I observed the procedures, took some pictures, but my job really starts after the surgery is over. Recovery is where I met the patients and the nurses caring for those patients. Having an actual "interpreter" would make my duties so much easier. Lucky for us, we took care of a patient today whose sister speaks wonderful English. I spoke with her at clinic yesterday and asked if she could help me with my patient teaching and translate, when needed, for the other families. The families are the primary caretakers while the patients are in the hospital. In the USA, families assist in care, but the nurses do any wound care, aids help with feeding, etc. the patients in Hanoi stay for one week post-op, and it is the families that make sure the patient is getting the proper nutritional intake (for wound healing), doing proper oral hygiene, applying ice to the face to decrease healing. We make packs for the patients that include notepads/ pens so the patients can communicate ( often, jaws are wired and they are swollen, so speech is difficult), toothbrush and paste, carmex for the lips (as a soother again, due to facial/lip swelling), syringes with flexible catheter tips for feeding liquid nutrition, and also for performing oral rinses to keep the mouths clean.
Mai was available post-op so I could give the packets to the patients along with patient instructions for care written in Vietnamese. She is a great asset for me and the families involved and she was so happy to do anything to help us out. She also will be available all week to help me so I am relieved for that.
We were then able to get some much needed shopping in, so Judy (another Oregon RN) and I hit the streets. She had her shopping list and so did I so we did what we could, but darn it; I will have to do more as I did not get through my list today.
Dinner will be at the City Cafe. It os a very cool restaurant, on the fifth floor overlooking a very busy intersection. I plan to tKe my camera and post a video later to hopefully show the pandemonium that ensues when cars, scooters, bicycles, and pedestrian merge.
Last night, the surgeons took us out for dinner. There must have been about 25 of us. Speeches of gratitude were made and then the food just kept coming: fried squid, green salad, fresh vegetables with crystallized onions, soup with tofu, rice noodles, river fish, shrimp, crab rolls and they kept the red wine flowing. As soon as your wine glass was empty, it was being refilled. It was all so delicious. The same was true of our plates; as we emptied our plates, they were sending more food down to us.
Surgery again tomorrow. Will take more pictures and post here. Here are my few pictures from today.
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