January 22nd: Free morning…Nursing Conference…

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It was awesome to enjoy a free morning back at the college and decompress from the eventful, sun-filled weekend. I woke up feeling so exhausted and still with a headache so I took some medicine and went down for breakfast. I talked to my dad a little on the phone and shared in his excitement about the Eagles going to the Superbowl!!! I wish I was there to celebrate with him, but I wouldn’t trade being here for the world. I took the morning slow and enjoyed being free and without responsibility for a while before the conference. After the morning off, we had lunch and got ready in our professional clothes for the conference. We walked down to this beautiful conference room that was covered in white and peach lace with lots of tables and chairs labeled for each college. The conference began and I was so impressed by all the presentations given by the Thai nursing schools. The Thai students spoke very well in English and they had a lot of information about the non-communicable disease that are prevalent in Thailand. It was interesting to see the similarities of things like the FAST pneumonic to recognize signs of stroke and common risk factors for non-communicable diseases such as stroke and chronic kidney disease. It was also really cool to hear about the ways that Thailand is trying to implement primary care in their communities. The students of the different nursing schools talked about the ways that they are reaching out to the community to do patient teaching and implement interventions to identify at risk populations and combat the non-communicable diseases that are prevalent in Thailand. They seem to be a lot better at recognizing the problems and trying to figure out ways to prevent the problem instead of ways to treat it. I thought it was also really cool to see the different phone applications that some of the schools had created to inform patients about different diseases and educate them on how to make lifestyle changes. About half way through the presentations, I started to feel very sick. I got a massive headache along with chills and body aches. I waited until after the presentations and quickly rushed back to the apartment to take some Advil and lay down to try to get rid of my headache. I laid down and started feeling chills again, but I felt my head and it felt like it was on fire! Brielle took my temperature and it was 101 so needless to say I spent the rest of the night resting in the apartment. Although I was bummed I was missing out on going to the market with some of the other girls, I knew it was best for me to slow down, spend some time with God, and focus on resting so I can feel better for the rest of the week!

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