Cambodia- the more serious side

The other side of Cambodia is the one that is more serious and why we're really here and that is to help the people. We have been WAY busier here then we were in Vietnam as we don't have the same restrictions that the Vietnamese put on things. Pediatrics has been full just about everyday and we also had Operation Smile on board for about 5 days doing insane numbers of surgeries.

We have been able to make a big difference to some of the people here. One of the doctor's did a cleft lip repair on a gentleman who was in his 30's- that will be life changing for him. We have also been able to repair cataracts on a few children who will now be able to see the world around them and have a much better future.

I had a really great day at my medcap (medical civilian assistance program). I was once again paired up with the pediatricians and also had a nurse from the Cambodian Army to hang out with. We had a really great day and were able to see over 1100 people at the medcap- about 200 of which were kids. On my lunch break myself and another LDSC member taught some of the kids to play "freeze tag". I'm always amazed that kids are kids no matter what language they speak or where they're from. We eventually had to shut down for the day when the people waiting to be seen starting to get aggressive and it was no longer safe for us to be there. It was a shame because we could have seen a few hundred more but sometimes that's life around here.

There have also been the cases that we couldn't help. We had a little 18month old who came on board to have burn scar revision and once she arrived here we found out that she also has a severe heart defect- severe enough that it was unsafe to do her surgery and she had to be sent home. If we had a pediatric anesthesiologist we would have been able to do something but we don't. There is a little guy on board now who is one of a set of twins- his brother had surgery and he was along because Mom was here- and once on board we quickly noticed how small he is. Not even 12kg and he's 5 years old. So he got admitted and has been checked out. Turns out he has a blood disorder that were he in North America would be chronic but treatable and he'd have a fairly normal life. Here he probably won't make it to his 10th birthday. There was also a kid who came on board for abdominal pain that he's had for a year or so- but there was no doctor to see so this was his first chance to be assessed. He has cancer- multiple tumors in multiple sites that isn't treatable at this point- fortunately we were able to get him referred to a hospital in the capital that might be able to do some palliative radiation and at least keep him comfortable.

It's always the cases that we can't help that have stuck with me. We've helped so many kids and made such a difference but it's the one's that we have to send home with nothing that stay in my memory the most.

The chaplains here on board have a favorite story and it's the one about the kid walking down the beach covered in star fish that are drying out in the sun- dieing and the boy is picking them up one at a time and throwing them back into the ocean. A man comes along and says "what are you doing- there are millions of star fish on this beach- you can't save them all" and the kid picks up a star fish- tosses it into the sea and says "made a difference to that one".

Cambodia- The fun side

Whew- so it's been awhile since I've posted- the internet has been down- again. We arrived in Cambodia some time last week- I've lost track when and since then it's been one thing after another. I've decided to break up my blog posts into 2 parts rather then try and do it chronologically. So the fun side of Cambodia. First of all just about everyone speaks really good English- I was talking to one of our translators (who is also a nurse) and he shared that he first learned to speak it back in the early 90's for the first election that was held after the genocide. (that was the one and only mention I have heard of the genocide from anyone- a whole generation was killed but they don't dwell on it or feel sorry for themselves over it).

I was able to go on liberty with 3 others- Lizzy (an LDSC member and fellow peds nurse), Anderson (one of our fabulous peds coremen- she has a first name I just don't know it) and Mike (an army guy in the scullery who is LDS). We had such a great day. We found a tuk-tuk driver (motor bike with buggy style seats attached to the back) who spoke good English and we paid him to drive us around for the day. We fed monkeys (the following day someone got bitten by the monkeys and now feeding them is not allowed but we did fine), we visited a local market and found souveneirs, we visited a Buddist temple which was beautiful and also ate some really good food. Turns out that a tuk-tuk is the best way to see a country, it's open to the air, it drives slow enough that you can see things and get pictures, and is just all round good fun- like when it stops working on the way up a hill and Mike has to get out and push. We had a really good day and it was so great to be able to see some of this beautiful country- Mike has decided that someday he wants to live here.

