Pediatric Hospital #1 ~ Day 1

Another day has passed in Vietnam.  The time is passing so quickly and Amy and I consistently agree we are so happy to be here, albeit for a short time.  Our time here at the lovely Ma Maison Hotel is especially great...making us lament that we have to leave in just a couple of days.  They are so wonderful here and take such good care of us ~ always offering us more fruit ~ so it is a destination and oasis from the chaos of Saigon.

Here's a few photos from today here at the Ma Maison...

Gorgeous lillies

So lovely!

Love these...birds of paradise, I think?

The colors are so beautiful and strong

An amazing bowl of fruit

A little juice + a cup of tea for breakfast

The 'healthy' breakfast ~ muselix + yoghurt and fruit

Watermelon, pineapple and passion fruit

Love how they display the napkins...all over Vietnam

Bahn mi...a wonderful carry-over from the French occupation of Vietnam.  And yes, likely the only good carry-over, 

We were picked-up by one of the physical therapists from the hospital in a hospital car and arrived around 8a or so, due to the crazy traffic Saigon has.  The Rehab Department has moved within the confines of the hospital grounds, so we go to see there new locale.  This is a temporary locale, as they will be moving into a newer space, larger space in the next year, but this temporary space has some nice amenities for them in the meantime. 

They now have a designated room for casting and splinting, as they do lots of casting for club foot deformities and also fabricate their own orthotics.  They now have 3 rooms dedicated just for speech therapy, which is a great upgrade to the lack of space they had in their old locale.  There is a slighly larger space for physical therapy and some offices and a 'happy room.'  Giao (pronounced "Yao"), the director of the department proudly showed this 'happy room' to Amy and me with a great smile on his face.  He pronounced that it held a toilet and was only for the ladies.  This is a great upgrade from their old locale where the toilets were squat toilets and then a couple of years back they put in 1 flush toilet.  This 'happy room' actually had toilet paper too, which is quite a luxury.  Perhaps you are wondering why I am commenting on this to this extent...when a squat toilet is your option, you are incredibly grateful for a flushing toilet!  Exciting times!!

Moving on...we then went into a room that was set-up for our patient time today with about 20 therapists present.  These are a mixture of Pediatric Hospital #1 staff, local PTs and STs and therapists from various locales farther away in Vietnam.  There were 3 pediatricians in attendance, who also seem to function as either (or both) physical therapists and/or speech therapists.  They were a good group...very engaged and asking good questions throughout the day.  We saw a total of 6 kids that Amy and I co-treated (saw together) and it was so, so fun to be working with Amy again.  I miss treating with her and collaborating on this project is such a great way to continue to work together ~ albeit only every 2 years now ~ but to get to spend time with her living this adventure. 

One amazing note before I proceed...Vietnamese hospitals do not have air conditioning and everything is open-air ~ open windows with ceiling fans and again, no air conditioning.  Guess what was in the room we were using today????

Yep, folks...that's a bonafide wall air conditioner.  Thrilling...amazing...awe-inspiring...rendered me speechless!  Now, let me dispel a thought you might be having right now ~ we were still very hot while working and lots of sweating still occurred and my hair was wispy and curly because of the humidity, but there were moments ~ fleeing, yes, but moments ~ that I could actually feel the air conditioner working and trying its best to cool down the room.  With 20-25 bodies in a 15' x 20' room, one little wall air conditioner really didn't have a chance, but it tried and like I said, I felt it working a couple of moments!  Victory!!


The focus of our time at the Pediatric Hospital #1 this year is on evaluating and treating children with Global Developmental Delays.  The hospital has been choosing a focus for us the past few years ~ typically a topic that crosses over between PT and Speech and then sometimes an additional diagnostic category which is more specific to each discipline.  It actually has worked well and so Amy and I were curious as to what type of kids they would present to us.  In the past, what we thought we were going to be seeing was drastically different than what was presented, but this year, they did a fantastic job of patient selection and each child represented the topic of developmental delays well. 

The families were all very gracious and appreciative and the kiddos were amazing!!  They were all interesting and their therapists ~ PT and Speech Therapist ~ presented their cases on a large screen TV connected to their laptop ~ again, more advancement technologically than we have seen in the past ~ and did a great job with their case presentations.  They gave us great information about the children ~ demographics, functional abilities, functional limitations and goals of treatment.  It was great!

A great therapy chair.

Amy engaging with a child ~ saying 'what happened' and the staff and guests observing. 

Everyone listening to the case being presented before Amy and I would then begin to evaluate and treat the respective child.

Me doing some demonstration on how to facilitate strengthening of the trunk by using a ball...with a really large doll.  Side note ~ those green/blue mats are like large Lauri puzzles, but are ultimately hotter than Hades to sit upon all day. 

Amy explaining to the participants

Lots of questions and discussion between each client

Adorable 2 year old with developmental delays and significant hypotonia...she was a little mush-ball/marshmallow in her body, but so darn cute!  She did a great job with us and allowed us to work on some really challenging things with her without getting upset at us at all.  She had the most perfectly round and cherubic face. 

