Helping Dieselnoi See - Cataract Surgery a Success!

above, Dieselnoi, one of the greatest fighters in Thai history, hitting his fighter pose in the waiting room of Bangkok Hopsital Pataya Eye Center a couple of days ago - my vlog at top

The Full Story - Dieselnoi Needed Help

In early November, Kevin and I drove into Bangkok to drop off a heavy duty winter jacket for Karuhat, who would be leaving for a seminar tour in the US during the brutal months of November-December. Coming from Thailand, the extent of his cold weather clothing is jeans and maybe a hoodie. While we were dropping of the jacket, we happened to run into Dieselnoi, who was also at the gym that morning. He looked thin and a little tired; he suffers with psoriosis (something we've taken him to the doctor for a few years ago, when he was experiencing a pretty rough flair up) and the medicine he takes to treat his psoriosis makes him vomit he says, so he's lost a fair bit of weight. What I noticed, however, was the way he kept blinking his eyes hard and wiping at his right eye. I asked, and he told me that he's been having trouble seeing out of that eye for a while. He said it didn't hurt, but that his vision was blurry and he was having a hard time while driving.

I asked a few more questions and Kevin and I tried to google some leads to what this might be, but Dieselnoi brushed off most of our concern and nodded when we said we'd like to bring him to a doctor. He's old-Thai tough, stubborn, and can endure a lot, so it can be hard to understand how bad his symptoms might actually be. His health had been kind of spotty for a while and he wasn't able to teach privates for a bit, but he told me he wanted to teach and I was able to book him some sessions recently, but I worried about him even driving to get to them. Finally, just after New Year, I was able to book him an appointment at the Bangkok Hospital in Pattaya. He drove down carefully and waited dutifully to see the doctor. Kevin waited in the chairs by the desk and I went in with Dieselnoi any time he moved from one office to another. The doctor looked at his eyes through an apperatus and immediately recognized cateract in his right eye and some early cloudiness in his left eye. The right eye, the one he'd been struggling with, would need surgery to replace the lens. I've sat with Dieselnoi in front of doctors before; he is polite and deferential, but a little like a kid being scolded in his soft voice and agreeability.

Surgery For the Legend Scheduled

"Are you okay with having surgery?" I asked him. He looked at me briefly and nodded, looking down again. He's what you call "greng jai," in Thai. It means not wanting to inconvenience or bother others, being shy to ask and very grateful to accept. I addressed this directly, "You don't have to be greng jai with me," I said, "I want you to get better so we want you to get the surgery, but only if you want it." He looked up and nodded again. The nurses took us to an office where you sign agreement forms for big expenses and procedures. I sat in the main chair and Dieselnoi parked himself on a sofa to the side, looking at his phone. The accountant showed me the estimate, told me what that included and what it didn't. I texted Kevin, still in the doctor's waiting room, and got the ping back, "yes." I signed to paper and the accountant told me she'd check the hospital queue to arrange for the surgery. As we headed back upstairs, Dieselnoi was kind of hunched, clutching his phone and asked me in a hushed voice how expensive it was. I waved my hand and told him directly that his health doesn't have a price, that it wasn't something to concern himself about. He truly feels like a young boy at times, which is endearing but also requires me to step into a kind of authority role to assure him, which feels weird due to our ages and dynamic of teacher/student, idol/idolizer.

above, us in the Bangkok Hospital after seeing the doctor

The surgery was scheduled for 2 weeks out and we left with an envelope full of his diagnosis and prognosis, written in Thai. I don't know if he read it. But upon returning to Bangkok he posted to his facebook page about seeing the doctor and scheduling the surgery, thanking me and Kevin. Over a hundred comments started amassing under his post, mostly fans wishing him a speedy recovery, but a few gems of older friends who'd undergone the surgery themselves, assuring him. One man posted, alluding to Dieselnoi's chaiya while fighting, "Mr. Sky Piercing Knee," wrting, "after this you'll have sky piercing vision!"

On the day of the surgery, Dieselnoi called me a full 40 minutes before his appointment (which was already 3 hours before surgery, because they have to do a lot of prep for the operation), saying he'd already arrived at the hospital. Kevin and I rushed out the door to go meet him; I'd given him the option to take a taxi down from Bangkok, as he'd be staying overnight with us and have a followup with the doctor the next day, but he told me he'd drive himself. Turns out he came with two of his friends, one was introduced to me as his uncle (they look alike and share uncanny mannerisms), and the other he said had been a friend since when Dieselnoi lived and taught in Japan for 10 years, in the mid 80s and 90s. They'd driven him down and come as support, which is very Thai. For every one patient in a hospital, there is at the very least one person there to support. We were 4. We'd been waiting for about 40 minutes before I asked Dieselnoi if he'd checked in... he hadn't. Good Lord. So I checked him in with the counter and suddenly all the nurses started buzzing, making calls; I think they realized that they were now a little crammed in their schedule to get him all prepared for his 3:00 PM appointment with the surgeon. This, I felt, was partly on me because I've more or less structured myself as the one in charge of Dieselnoi's appointment. Like, what adult doesn't know to check in with a hospital? One who has taken on the position of the kid being brought in by Mom, that's who. He was just following my lead, and I didn't realize how stressed he must have been.

