Last Surgical Day

An emotional day for sure, as it is our last sugery day. We were met at the hospital by Mai and her brother as they had gifts for us. A beUtiful painting for Dr. allender that the patient drew and scarves for us.  This is the part that gets me verklempt. I tear up because these patients and their families can't thank us enough. We also thank them for their graciousness. We had pictures taken to remeber them by.

We then rounded and checked on our patients. We had Mai help us translate so we knew patients and the families understand what they should be doing.  We did 3 more surgeries today. We plan to go to the hospital one last time tomorrow morning, as a team, and see how they are doing before Dr. allender, Judy, Dr. Litchfield and his wife Jacque, leave for home tomorrow. Jim and I have one more week. We do leave for Sapa Friday night, by train, and return Monday morning. We will check on the patients next week too, until we go home April 25.

We saw another cleft lip baby and visited and gave her a toy. She was doing quite well post op. We did our early morning walk around the lakr, and then one last celebration meal at a wonderful restaurant on West Lake, where John McCain was shot down during the Vietnam war. Dinner was marvelous with all the typical foods. My favorites were there: sUteed pumpkin vines and pumpkin soup.  We posed for pictures, received some lovely gifts from the te am and were brought back to our hotel. Tomorrow morning, we will go as a team one last time to the hospital and. He check on our patients progress. I am getting a "scratchy throat" so I plN to get some sleep and hope it doesn't progress any further. Pictues from today are below and good night from Hanoi.