Another amazingly fun opportunity I had was to go on a tour to Angkor Wat- one of the 7 wonders of the world. It was a tour organized by the MWR folks here on board the ship (also known as "the fun boss") and involved getting on a bus just after sunset- riding for 9 hours through the Cambodian country side (road trip anyone?!) and then touring the various temple sites for a few hours and then back to the ship by 0230. The bus ride was long but so worth while, we were also fed really well- I was expecting to have a muffin and juice box thrown at my head on the bus for breakfast but we stopped at a hotel and had a lovely buffet- so worth the money. Once we got there the temples were SO amazing- words really cannot describe- I will try to post photos when the internet is being agreeable or once I'm in Singapore. It was inspiring to see things that are so old and so well built and have so much history and meaning behind them. The people here are so proud of Angkor Wat and their history. Our tour guide was amazing- so knowledgable and well spoken about his religion and history. It was the opportunity of a lifetime and so great to be able to check #437 off of the bucket list.

The little things

So in the past few weeks I've had to learn to appreciate the little things in life (and some of the big ones). In the category of the big ones is getting moved to officer's berthing (I may have done a happy dance and kissed my key card). I get the news about an hour after I got back on ship from my Vietnam medcap and was so excited that I moved that very night. Officer's berthing is glorious and wonderful, I now have a proper twin sized bed that I can actually sit up in without braining myself of the bunk above me. I have lockers that are bigger AND drawers!! There is so much space it's amazing. There are more showers for fewer people and instead of being scalded and sand blasted by the showers I actually have normal temperature water that flows gently. Also I'm now in a room with just 7 of my new best friends instead of 59- if someone turns the lights on and is loud when I'm sleeping I now know who to yell at. I'm so glad that I spent my 3 weeks in enlisted berthing because now I truly appreciate the wonder that is officer's berthing. If I had just gone straight into officer's I think I would have not appreciated it and found things to complain about- but now I'm just happy about it.

Also a little thing that I appreciate is the Navy's obsession with cake. At first I wasn't sure it would last but we have run out of fresh fruit, junk food, chocolate milk, fresh vegetables and through it all the cake continues to be omnipresent at all of my meals. Really- at all of them, breakfast included. I'm not sure where the cake is coming from- I don't want to ask but I know that it makes my day when they bust out a new icing flavor. (So far my favorite was peanut butter). Whatever the reason for the cake obsession I will continue to appreciate it and enjoy- although I have now limited myself to cake at only one meal per day.

We arrived in Cambodia on Monday and so far it's been great. The people are so different from the Vietnamese. I have to say that I am very impressed with the quality of the translators that have been provided- most of the actually know how to speak English and many of them are also medical professionals who are able to accurately relay information and concepts, not just words. Here's hoping for a great time here and I will continue to post as often as the abominably slow internet will allow.

Amy J:)

Vietnam- the rest of it

So due to the complete and total lack of internet and also being really busy I have been unable to update in awhile (the following post was written on June 14th- I just didn't get to post it that day). We are talking SLOW internet here- the worst I have ever seen, it takes about 40 minutes just to load a site that is incomplete. This has been fine since I’ve been crazy with work finishing up in Vietnam. I did the math and worked 70 hour weeks for the 2 weeks that we were here- I’ve done nothing but nap ever since.

Back to where I left off- last Sunday I had a medcap (medical civilian assistance program) and it was really amazing! I had to get up at 0400 in order to eat breakfast and get on the banana boat by 0510. Then it was a 40 minute boat ride to get to land and the pier. Then it was through customs, onto a bus, after which we drove 40 minutes to get to the school where we would be set up for the day. I ended up working with the pediatrician and one of the family nurse practitioners and acted as their mini-triage and general traffic control agent. It was really amazing to get to see all of the people that we were able to help (almost 600 that day). At first I would get really annoyed at all of the women who would try to butt to the head of the line and didn’t want to wait their turn. But then it occurred to me that they were trying to get their child in to see a doctor- possibly for the first and maybe only time in their lives. After that I was able to be a little more patient with them. We also had amazing translators who were invaluable that day. We didn’t get back on board until about 2000 that night so it was a long day. I also got to experience the joys of the military MRE (portable food packs that have NO expiry date) it was surprisingly not disgusting but I’ve had some abnormal gastric rumblings ever since so I don’t think it agreed with me very well.

