End of week one

A few nights ago we had an excellent meal. We went to a Lau (hotpot) place that gives a pot for each individual person. The hot pot vegetable plate came out first, and it was incredible heaping portions of greens, mushrooms, noodles, and vegetables. Then came the beer and meats. Most of the table ordered seafood and Australian beef. Still unsure what Austrailian beef is supposed to be, but it all was a beautiful array of colors, textures, and aromas. Out of the corner of my eye, I swore that my Prawn's foot had moved. Prawn's are shrimp, but about 6 inches in length. So a pretty sizable shrimp. But thought nothing of it. Then suddenly, Ali's Prawn did a little bit of a flip. Then my Prawn, started doing somersaults in the air, flipping back and forth, off the plate, getting a solid inch to inch and a half of air. We all screamed, because generally people do that when animals are jumping around, where you thought they were dead. I was unsure if it was more humane to break its neck or dunk it in fully to boiling hot water. Hmmm. Paralyzed by thought and shock we all watched my food do aerial aerobics. Luckily, the waitress took matters into her own hand and grabbed it and dunked it into the pot. We all agreed, it was a good sign that the food was indeed fresh :) And then since that wasn't eventful enough, after dinner, three rats came out to entertain us. For a good 45 minutes they ran up and down other tables, chasing eachother around in a playful manner. And when we caused such a ruckus trying to take pictures of them, the waitstaff started calling them out more! It is never boring in Vietnam, that is for sure. At work or outside.

There are a lot of teaching moments happening everyday at the hospital. In surgery, in the ICU, and at least one lecture happening each day. Friday, we had a code exercise where nurses and doctors showed what are the emergency care steps in the case someone "coded"... someone who is not breathing and does not have a heart beat, i.e. resuscitating someone. On a mannequin, they hooked up machines and went through role play. It's pretty neat to see the drill, makes me realize all that needs to done in those crucial minutes!

I spent a little time in the echo lab. The cardiologist examine the patients hearts and evaluate next steps for the patient. Sometimes they go to surgery, sometimes they don't. Wolfram, the cardiologist from Germany told me that 10% of heart conditions don't require any action and they could live with that condition their entire life. So that's hopeful for a few of the cases. Danielle tells me she's amazed by some of the hearts, seeing for the first time, multiple conditions all in one heart. Amazing spectacle for medical persons, but sounds alarming for a novice like me. They are so kind to each patient, calming them, giving them the patience and the attention one needs when being examined for something so potentially scary.

As we left the hospital, I can see the exhaustion on everyone's faces. It is a strange feeling, knowing your on a "vacation", but also realizing, this is not the vacation most of us typically go on. There is little time to rest, so the weekend was a welcomed break from the hospital. 12 of us made the trip to Ha Long Bay... I debated on going because of a slightly irrational fear of getting Dengue Fever, but you can't come to Hanoi without seeing Ha Long Bay. It's like going to New York and not seeing lady liberty. Ha Long Bay is a beautiful bay with rock structures protruding from the sea. As peaceful and tranquil as one can imagine (minus the occasional floating trash debris).

So much I am unable to share each time, I wish you were all here to experience it with us!

Wolfram at Ha Long Bay
















ICU















Echo Lab