experienced seventy-five years of internal warfare. The most recent military coup occurred in 2021.

I told my nurse that what my family faces hurts me emotionally. My family has tried repeatedly to get a Diversity Visa from our State Department and come to live with me in Crown Point. A couple of years ago, I offered to have Ti Ti come to attend college. However, she was rejected three times by a white American embassy employee who had issues with Asians. My nurse heard about my writing several emails to our embassy.

Additionally, I emailed the Chargé d'Affaires at the embassy. However, the gatekeeper didn’t give the Chargé d'Affaires my email. The gatekeeper merely mentioned that my granddaughter wanted a student visa.

Aside from the personal suffering that my family faces, I said to my nurse about the lack of any essential medical treatment my family has, along with nearly everyone in Myanmar. I have been in hospitals for a subdural hematoma, prostate cancer, and tarsal tunnel syndrome. I wonder how many people in Myanmar know someone in their country who has had similar hospitalizations for subdural hematoma, prostate cancer, or tarsal tunnel syndrome. No one in the country could afford those surgeries.

The lack of essential health care is a problem not limited to Myanmar. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that “more than half of the world’s population is still not covered by essential health services.”

There I was, getting prepared to remove some fluid in my ear. It was a surgery that would take less than 10 minutes. All the doctor had to do was make a small incision in my eardrum and remove the fluid. However, 5 million people die annually due to a lack of essential health services. There I was, having some fluid removed from one of my ears.

A short addendum. Today is Moh Moh’s birthday. I’m thinking about her and the rest of my family. I am the luckiest person in the world because I was born in America. I’m alive despite my two dances with death. If I lived in Myanmar, I’d be one of the five million who die annually in the world. I’m alive and lucky to have discovered my family a decade ago in Myanmar.