Sunrise, Ceremony and 53 Patient Evaluations...

So, at 6a, we woke to prepare for our first day of patient evaluations.

This sunrise is what greeted us this morning and this pic was taken around 615a.  Seemed a good way to start the day, so off to breakfast we went.  Breakfast at the hotel is a delight of yummy fruits ~ tiny, caramel-y bananas, watermelon, jack fruit, and pineapple (so far) ~ and many other delicious options.  One can choose a fully American breakfast ~ with some exceptions that the sausages look like little hot dogs and don't taste so great and the bacon is a little strange in texture ~ or can dine full Vietnamese-style ~ with pho, congee and many other delights.

This pic was taken about 3 minutes after the one above.  When the sun comes up in the Mekong, it comes up fast.



This is the view from our hotel room.  Many have asked me about where we stay while in Vietnam and in Can Tho, we stay at a hotel, which was formerly called The Golf Hotel (it has nothing to do with golf) and is now called the TTC Hotel.  It's essentially the Golf Hotel, but instead of all of the colors in the hotel being green, they are an eggplant purple.  Otherwise, same, same.




We loaded into a bunch of taxis and made our way to the Can Tho General Hospital.  This hospital was built sometime in the later 2000s, as previously we worked at the 'old' hospital, which was built by the US Army during the Vietnam War.  It was in rough shape, but was our 'work home' for the first 3-4 missions I was on with IEP (formerly Mission Peace).  Now, there is the 'new' hospital, but this is a departure from what we, in the US, think of a hospital.  Vietnamese hospitals are typically open-air and without air conditioning, except for some treatment rooms, conference rooms and the operating rooms.  Family's sleep in the hallways while their loved-one is in the hospital and the hospital typically provides one meal for the patient, per day, but the family then brings food to the patient.  If medications are needed, the family goes to the pharmacy, purchases the medications, and then brings them to the patient.

IEP does fundraising to off-set and cover the costs of the surgeries, bringing surgical equipment and supplies, including pain medications for patients seen for surgery with our team.  Our team works directly with the Orthopedic and Trauma Medical Staff here at the hospital, from patient evaluations through surgeries and after-care, providing education, collaboration and ongoing teamwork.  It's been a relationship that has entered its 20th year. 

This is the main body of the hospital.  The sun was so strong this morning, any other pic was washed-out, so this was the best one.

The hospital is built in an open square, with many added buildings, so it's a bit of a maze to navigate.

This is just as you enter the hospital's outpatient area, and our clinic for our evaluations is just around the corner to the right of this sign.  The pharmacy is on the left and the 'cafeteria' is a little further down the row to the right.

This is another angle of the main body of the hospital.

This is Amy.  She's one of my best friends, a terrific Speech-Language Pathologist and a great travel partner.  I am so happy to be on this mission again with her ~ our 6th with IEP!

This is the 'interior' of the hospital and shows how families dry their clothing by hanging items outside of the windows.  I will snap some more photos tomorrow to show you some more of the hospital.





Prior to seeing patients on the 1st day, there is a Welcoming Ceremony in a conference room (yay...air conditioning!) with our team and the hospital's Orthopedic and Trauma Team's leaders and hospital leadership present.  There is some formalities that are observed in these ceremonies, including the hospital's leadership thanking us for coming and for the long partnership that we have forged together, as well as our leadership, Bruce Lehnert, DPM, thanking them for having us and for the long partnership too.  This year, because it was just over 20 years ago that Bruce and Steve Warren (a gentleman who was instrumental in starting Mission Peace (now IEP) in 1998 with Bruce, but who passed away in 2007/8) first came to Can Tho and started working with the team.  Dr. Em (one of the orthopedic surgeons, who has been working with us for many, many years) put together a slide show with video of our time working together.  It was quite a trip down 'memory lane,' remembering not only the patients we have seen over this period of time, but also the folks who have volunteered their time with Mission Peace/IEP.  I think everyone was a bit overcome watching this.

Throughout the day, and at the welcoming ceremony, there is always fruit and water offered.  These are oranges (the green skin) and rambutan.  I love rambutan!  Yummy!

The nice signage marking our 2019-2020 partnership!

BacSi (Doctor), who is the Vice Chair of the hospital, saying a few words to our group.  He did his speech in English.  His English was much better than my Vietnamese.

A view of the conference room.  

Another view.  The guy on the left with the camera is Flecher Fleurdujon, who is the videographer for IEP.  Flech, as he is well-known to us all, has been coming on these missions as long as I have and he's a very interesting and nice dude.  He photographs, films, interviews staff, patients and doctors and then has made a couple of short films about our work over the years.