Dieselnoi's uncle (front) and friend (glasses), in the waiting room during surgery.

Dieselnoi's two buddies sat, scrolling their phones and waving to him occasionally. Kevin and I sat next to Dieselnoi, more or less just bringing the vibes to try to balance his growing nerves. He told me he hadn't slept in 2 days because he was so nervous for the surgery. He didn't seem to know what it entailed and I tried to be informative but also leave out details that might seem scary; I mean, who isn't squimish about something cutting into their eyes? Mostly I just tried to reiterate how common this surgery is; it's done every day, so the doctor has tons of experience, and surely none of the hundreds of thousands of people undergoing this surgery are tougher than he is. I mean, Dieselnoi is f***ing hard as they come. He told me he'd had stitches near his eye after a fight once and it hurt so bad, he pantomimed laying back, closed his eyes and then jerked up and eyes shooting open to demonstrate his shock at the pain. I pointed at my own face and told him I have had more than 200 stitches in my face, and I'm not tougher than him. And besides, I added, it won't feel like that. I'm pretty sure it doesn't hurt at all, you just feel like a pressure. Someone had told Dieselnoi that it hurts and when I asked him who, he giggled and ran his fingers over his lips, like zipping them closed, and said, "better not say." I have my suspicions, but given the way I've seen Thai men tease each other, I couldn't narrow the list of suspects in my mind to below 2-3.

Dieselnoi received a series of phone calls while we were waiting, and he answered the same to each caller, "I'm still waiting for the doctor." Lots of folks checking in on him, wanting to know if he was on the other side of the operation yet. At one point, one of the older referees of Rajadamnern had texted Dieselnoi about the duration of the surgery and what was important about recovery procedures; Dieselnoi leaned over the armrest to show me his screen while reading me the texts. It was authoritative, assured, kind. I could tell it meant a lot to Dieselnoi to have people of standing supporting him, too.

above, Dieselnoi closing his eyes with prepartory eye-drops in, waiting to be called to surgery.

At some point the eye drops started. They take a really long time, maybe 30-45 minutes of coming by every 5 minutes to administer drops, in sequence, that disinfect, dilate, and start to numb the eye. Thankfully, Dieselnoi's impatience with the process kind of displaced his nervousness for a while, although he began handing me things out of his pockets like a man going to his doom: phone, charger, then keys. When they finally wheeled over a chair and gave him a surgical mask, the sigh he let out when he sat into the chair was one of... surrender? The nurse told me we wouldn't be returning to this office, so to follow them down to the operating theater. I waved Dieselnoi's friends over and told them he would be in surgery for 1.5 hours and we wouldn't come back here. They were nodding and repeating back to me, but said they'd wait up here. When I realized, upon exiting the elevator with Dieselnoi, that it was only one floor down and there were seats there, too, I left Kevin for a moment to go back up and let those two know we were only one floor down. We got into the elevator together, this time with me kind of incidentally the guide, and as we arranged ourselves to face front the friend from Japan gave me a huge smile and said, "thank you for this, so much." I was taken a bit off guard and blurted something about Dieselnoi being a legend and a piece of world heritage, but the elevator already dinged and we stepped out to the waiting room on the 2nd floor. The men nodded in recognition of the room, repeated "1.5 hours," to me and then excused themselves to go get something to eat.

When they returned, they'd brought me and Kevin each a cold drink. They handed them to us and I forgot to wai beautifully, but did thank them and they sat down across from the elevator and started scrolling and making calls again. I got a phone call from a nurse, saying Dieselnoi was ready to be brought out and I told her we were already waiting. He looked alert, not groggy, but his face was largely covered by bandages and a plastic guard over his eye. The very instant the wheels on the chair stopped he tried to stand up and the nurses had to grab him and tell him to sit back down. He didn't receive any kind of general anesthesia, but it was clear when he did actually start walking that it's a bit disorienting and his equalibrium was a bit wonky on steps. I can see why they use the wheelchair. However, when we got down to the cashier and they parked Dieselnoi next to some seats to face the queue screen, he nearly jumped out of the wheelchair and into a stable chair, refusing to be in it a moment longer. This gesture was so thoroughly in his character, I knew he was feeling okay. So, I sat next to him, in the wheelchair, waiting for the number to be called to pay and pick up medicine. He told he his face was really and truly numb. He said the only thing he felt at all as the initial needle stick for the anesthetic, and now he tapped all around his face and scalp and said he couldn't feel anything. He was surpised, but kind of delighted. Prior to going into the operation he'd joked (albeit mostly serious) by crossing his wrists and ankles like he'd have to be hog-tied for the doctor to get near him.

above, Dieselnoi and me waiting for the cashier, surgery all done!

