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| Physiotherapy room at Can Tho Children's Hospital |
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| Our translator, Phuong |
We've just finished our second day at Can Tho Children's Hospital. We've returned to largely the same group of therapists, coordinated by Dr. Phuong, a pediatrician. Thankfully, our translator, Phuong (no relation!) has also returned for her third year of tolerating my long-windedness and constant questioning of parents ("Could you ask her if her child can chew his food? Could you ask her if her child is using a cup? How does the child move around the house? and on and on...). Phuong is a fascinating person-- she's an accomplished university grad who is now a factory supervisor at a Japanese baseball glove factory in an industrial park at the edge of Can Tho. In addition to English, she is now speaking some Japanese and Tagalog from work. She gives us much-needed insight into cultural expectations, in addition to translating and talking about food with me.  |
We're seeing an interesting variety of children in our open clinic times, with developmental issues including spina bifida, all kinds of cerebral palsy, seizure disorders, post-meningitis, and other neuromuscular challenges. It seems like there are more kids from locations farther away from Can Tho that are coming in to see us. Stacy and I get our hands on a lot of kids, and talk to the therapists and parents about recommendations for each of them. The clinic is tropically-humid with a few fans, and the mats for us to work are laminated with what feels like extra-sticky tape-- it's hard to get up off the floor sometimes! I am wilted by the end of the day! 
One of the cultural expectations that is always tricky for Stacy and I to balance is the differences in our training and that of the therapists in Can Tho. I've had the experience of 20-30 year olds in Vietnam stating that they feel more comfortable writing something in English than actually speaking it; our experience in the hospital is kind of the same thing-- often that the therapists can quote ideas about some disorders, but are reluctant and less-trained to deploy problem-solving that uses these ideas to the child's developmental concerns-- the therapists tend to follow a "one size fits all" approach. This makes for some pretty static treatment for a lot of kids, and the therapists and parents don't see a lot of improvement. 
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| my drawings for a parent about how to help her son use his leg/foot braces |
Fortunately, we all continue to feel more familiar and comfortable with each other each year, so we keep trying to push things forward. I started throwing candy to any therapist that would ask or answer a question today; I will never again roll my eyes at a conference lecturer who does that, I promise! In the end, they had some good questions, and we always realize that we see a lot of similar cases in both countries. We were able to demonstrate the use of a lot of the materials that we brought with us; that always creates a lot of buzz!
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| there's a fish inside here! |
OK, onto food stuffs. Last night we had a dinner hosted by the hotel to celebrate birthdays of Bruce Lehnert, one of the lead surgeons in the group, and Flecher Fleurdejon, our documentarian-- the most impressive part of the dinner was a fish cooked inside a large melon/squash that was carved to look like a fish! We followed up with a brief karaoke session-- "True" and "Barracuda" were a couple of my favorites , but I was foiled in my attempts to do any justice to "Nine to Five" by a very wonky tempo. Sorry, Dolly.
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| phab pho |
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| slurrrrrrp |
A few nights ago, my dinner's translation was "Fried Sea Product", which ended up including some delicious squid, but also a few curious slabs of meat (what sea product could look like this? I though it might be manatee). My hospital lunch today was capped off by a bowl of chewy sticky rice and sweet corn mixed with some coconut milk-- yummmm.
More photos of kids and us in action! Have a great weekend! Many apologies for the jumbled nature of these photos-- I am not doing a great job of learning how to format this blog... xoxo
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| Little girl with brachialplexus injury |
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| a boy with athetoid cerebral palsy- seen much less often in the US |
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I promise I am not hurting this little girl.  |
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| Stacy preparing to apply kinesiotape to a boy's shoulder |
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| Stacy and Dr. Phuong talk about clubfoot |
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| working with a little boy with a seizure disorder to shift weight to his feet to stand and play |
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| girl with spina bifida who has figured out how to walk on the insides of her feet-- wow! |
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