The view of the waiting area for our clinic today.  We saw a total of 53 patients today.  

Another view of the hospital hallways.

More waiting room photos.  Patients and families can wait up to 6-8 hours to be seen.

So, in the next day or 2, I am going to put some patient videos, pictures and descriptions up for you to read about, but I am too tired to do that tonight.  It was a busy day, but a challenging day, so I am going to rest now, but will write more later.

Tomorrow, we will return to the clinic and see another 50 patients. So far, there are about 20-22 surgeries planned, from the patients seen today.

Hope you are enjoying reading so far.  Things are just getting started.

xoxo
Stacy

Ahh...back in Can Tho again...

Greetings from Can Tho, Vietnam!  For the geography buffs in the crowd, Can Tho is about 105 miles southwest of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly called Saigon), squarely positioned in the Mekong Delta on the Mekong River.

Our team arrived yesterday (Saturday, the 28th) at 6p at our hotel here in Can Tho, just as the sun was setting on the day.  We arrived in HCMC (Saigon) at about 11a (after fairly uneventful and comfy flights from San Francisco to Taipei and Taipei to HCMC) and by the time we got our 23 totes of medical supplies (and wine, brought by one of the California docs) and luggage for 25 people on the team, it was nearly noon by the time we took-off for Can Tho.

We traveled from HCMC to Can Tho via a large motor bus, which fit our team and our luggage and the medical totes were picked-up at the airport by the hospital staff here in Can Tho and have been taken directly there for when we start working tomorrow (on Monday, the 30th).  The motor bus was stuffy, as it's quite humid and hot here, but after some discussion the driver cranked-up the air conditioning and it was quite comfortable.  I loved these little 'doilies' on the backs of the seats.  They were definitely circa-1980 or so, but added a little something to the ambiance of the bus.

Normally, this bus rides takes about 4 hours, but unfortunately, it took 6 hours total yesterday, although, as per usual, we stopped at a roadside restaurant to have lunch, which is quite a feat with 25 people, but we have a woman traveling with us, Mai, who is from Vietnam, so she is our master interpreter for all situations.  Food was yummy, as always, and made me feel like I really was back in Vietnam.

There is now a 'super-highway' from HCMC that goes about 50 miles south, so that usually helps the time for traveling, but on this and then on the subsequently smaller 2-lane highway, the traffic was horrendous.  So slowly-moving, which is why it took us so long to get to Can Tho.  So, overall, for our team, our travel time was around 32 hours from San Francisco to Can Tho.

Here's a few photos and videos from our travels yesterday...

Our team ~ International Extremity Project

So, Amy and I both fell asleep quickly on the SF to Taipei flight and when we woke (happily, it was 8 hours later), we both had these stickers on our movie screens.  I thought it was such a polite and dignified message about the fact that we missed our initial meal on the plane.  Just before we both woke, the flight attendant had put 2 small sandwiches on the console between out seats, so we wouldn't go hungry.  The best.

Taken from the plane, as we arrived in Taipei.  Good morning!

2nd photo from the plane.  Sunrise.

This is just a small portion of our luggage and medical totes, just to show the scale of all there is to manage.

Video taken in HCMC.

Video taken on the way from HCMC to Can Tho.  Gives you the perspective of how close together vehicles travel.  

Meir serenading us with his harmonica on the bus.

This little box of cheese was for sale at the roadside restaurant at which we stopped on our way to Can Tho.  Not sure I'd want to eat cheese that has been sitting outside in 90 degree temps. 

Today, we went to the fabric market.  Think, big space with many different fabric vendors within that space, so you find what you like and they cut it and sell it for you all in one place.  Helps to have a pattern for what you want to have made, which I did, so I will be getting 3 skirts made for next summer.  Once you have your fabric, you go to the tailor shop (see below).

Measuring fabric for Amy.  They use a flat 'ruler' that has tic-marks across it and measures 1 meter at a time.  They cut the fabric while standing.

More fabric.  This place has every fabric you could imagine from pajama fabric to high-end tailoring fabrics for suits.

The tailor shop ~ H & M ~ known well by our team.  I don't always get things made, but am this year.  Some of our team get vast numbers of garments made while they are here.  I will have my skirts on Saturday, the 4th (today is Sunday, the 29th).  I brought a skirt from home that they will use as a pattern for the new skirts.  They can, if you don't have a pattern or garment you want re-created, measure you and design/tailor a garment for you.  This shop is owned by a husband and wife.  They are very busy and very nice. 