As we were walking out, I asked Dieselnoi if he wanted to come home with us and rest, or whether he'd like to go out with his friends and come to sleep later. He excitedly said he'd like to go out, so his friends took him and I took his bag of medicine and appointment slip. He didn't end up staying with us afterall, although the group of them did come by the house to bring us dinner (they'd ordered takeaway for us from where they'd gone, which is both very sweet and very Thai), and I showed Dieselnoi the things I had for him in the room he would have been sleeping in: two pair of sunglasses (he was so excited about those, he hugged me upon seeing them), and three framed pages from old magazines that covered his gym (Sirinon/Hapalang) anda cover with him, Panomtuanlek, Chamuakpet, and the husband and wife owners of the gym. I'd sent an image to Dieselnoi the month before and he wrote back, "where did you find this? I don't have this and I want it." So I made some blown up copies and framed them for him to take home. He showed those off to his friends at length before I told him to take the oral antibiotics he had in his bag. They stayed a little while, half-watching some Muay Thai on the TV and looking at some photos we have of Dieselnoi cornering for me, framed on our walls. Then they headed out to their hotel, while I warned them to "take it easy," for Dieselnoi's eye. What Kevin and I could offer in energy at the waiting room before his surgery is our strength; but what his friends could offer in energy when he was all stoked to be alive and finished with the process is something we can't come close to, so it was wonderful that he had brought that with him.

Crystal Clear Dieselnoi

The next morning Dieselnoi called me from the hospital, having arrived a full 45 minutes early for his appointment. Again. So I raced over and found him upstairs, with his bandage already off. Seeing his exposed face, I panicked for just a moment. Had he removed his bandage himself last night? "Did you see the doctor?" I asked. He shook his head no and said a nurse had cleaned his eye for him, but he nearly spat the words to the side to get the answer ou of the way because what he really wanted to tell me was how clear his vision was. His arms were waving, not quite as insanely as Kermit when he's excited, but not totally unlike that either. "Chat maak!" he kept repeating, so clear. I sat with him for a momen while he told me again about how the only thing that hurt yesterday was the injection for the anesthetic, but his version today it was just a pinch, not even really painful. And he thought the doctor was so lovely, really a great chap, he said. "Not like Thai doctors," he whispered, "they're terrible." I reminded him that all the doctors at this hospital are Thai; these are, in fact, "Thai doctors." But I think what he means is public hospitals, the kind that see a million patients per day and are strained in nearly all aspects. Maybe how I'd express my own experience with doctors in America, as an uninsured, hesitant-to-seek-medical-help person myself. The point of this being that I'm grateful we were able to bring Dieselnoi to a situation where he felt seen, heard, and cared for. A lot of his anxiety the day before has to do with his reluctance to see doctors anyway. For his psoriosis, he prefers to visit "boran medicine practicitoners," or the traditional route, maybe in part due to the care he feels is available to him through public hospitals. For creams and pills, the discomfort is tolerable. That same distrust put into a situation for surgery would be absolutely terrifying. Thailand has excellent medical treatment and technologies available, something I've seen isn't necessarily recognized by the West, but it is in fact a growing destination for medical tourism. Dieselnoi's experience being so positive with this surgery made me feel confident that, if in a few years his other eye becomes a problem, he'll be not only willing but eager to repeat the process. Several years ago we crowdfunded financial support for a potential heart surgery, a surgery he was able to avoid with medical care, though he was physical limited in terms of exersion for a few years. His heart seems much better.

I excused myself to run back to the car and get one of the pairs of sunglasses, as I'd forgotten to bring them in and knew that it was important for him to wear them even when first stepping out of the hospital. When I reappeared with them in the waiting room, Dieselnoi made little exctied chuckling sounds as I attached a neck strap to the wrap-around style shades and handed them to him. He put them on and tightened the neck strap behind his head like tying on a bandana. He nodded approvingly at me and then was called in by the nurse to see the doctor. I'd been accompanying him every time he saw a doctor or had a scan prior to this, partially as support but partially because, as the person paying, I needed to ask questions and make sure that he didn't refuse any treatments or something like that. But this time, I made a split-second decision not to follow him. He seemed so confident with his improved vision and the way everything had been going, it seemed like a good idea to have him go alone and be the authority to whom the doctor could give instructions and results to.

above, a Dieselnoi selfie he posted with his new Terminator sunglasses, which he loves, he needs to protect his eye over the next month