Therapy chair...corner chair option

Amy doing more explaining

Snack time...yes, we get snacks.  The little colorful balls at the top were sticky rice of various flavors ~ mostly vegetable flavors.  Not my favorite texture, but I had one and it was good ~ tasted like avocado.  The other cut fruit are called 'custard apples.'  They are an apple, but the center is soft with 2-3 black seeds (see bottom right) and so you take a spoon to eat the flesh of the fruit.  I like these...they are not too sweet. 

This little 2 year old girl had some complications at birth and presented with significant developmental delays, although when assessing/treating her, she surprised me with what she could do when challenged.  Her parents were lovely and so happy to be there with her...they adore her!  Amy and I suspect she is not seeing nor hearing and are concerned she is having seizures, so the therapists are going to talk with the family and physician. 

She did a great job on her belly and I was able to facilitate her movement so that she could obtain an extended arms position while on her belly and up into four-point positioning (hands/knees weight bearing).  She really surprised me with her tolerance for challenging things and her abilities.  A great example of never underestimating what level of functioning a child has based upon how they look.  We as therapists must try new things/new challenges to see where the ceiling is for these kiddos. 

This little 20 month old dynamo was SPECTACULAR!!  She was born full-term, but had a little difficulty at birth, but has been healthy since.  She is mildly delayed in her communication and gross motor skills.  She has an extremely short attention span and her movement is WILD and out of control, as she uses momentum rather than motor control for movement.  So, Amy and I had a BLAST treating her, as she was very tolerant to trying new/hard things and she is quite smart and very, very engaged!  She is quite floppy too, so we worked on increasing her trunk strength, but take a peek at those hyperextended elbows...yowsa!!  Eek!

She moves independently on the floor and was very engaged instantly with toys, books and us.  She had 2 little pig-tails sticking straight-out from the sides of her head which were FANTASTIC!!

Here she is, in all of her glory!  Her name is My.  She was so lovely...and her dad was fantastic too.  A pleasure to meet her!

Once she figures out how to walk...look out world, here comes a little whirlwind!

I will post some more pictures of the kiddos tomorrow, as some of the other kiddo's pictures are on Amy's camera.  So...more cutie kiddos to come!

It poured rain while we were working with the kiddos today ~ despite the 99 degree temperature.  Nice thing was when the rain stopped, the humidity dropped...for about 2 hours and then returned full-force.  We returned 'home' and then spent a little time with Natasha (the owner of the hotel) and her cute, cute baby, Ben.  He's 3 months old and adorable!  She wanted some ideas of what to do with him for exercise and he has a little bit of a flat head, so taught momma how to increase his tummy time.  Those flat heads are everywhere!  He was lovely and beautiful and in true Vietnamese fashion, was bundled up so warm even though Natasha's apartment had the windows open with no air conditioning.  Wouldn't want him to be chilly.  He was a little toasty, but seems to be doing fine!

Then, despite our tiredness, we went out to dinner and then walking around to do a little more shopping.  Here's some pictures from our stroll tonight...

Gorgeous!

So nice...the flowers here are bountiful!

So, we were walking down Le Loi Street and on this street they are doing construction for the new subway in Saigon.  We need to go past the construction, so kept walking and walked right through the construction zone, as there wasn't any signage or barricades blocking our walking path.  Good news was that the surface was flat and just dusty...but for the excitement, see below!

Huge holes just in the middle which one cannot see.  Danger, Will Robinson...danger!!  No one was injured while taking this photograph or walking through the construction zone.  We did opt to walk around it on our way back.  Good decision, right?

A store...in a 'cute' little alleyway.  On our way to dinner.

We ate at Pizza 4Ps ~ which stands for "Platform of Personal Pizzas for Peace."  It is a Japanese fusion pizza joint and was delicious!  I loved their menu's disclaimer on ordering pizzas...look at the bottom line.  This is very Vietnam.  In truth, it really didn't take much time to get our pizza. 

A great night for a Tiger beer!

The pizza oven.  It was quite a large restaurant and it was the quietest restaurant I have ever been to in my life.  So easy to have conversation.

Our dinner...on the top 1/2, a shrimp and ricotta cheese pizza and on the bottom 1/2 a classic margarita pizza.  So delicious!  They make all of their own cheeses at this restaurant and dinner was fantastic!  And...it was $15 total for both of us!

Tomorrow morning, Amy and I will teach a course on Global Developmental Delays ~ it's a theme! ~ and we aren't really sure how many participants will attend, but last time when we taught there were around 100 participants, so we'll see.  Then in the afternoon, it is a little unclear if they'll have more kiddos for us to see or if we'll just be leading discussion time with our respective colleagues.  Either way, I will be there, so am happy to do whatever they'd like me to do. 

Time to sleep...so tired, but having loads of fun!

xoxo
Stacy