We packed all night and went out for karaoke. We were met at our dorms by Big, Lin, and Tha at the crack of dawn. We said our goodbyes, and were on our way back home. The end :)
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Added by Jordan Markel on November 13, 2008 at 12:57am —
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We met the driver at 7:30 am, this time on a mission to see Bangkok General Hospital. The hospital shocked me right off the bat. First off, it was in a prime location in the center of Bangkok, where the sky train and subway system intersect. There were beautiful water fountains decorating the surrounding of the hospital. Inside the lobby, there was a piano being played, accompanied by a harp. We were told to wait on large, comfortable leather couches, where I immediately began to doze off for a…
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Added by Jordan Markel on November 13, 2008 at 12:55am —
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We met with the hospital driver at 7:30am and were on our way to Vajira Hospital. At Vajira Hospital, we were introduced to the Chief Director, who had American style pepperoni pizza waiting for us in his conference room to help us feel more at home. Little did he know that I much prefer the Thai food, I enjoyed every meal in Thailand to the fullest. The Chief Director talked us through a powerpoint presentation explaining the history of the hospital, research opportunities at the hospital, affi…
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Added by Jordan Markel on November 13, 2008 at 12:52am —
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We woke up early to get our presentations prepared; we were set to present at 2pm. The internet was not up yet, and we did the best we could. Most of all, I learned another lesson in procrastination. By the time 2pm rolled around, we were set to go. The conference room was filled up with about 50 medical students and 15 faculty. While setting up our presentation, we met a medical doctor who was visiting SWU from University of Hawaii. Here was there working on building a research project at SWU a…
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Added by Jordan Markel on November 13, 2008 at 12:50am —
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Today, we woke up and headed to the mall with Big and his mother. Paragon mall is the most luxurious shopping experience I have ever encountered, there were pianos being played all throughout the inside of the mall. The mall had every designer store thinkable, an enormous food store, and a cafeteria spanning close to a half mile. We ate some gourmet chocolates while sitting next to a water fountain. Less than twenty yards away, there was a small outdoor venue pop concert going on. After the mall…
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Added by Jordan Markel on November 13, 2008 at 12:48am —
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Today started another voyage into Bangkok, this time with Big. Our destination was Big's house in downtown Bangkok, where we were to stay Saturday night to take a weekend off from the medical school. After taking a bus ride, a taxi, and a short walk, we arrived at Big's house. Sometime in between all our stops, we got to see a few of the national statues and monuments. Big's house was a beatiful multi storied condo. His mom ordered us American-style delivery pepporoni pizza to help us feel more…
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Added by Jordan Markel on November 13, 2008 at 12:45am —
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The fact that we wanted to see many disciplines of medicine within the hospital worked well with the schedule of the medical students because the medical students are broken up into assigned groups and then each group does a 6 week assigned rotation together. Many of our student friends had just been switched from PICU rotation to surgery rotation and we were eager to learn more about surgery. We woke up bright and early and got over to the OR to observe the removal of intestinal polyps. We did…
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Added by Jordan Markel on November 13, 2008 at 12:42am —
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During our daily hospital rounds we were invited to sit in on one of the medical school courses being taught in the hospital that day. Dr. Sakara accepted us warmly, and we got the pleasure to sit in on her course in genetic predisposition to allergies. Dr. Sakara offered to present the lecture to the class in English, so that everybody could understand. The course experience was very educational and showed promise in the opportunity for USF students to learn a lot from the faculty at SWU. After…
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Added by Jordan Markel on November 13, 2008 at 12:39am —
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Today we spent the majority of the day on surgery rounds, learning about post-operative patient check ups. We spent time with two patients who had orthopedic surgeries on fractured bones, as well as a a patient who had a mastectomy. Later on, we spent some time in the undergraduate cafeteria, at which point we caught up with some friends. Zayar went off to play tennis and I went off to play basketball with our Thai friends. During the basketball games, the Thai students and I would talk about ou…
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Added by Jordan Markel on November 13, 2008 at 12:31am —
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Early this morning, the SWU van came to pick us up and take us back to Ongkharak. We were extremely tired that morning coming back but our stay at Ayuthaya gave us another invaluable perspective of medicine in Thailand. As undergraduates, however, there was only so much we could learn from visiting the wards and having doctors try their best to describe the cases. We felt that Ayuthaya would be a great place for an exchange student to stay and learn for a few days, however, the lack of other stu…
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Added by Jordan Markel on November 13, 2008 at 12:30am —
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We had breakfast in the hospital cafeteria and headed over to the NICU again to work with Dr. Bao. We really appreciated her willingness to teach us all about the NICU diseases. She was especially knowledgeable in Pediatric Infectious Diseases. The most common complications at the NICU seemed to be bacterial infections that led to respiratory problems. Later that afternoon, we headed over to the market that was taking place that day at the hospital, and Dr. Bao helped us barter some great prices…
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Added by Jordan Markel on November 13, 2008 at 12:29am —
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Today was less eventful than the previous day. We updated the blogs at the nurses station computers and then walked around a few wards. The wireless internet was only available on some floors of the administration building. This was not a teaching hospital like SWU, so providing wireless across the hospital was not as big of a priority. However, there are internet cafes within close walking distance to the hospital. There were fewer patients and their family members walking around and also fewer…
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Added by Jordan Markel on November 13, 2008 at 12:28am —
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Today, we discovered the hospital cafeteria and ate some noodles. Then, we did some rounds in the TB clinic, a large opening with about 50 seats. There were more people than seats, everybody with masks on. We spent some time learning about TB diagnosis and treatment and got to listen to some TB infected patients' lungs with a stethoscope. After the TB clinic, we met with Dr. Bao, a pediatrician, and brought us to the NICU. I really enjoyed the NICU. We learned basic diagnosis and treatment of ma…
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Added by Jordan Markel on November 13, 2008 at 12:27am —
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We went to see two students giving presentations in English to a few of the doctors in the conference room. Breakfast was served as well. Each student presented one of their cases, going over their diagnostic procedures and course of treatment. We learned more about the highly prevalent Dengue fever and the stages of its progression into its most serious hemorrhagic form. The good news was that the case of a young girl in critical condition from Dengue was expected to fully recover. Afterward, w…
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Added by Jordan Markel on November 13, 2008 at 12:26am —
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Today we woke up in Ongkharak very early and we headed to Ayuttayah. We were guided inside the hospital, where we met with Dr. Yong. Dr. Yong had an involved conversation with us regarding the health system in Thailand, what it is like to be a doctor in Thailand, and opportunities for international students in Thailand. After we met with Dr. Yong, he suggested we get Thai massages. Zayar stayed behind to nap and Dr. Yong and I rode with his friend Bryan and got massages. When I got back, I took…
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Added by Jordan Markel on November 13, 2008 at 12:25am —
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Today we headed to the hospital am around 10 a.m. With lots of work to catch up on, we needed a place to get cracking. We do not have access to the internet in the dorms we are staying in, although there is a wireless connection. We have not met a single person living in these dorms, or otherwise we would ask them the wireless login code. They are mostly busy nurses with limited English capacity, so we thought it better to leave them alone and just take a short walk to use the internet. At this…
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Added by Jordan Markel on August 20, 2008 at 6:27pm —
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Ayutthaya was a lot of fun, I put up some good pictures. Friday we went on a boat ferry dinner down the river for one of the professor's birthdays; it was really neat. He knew the history of many of the landmarks and we learned a ton. We went to the the giant dam the King built and then went tubing down a river with some nice rapids on Saturday. Sunday, I went exploring the streets. I took an elephant trek around the city and then spent a few hours exploring the ancient temple ruins. Monday, we…
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Added by Jordan Markel on August 13, 2008 at 4:41am —
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Tonight, we are taking a bus into Bangkok. We then plan to take a bus to one of the beaches on the east coast to spend a night or two. If we get to Bangkok too late, we will spend a night in the city, and then we will take a bus out to the beach in the morning. We will not have internet access, but our cell phones should get full signal.
-Jordan
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Added by Jordan Markel on August 3, 2008 at 3:03am —
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Hi all,
I know that I have not posted any blogs as of yet. It has been quite difficult to post a daily blog, we are on day 8 and have only posted 3. I have been keeping a journal, but it is not in blog form and I am a bit behind on it. I sense that by the end of the month, the journal will be about 20 pages long. I will continue to post pictures and updates. I will reserve posting my journal until the end of the trip, so as to have time to edit it and add relevant information.
We were planning…
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Added by Jordan Markel on August 1, 2008 at 3:38am —
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