Scenes from the streets.  If you want to buy mango, here's your shop. 

One of my favorite and awe-inspiring shots from Vietnam.  The telephone, electrical and whatever else kind of cords on light poles.  Seems a bit dangerous.

This is how buildings are constructed here.  These metal pipes are put up as an infrastructure and then the building is constructed around it and then eventually, the pipes are removed.  Fascinating.  

Cyclo parking lot.  Always very organized and laid out well.  You pay a fee to park in these lots.  This is the main method of mobility for most Vietnamese, as it's more affordable than a car and moves much easier throughout the streets and alleyways.

Rodent traps.  For large-ish rodents, it seems.

Crab for dinner?  You can buy these on the street, all ready for a hot pot of water.

In case you don't want to make dinner, you can call Pizza Hut now for delivery (on a cyclo).  This is new since the last time I was here in Vietnam.  I guess everyone just wants to be able to have pizza.

Hybiscus flower.  These are plentiful here in Can Tho and just gorgeous!

This is the Mekong River.  There is a lot of commerce that occurs on the river and these boats (along with much smaller and larger boats) traverse the river day and night.

This is the motto of the Circle K convenience store that is located feet from our hotel's entrance (a new edition since 2015 when I was last here).  I liked their motto of, "Own the Morning ~ Own the Day."  Now, thought it humorous that it was positioned over the beer and milk products, which were positioned next to each other.  

Well...we are off to the pool soon to relax and then likely to have some dinner.  I need to exchange some money too.

Tomorrow morning, we start our patient evaluations and this is always a crazy, amazing and challenging experience, but is why we are all here.  I am so happy to be back with IEP and with the medical team.

Our medical team consists of Bruce Lehnert, DPM, Jeff Spanko, DPM, Meir Nyska, MD, Ezequiel Palmanovitch, MD, 2 surgical residents, Bobby and Jisun, me, as the physical therapists, and a team of nurses, scrub techs and other folks who help out in a variety of ways.   The physicians and I will evaluate about 120 patients (or so I have heard) over the next 2 days and decisions will be made by our medical team if surgical intervention is appropriate and possible.  The nurses and scrub techs and many other of our team will work to set-up the supplies for the ORs, and all of the medications, etc., that we have brought for the patients, while we are completing the evaluations.

More to come...

xoxo
Stacy

San Francisco...& Points West

Hi, all.  I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday celebrations this week & is ready for 2020!

I arrived in San Francisco this morning, after taking an early flight from Omaha, as I wasn't sure if (a) there would be weather delays, (b) if there would be plane issues/delays, or (c) some other unforseen issue that might prevent me from getting to San Francisco today, as I meet-up with the majority of our team ~ the International Extremity Project ~ tonight at 9p.  Good news is the weather was great and no plane issues!  Now, I am settled-in to the Grand Hyatt at the airport in a 'day room,' which is a great concept and allows a person to rent a room for the majority of the day at a significantly lower rate than typical for a full night's stay and I am happy to be here for the day.

View from the Grand Hyatt SFO

The Omaha airport was buzzing with people and in my time waiting for my flight, there were 3 couples that missed a different flight.  Strangely, 2 of the couples (separately) came sauntering-into the gate area with their coffee and sat for about 10 minutes, before saying to each other, "Weren't we supposed to leave already?"  The 3rd couple came into the scene about 10 minutes later, discussing how yummy their Bloody Marys were this morning!  Ha!  Good news is, I didn't miss my flight.

As I travel for these mission trips, I always notice "strange" things along the way and this morning's "strange thing" sighting was these hula-hoops, as not only does a person need one hula-hoop when traveling, but certainly 4 are better!  Various sizes and shapes are required!  Ha.

I will meet up with everyone at the San Francisco Airport tonight at 9p (PST) and we will leave for Taipei (leg #1) at 12a on the 27th.  We will then travel to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly, called Saigon) and will arrive there on Saturday, the 28th, around mid-day.  Then, we'll travel via bus about 100 miles south into the Mekong Delta to a city, called Can Tho.  This drive will take about 3-4 hours, due to the traffic and narrowness of the roads.

So,  my next post will likely be in about 2 days.  I am so looking forward to this trip and to working with IEP again, as well as working with some of the therapists and physicians we have gotten to know well over my past 5 trips.  Each time I got to Vietnam, I notice how much it's changed and so, am curious what growth and changes we will see this time around.

Enjoy your day!

xoxo
Stacy