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
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