Within a few minutes Dieselnoi strode back out, plopping down next to me, his lanky arms coming to rest on the wooden partitions between our seats, "Doctor says it looks great," he said, "just a little inflammation so I have to be sure to take my drops." He was nearly beaming. The nurse came to guide us down to the cashier again and I waved Dieselnoi's two buddies to follow us down. The whole time Dieselnoi just kept looking around (from behind his sunglasses), remarking how far he could so, how clear it all was, that he hadn't seen this well in years. I've read many times that the results don't really come through fully until 1 or 2 months after the surgery, so his clarity might improve even more than this. I don't think I've ever seen Dieselnoi not with his phone in his hand to absently scroll between bursts of conversation, but he kept his away in his pocket because he just kept looking around and telling the 3 of us how incredible his sight was. He pointed to the end of a long hallway, "I can see to the end of that wall!" I guess the Sky Piercing Vision wasn't even a joke, afterall.

We are able to provide this kind of aid to Dieselnoi because of, and only because of, our patrons. Everyone who has joined, whether the $1 tier or the "Official Sponsor" tier, has helped take care of Dieselnoi's health. Thank you. Not only is the significance in being able to physically preserve the health and well-being of these Legends and Krus, but a great deal of it is in allowing them to feel seen, remembered, and appreciated. Every time someone comes up to one of the Legends with recognition in their eyes and the Legend's name on their tongues, it means something. With Patreon being able to treat Dieselnoi's psoriosis, or being able to correct his impaired vision, it goes a long way in keeping him active and engaged in teaching Muay Thai. But in actually taking him to the hospital and sitting with him, making sure he's supported and comfortable, that comes from all of us in a way that I don't think can even be expressed with words. In Thai the word is ดูแล (do-lay), maning to look after, care for, keep watch, and it's on of the highest forms of บุญ (boon), or merit. You care for your parents, your teachers, children, friends, community, animals; it's limitless, it isn't finite. When telling Dieselnoi that his health doesn't have a price, this is what I meant. That there is this whole community of us out here, who love him and appreciate him and want to take care. It's our duty to preserve the legacy, but it's also our priviledge to do so.

Some folks have asked about sending additional support to Dieselnoi at this time, outside of Patreon. Truthfully, you all already have helped a lot. But if you feel like it's something you want to do, something extra, perhaps in support to help during the month that he won't be able to work as he rests and recovers, you can send a small gesture of support to Paypal: kevin.vonduuglasittu@gmail.com (please included a note that it's for Dieselnoi's recovery month). Again, this isn't a call for assistance, it's just for those who have asked how to do a little extra.

If you don't quite know who Dieselnoi is, he's the King of Knee, the GOAT of Muay Khao, and we've been fortunate enough to have filmed several times with him for the Muay Thai Library, preserving his genius of muay for generations to come.

#3 Dieselnoi  Chor Thanasukarn  - The King of Knees (54 min) - watch it here

Dieselnoi is the greatest knee fighter who ever lived, and it just wasn't because of his height. Spending this hour with him lets you feel how much love and energy he pours into his Muay Thai, even at this age, the real secret to what make him dominant in the Golden Age of the sport. There is nobody like Dieselnoi. Nobody.

#30 Dieselnoi Chor Thanasukarn 1 - Muay Khao Craft  (42 min) watch it here

The greatest knee fighter who ever lived not only shares his secrets in ring tactics - how to draw out your opponent and then ultimately hem them in - and various closing and tripping techniques, he also shows his amazing heart. He's a Legend among Legends, the fighter without equal in the history of the sport.

#48 Dieselnoi Chor. Thanasukarn 2 - Jam Session  (80 min) watch it here

Possibly the greatest fighter who ever lived, Dieselnoi, teaches his fighting tactics and strategy, keys to winning as a Muay Khao fighter. He is accompanied by Rajadamnern Featherweight champion Nopidej Sor. Reodi, so you get to see see the interaction between two related philosophies of the Muay Khao style. This session could be watched and studied over and over.

#76 Dieselnoi Chor Thanasukarn 4 - How to Fight Tall (69 min) watch it here

There several sessions with the King of Knees in the Muay Thai Library, this is the fourth, but this is the first one where he gets the chance to teach a tall, long fighter like he was. If you are a tall fighter this is the session you don't want to miss. He is arguably the GOAT, an in this session he unfolds his entire fighting system of knee fighting pressure and distance control.

#110 Samson, Namkabuan, Dieselnoi & Karuhat! Muay Khao Summit Session (2 hrs) watch it here

This unique session brings together the genius of 4 great legends of Muay Thai, including the late Namkabuan. Not only are the techniques taught beautiful, so are the interactions of these great fighters. A session for lovers of Muay Thai and Thailand.

And here, if you haven't seen it, his ungodly padwork in his prime: