Greetings from The Future! I'm about to celebrate New Year's Eve, 13 hours ahead of my fellow Chicagoans. If what I see around me in Can Tho is any indication, The Future will be filled with lots of beeping scooters and neon lights. Sounds great!

The IEP Team left San Francisco in the first few minutes of Saturday, 12/29, and arrived in Can Tho on Sunday night, 12/30 via Taipei, Taiwan and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We flew and bused for around 24 hours with no major hiccups to get down to our "Sweet Sweet Home" (our Can Tho hotel's motto-- branding at its best!).

We don't necessarily travel light-- we have lots of boxes of medical and surgical supplies, as well as therapy and training materials. EVA Airlines is amazingly tolerant of our ever-growing group and quantities of stuff :

The humidity and heat hit you very hard when you leave the Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) Airport-- it was around 90 degrees when we arrived. 

Stacy (IEP Physical Therapist) and me at  Pizzeria Delfina , San Francisco, 12/29

The very same, post 24-hours of travel and initial sweat attack

The entire IEP team continues to be a very impressive group. Orthopedic and podiatric surgeons from San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Israel, emergency room nurses, surgical residents in training, a documentary filmmaker, and Stacy and me-- the pediatric rehab part of the equation. We are also joined this year by the long-time IEP webmistress, a number of adult donors and their high-school-aged kids, and some of the surgeons' kids. I've been working with this project since 2004, and I always look forward to spending time with them during these weeks. 

arrival at HCMC airport

Drs. Diane and Sahra

Jenni, RN

Stacy and Dr. Jeff

Dr. Jonah, Abi, J.R., Flecher

Tuyen (translator from Can Tho) and Dr. Wing

Our 4 hour drive from Ho Chi Minh City included a roadside restaurant and I enjoyed the first of many coconuts. Pro tip: After drinking the coconut water, use the back of the spoon handle to dig in for that gooey gelatinous baby coconut benefit! 

Last night's arrival to our hotel in Can Tho is a bit of a blur, but I managed to stay awake to my 9pm do-or-die-to-beat-jet-lag hour. A lovely hazy sunrise greeted me this morning along the Mekong Delta on Hai Ba Trung Street:

Today's focus was beginning the screening process for potential surgical candidates at Can Tho General Hospital. "But Amy," you may ask, "What in the world does a speech-language pathologist have to do with making decisions about a person's suitability for lower extremity surgeries?" Great question, you! The answer is "Pretty much nothing." 

HOWEVER, I can be really organized when I want to be, so for the first couple of days in Can Tho, I am the Intake Coordinator for all the triage/screenings of patients. I get to create my very own bureaucratic system to get patient data, including photo and video, for the surgeons to make decisions about the surgeries. This year, I even had some other volunteers to help, and things moved smoothly, if I do say so myself.

waiting area at Can Tho General Hospital

me being bossy

and bossier still

We screened 42 potential patients today, and will see around 35 more on Wednesday. Stacy brings her voluminous physical therapy and rehab knowledge to bear in working directly with the surgeons in examining patients. The most prevalent conditions that we see for surgery are post-polio patients (polio was not universally vaccinated here until around 1990), cerebral palsy, and congenital abnormalities. 

Here are some shots of everyone at work today (there are a few photos of some foot and leg malformations-- just a warning if you are a little squeamish):

Banner posted at Can Tho General Hospital announcing that we would be working with patients, also listing the types of deformities and impairments we would be screening.

We are are ably assisted in the screening process by our translators, Tuyen and Hoa. Tuyen and her sister, Thuy (now a Ph.D. in Japan), have worked with us for a number of years in Can Tho, and they are terrific friends of the project.

There is a significant impact to having lower extremity malformations and impairments in Vietnam. If you cannot wear shoes because of your foot's structure, you cannot walk safely or comfortably. If you cannot walk, you cannot go to school or work (no special education system or ADA here to support kids and adults with physical impairments and their families). We also saw a few returning patients that we worked with in 2010, and they remain satisfied customers two years post-surgery. One girl, now 8 years old, had surgery with IEP in 2010 and was able to begin to attend school, and her mother proudly declared that she was the best student in her class!

We finished our day today with a pizza party, courtesy of the Vietnamese surgeons. I can also report that I had 2 more coconuts today.

We have a New Year's party tonight, including party supplies that Stacy and I bought in San Francisco! We have off tomorrow, New Year's Day, and I'll get out and explore-- Can Tho has definitely gotten more crowded and developed since we were last here in 2010. 

CHUC MUNG NAM MOI! HAPPY NEW YEAR!