Last Hospital day and Night Safari

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I can’t believe a week ago I was landing in Thailand and meeting my buddies for the first time. So much has happened since then! I feel like I’ve already grown a lot and have made so many memories. I’ve been slowly adapting to the Thai culture. I’m going to miss all of the hospitality, service, and love once I go back to the States. Today’s weather was chilly and overcast. This is the first time i’ve been cold in Thailand! It was probably in the high 60’s all day. It’s funny to think that in America if it was this temperature everyone would be out in tank tops and shorts, but since we’re used to heat in Thailand everyone was bundled up. Today was my last day at the hospital. I had the opportunity to observe portions of 5 different surgeries. The first surgery I observed was a neurosurgery. The individual had fluid pocketing around the brain and needed it to be drained to decrease their ICP. The second surgery was a nerve plexus repair of the arm. The last three surgeries was ENT (ear nose throat) related. I was able to watch each of those surgeries from start to end since they were short. The first was a tonsillectomy. The second surgery was a frenulectomy. The final surgery I observed was a neck mass biopsy. The patient for this surgery only had lidocaine for pain control. One has to wonder if that really helps. After watching all of those surgeries our preceptor took us to the trauma ICU and NICU to look around. For lunch we went to the nearby walking street. The girls and I decided to each buy food and share it. I ate so much good food! I had corn on the cob (which isn’t in season in the States), caramel/chocolate popcorn, fried potato balls, pineapple, banana chips, spicy air puff chips, and one of Melissa’s french fries. I had been craving corn and potatoes this week, so I was pretty excited about my lunch! After lunch we had a post-conference in which we shared case studies from our week at the hospital. It was neat to hear about each groups patient population. Tonight our buddies took us to the night safari. Not every Thai buddy was allowed to come, which was sad because half of the personalities were missing from our group. It was still fun though! At the night safari I saw a dance performance, tiger show, fountain light show, and different animal exhibits. I also held two snakes, a monkey and a bearded dragon! There are pictures to prove it. Well i’m off to bed, long day tomorrow!

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