I also had the opportunity to go on liberty in Vietnam. This was totally unexpected and a great reward for all of the hard work that we were doing. I ended up going with a bunch of the Navy and Air Force people that I work with on pediatrics and we had a blast. First it was down a very scary moving stair case to get to our boat that was 5 stories below us (later that day someone broke their foot after the stair case rolled over it). Onto the little boat and into shore. We had a bus that dropped us off at a hotel and then we took cabs from there. It was really fun- the hotel had an elevator that we were all a little bit too excited to ride on after all the stairs we have on board. We ate some really amazing food, strolled through the fruit market, the knock off market (Louis Vuitton for $40- I did not buy any) and got chased by little old ladies selling trinkets. (Really she chased us all over town on a scooter.) The best part though was the ride home- the Vietnamese who provided our transport bus decided that we needed entertaining and so it was a disco style bus complete with flashing lights, music videos and Vietnamese singers singing American pop songs that are well over a decade old- it was great!

All in all Vietnam was an amazing experience- we were able to do a lot of good especially given some of the restrictions put on things overall. It was a good trial run for Cambodia and the coming sites.

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!!!

So Monday morning I woke up to a site that has been 2 weeks to get here. There was the coast of Vietnam- the port city of Qui Nhon to be exact. So far we haven't seen too many patients, it's been a bit slow to get the medcaps (on land assessment clinics) up and running. I will be able to go help out at a medcap next Sunday which I'm really excited about- hopefully by then things will be running smoothly. Yesterday we admitted our first peds patient- a little 3 year old girl for a cleft palate repair and I felt bad for the poor thing because she came onto the ward and immediately had about 10 nurses and coremen all staring at her. We were all SO excited to have our first patient. Today we got about 4 more, one is this adorable 6 month old who is all smiles and laughter- I love pediatrics. Vietnam also provided all of their own translators which has been really nice because it means we have them on nights too.

It's been so interesting to me how much I've learned about military life in the last 2 weeks. I thought I knew quite a bit but until I came here I had no idea how much of a different culture it really is. I appreciate that they still have evening prayer on the PA system every night before taps (aka- bed time/lights out/2200/ 10pm). I think the TV being the "Armed Forces Network" is totally bizarre. All of the adds are geared to service members- which makes sense- but for a civilian to watch is weird because none of them are relevant to me- no McDonald's adds here. I have learned a new word- it's "volun-told" similar to "volunteer" but with some subtle differences. I'm starting to get so I actually know what all of the insignia on everyone's collars mean. Shockingly I have now made my bed for over 20 consecutive days because if I don't make it my bedding will be relocated to the lost and found and I will have to explain to the beefy security guys why I didn't make my bed. Amazing how fast you'll start to do something when properly motivated.

I am also amazed at how I have learned to adapt. I went from sleeping by myself in a queen sized bed, and sharing a bathroom with one other person to sleeping in a 6'x2'x2' bunk in a locker room with 60 of my new best friends and sharing 5 showers with 119 people (you do the math). We affectionately refer to the locker room (aka "A" berthing) as "the Fridge" because the A/C is cranked- which I love, many others however do not. And as weird as it is to perpetually live at girls camp it hasn't been that hard to get used to. It's also more then a bit strange to live 3 floors down from where you work, and 81 stairs down from where you eat. If you're working a night shift and need to do laundry- no problem just run switch it over, the laundry is 2 floors up. I thought the closeness of it all would make me claustrophobic but it hasn't been that bad.

Amy J:)