Hospital

Keeping me safe from Dengue

Anna and I are starting to settle in here and the jetlag is slowly getting better. Today I only needed a little caffeine after noon to keep me going.  Not sure if we will get used to the heat and humidity here though. It puts Kansas City to shame.

View from the 2nd floor

We have had 2 days of work here in Laos and although there are a lot of differences and unique disease to consider, there is a lot more in common then I expected.  There are parents who don't quite trust that you know what you are doing, parents who are tired of waiting to see a doctor and of course the very caring and compassionate parents.  Here in Lao we are paired up with 1-2 Lao doctors who do much of the work while we more or less supervise.  This week Anna is on the outpatient side and I am on the inpatient side.  Its long hours but I have see more beriberi in 2 days then I saw in all my medical training in the US.

The front of the hospital

All the ex-pats working at the hospital have been great.  We have doctors from Australia and the US, nurses from Great Britain, Scotland and Canada and a nutritionist from Denmark.  This place is a little global community.  It has provided us the opportunity to talk about how health care is so different.  In Australia for example I would just be finishing my pediatrics residency rather then my fellowship.  To do pediatric emergency medicine is 9-10 years!

The Bike lot aka parking lot

There are also some crazy storms here! It is monsoon season and last night we have one of the craziest storms I have ever experienced.  I work up in the middle of the night to torrential rain and was mesmerized by the lightening storm outside my window.

The food is amazing! More to come on that later but you can find just about anything you want here.  I have discovered I miss coffee in the morning and gears on my bike.  I am thankful to have a bike to get me to and from work but a single gear provides unique challenges with hills, even if they are super small.  Its about 20-25 minutes to bike to work and the gears would make me so happy.

Overall its been an crazy, challenging and exciting 2 days.  Tomorrow I flip to nights and Anna stays in clinic so we shall see how nights are here.