Anyone Sleepy Yet??

Seeing hope

Just when I think I can get through a mission without visually tearing up and having tears trickle down my face, this mother brought her young son to the clinic in Binh Phuoc. About 3 years ago, this relatively healthy child was diagnosed with "pneumonia" and was admitted to the local hospital. He was given antibiotics and Oxygen therapy. This child remained on high pressure Oxygen therapy for 8 days in the hospital. The Oxygen therapy destroyed parts of his retina and surrounding eye tissue. Overnight he was blind. What could have been a normal healthy life, turned into a tragedy that is very difficult to comprehend. As I was hearing the story from his mother, my eyes welled up so quickly with tears. I was so sad for this young boy and his mother. I couldn't come to grips with his normal eye sight turned dark. I felt helpless! Its situations like this during this mission where I become very emotional and distraught. It tears me apart to see the destruction of a sense that I take for granted!
I stepped out of the clinic after his examination and finally let the tears flow. When I returned a few minutes later, and saw him sitting in our waiting area with the sweetest, most angelic smile on his face, it immediately transformed my feelings from despair to hope!! If he can smile through this, his smile will assist me to feel hope!!!!

Pampering after a hard day

My day starts at 5:30 am with a 4 mile run. We have a quick breakfast at 6:30 am and depart for clinic at 7:00 am. We have been consistently seeing 150 patients per day and fitting 40 prosthetics per day. The temperatures have been in the upper 90's F, with a severe thunderstorm each day for about an hour.
Our team ends clinic at approximately 6:30 - 7:00 pm each night. It was time for some well-deserved personal pampering time. We found a local salon, which offered a haircut, face, head and neck massage for 40.000 VND ($2.00 USD) and a manicure/pedicure for 40.000 VND ($2.00 USD). I can say without hesitation, it was the best 80.000 VND ($4.00 USD) I have spent this month!!! Cam on Em Rat Nhieu!!!! (Thank you very much)

Modern Grandma

Sometimes during the day, as you take a step back and observe the patients that come to clinic, you see some unique and amusing things. I happened to be checking on the progress of our intake station, when this very cute older woman was being interviewed. She was dressed sharp, smiled a lot, and liked to talk. A few minutes into the interview, here is our sweet grandmother accepting a phone call on a very modern cell phone!!! Sometimes being at the right place at the right time puts a big smile on all of our faces. Although our patients come from the 3rd poorest province in Vietnam, and suffer from daily aches and pains, they are not to dissimilar to all of us around the world.
Thanks for the smile ba (Grandmother)!!!!

Adorable, charming and intelligent (Team Favorite)

This handsome young boy was waiting for us at clinic when we arrived. As we walked through to set up for the day, his face stared at us with curiosity. Im quite certain he hasn't seen so many strange faces from abroad. After interacting with him for a few minutes prior to being seen in clinic, it was evident how incredibly intelligent and happy this young boy was. He immediately became a team favorite!!!
 He is 5 years old, and born with hydrocephalus, making it very difficult to walk due to weakened muscles trying to support his head.
He needed no orthopedic treatment, but our team will be able to construct a brace for him to support his back and neck. This brace will assist with the strengthening of his muscles and with a lot of hard work and practice, he should be able to walk as close to normal as possible.
It is unclear why this adorable child was born with this cosmetic as well as physical abnormality, but it could be from his DNA being damaged from his families exposure to the toxic substances from the war, or dangerous chemicals/pesticides.
If his charming personality is any indication of how hard he will practice,  he will be walking without assistance in no time!!!

Misdiagnosed for 10 years

Today a 70-year-old man came to clinic accompanied by his wife. During the interview process, the male patient could not speak. His wife informed us that he had a “stroke” 10 years ago, and has not spoken since. He can only make slight grunting noises when asked questions. Even though he was not in any orthopedic pain, we decided to evaluate him for his post-stroke symptoms. During Bac Si Ha’s examination, the stroke diagnosis was quite suspect. During further physical exam, it was discovered that this 70 old male had a dislocated temporal mandibular joint, making it near impossible to move his jaw to form any words.  A few injections into the joint to numb the pain, then 5 minutes of manipulating and repositioning his TMJ, the patient first screamed in pain, which was a good sign. Immediately after, he started saying small, albeit soft words. The look on his wife’s face was one of astonishment. Before he left the medical room, he could hold a brief conversation with us. It will take a few months for his speech to return to normal, but we believe he will make a full recovery.

The look on my face was one of amazement. Having thought this was a post-stroke victim, to treating him and making him talk again after 10 years is a small miracle.

His wife is grateful today; We hope she remains grateful after he regains his 100% ability to speak. FYI: They are happily married!!!!!

Leg saving treatment

Our typical patient has a number of orthopedic chief complaints when they arrive at our intake station. Today, a patient presented with swollen left knee, but pain out of proportion to a routine diagnosis. He was transported via wheelchair. On the medical bed, even the slightest touch of his left knee caused him excruciating pain. We immediately thought infection, after seeing the swelling and feeling the redness to the touch. We started to prescribe antibiotics, but Bac Si Ha wanted to see if he could drain any fluid to relieve the pressure. After thoroughly cleaning the area and the insertion of a 21 Gauge needle, we started to aspirate yellow infected fluid. Using only 3 cc syringes, a 3-person team of Bac Si Ha, myself and Em Bich started to drain, discard, and re-drain the knee multiple times. After approximately 100 cc of yellow infected fluid, the swelling was dramatically decreased, and the pain was substantially less. It is possible that without the immediate procedure of aspirating the infected fluid, the course of antibiotic would not have been effective.  Now the antibiotic will have a better chance of eradicating the infection. Without this treatment, its possible the patient would have become septic, and possibly lost this limb to amputation.

He will follow-up in the medical clinic in 3-days with a physician for further treatment and evaluation. Hopefully this is the beginning of a completely successful treatment.