Am I a medical resident here? Perhaps.
Oh wow you guys. Things here are incredible. I don't even know where to begin. I have already seen and done so much. I spent the last 2 days in Hue central hospital in the pediatric unit. I worked with Dr. Luong who is a hemotologist and oncologist. I worked patients with thrombocytopenia, leukemia, chronic anemia, bone marrow failure, and even some cardiac patients. I saw one girl with tetrology of fallot with severe clubbing and cyanosis. So unique. I can't believe I'm seeing so many amazing things. Tomorrow I switch preceptors and I will be working with the cardiologist. I think I will be seeing patients with congenital heart defects and rheumatic fever. Even though I don't speak the same language as the doctors I am working with we are still able to communicate quite clearly. Medical terminology seems to be the same no matter where you go. I was even able to diagnose a patient today with viral pneumonia. Who am I? Diagnosing patients? Really?
We were able to celebrate Tet (the New Year) with the staff of the hospital for lunch. They setup 2 alters in the hospital. One at the entrance and one on the 3rd floor. The alter was a huge table with food, drinks, fake money, gifts, and incense buring. All of this is for their ancestors. The incense filled the whole hospital with smoke. This is something you would never see at home. I can't imagine a whole hospital (4 floors) filled with incense and thick smoke. After the 'offerings' were made we had a huge feast with traditional foods. Everything was pretty tasty. The only 2 difficult things were the gelatanous squid dessert and the bean curd & tobacco leaf custard. Wow. I was trying to be so respectful, but it was a challenge to get those 2 down.
Aside from all of that, I have been able to enjoy Hue to it's fullest. We've been eating the most amazing food and seeing the incredible sights. Hue is so much larger than I anticipated. Bigger than Boise...if you can believe it. However, no matter where we go we are a giant spectacle. We are so much taller and larger than the people here. We get stared at non-stop. We were out for coffee once and a woman just walked up and stood there next to us. She just stared and watched. I mean, why not? I would stare too.
Vietnam is amazing. The culture is unlike anything I have ever experienced. Totally different in so many ways. I can't even begin to describe it. And have I mentioned the heat? Oh wow...seriously intense. I'm a wreck most of the time. Just sweating. That's probably why I'm such a spectacle. They can't figure out how or why someone would sweat that much. It's nuts.
That's all for now. Miss you all!
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loving the updates! it sounds so amazing!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE reading about your adventure - what a tremendous experience! BTW, when I first worked as an RN at St. Luke's (in the 70's), we had smoking and non-smoking rooms. I remember an asthma patient of mine who complained about the smoke even tho she had a non-smoking room! Weird!
ReplyDeletekeep up the good work! will they let you do anything, i.e., give meds, start IV's, etc?
Jessica (my daughter) just graduated and just passed her boards -WHEW!! no jobs for new grads in the hospitals here, so she's working at a care center starting next week. she'll be doing iv therapy, meds, etc. Not that exciting, but she'll be able to pay bills!!!
can't wait to read about tomorrow/today?
Hi Katy!
ReplyDeleteWe aren't doing much nursing stuff while we are here because we can't chart the meds because it's all in Vietnamese. However, I have had lots of experience in my clinical rotations in the past with meds, IVs, etc. This time, we are focusing on ADLs, nursing diagnosis, and community health education. It's been great. Plus we are working 1 on 1 with a physician each day. So great!