… actually that just means I decided to stay put this weekend-explored all over Ho Chi Minh (HCM) instead. Been traveling the last 4 weekends so I wanted to get to know this city better. Also, as much as I love to socialize and I really do, I also love my alone time. Had a good blend of both this weekend.

More on that later, firstly let’s catch up on this week. I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend in the States. And so glad summer finally arrived in New England. Geez, kinda late this year!

Oh and before I forget, for those of you that are reading this blog via an email alert that you receive when I post, I’ve learned that you cannot see the captions under the photos. Ugh! In order to see the captions, you need to actually click on the link into the blog and go to the actual post-aka not just read the email because you are missing some riveting caption info (if I do say so myself). I will try to use less captions and just put that information in the regular text so everybody can see it more easily.

Okay now where were we? Oh right, now back to this week… I change departments weekly in the Hospital and this week was the Adult ICU. This is a Rehab/ Orthopedic Hospital so it’s not a high level Trauma Center ICU, although there were a few stable patients on ventilators who were recovering (actually existing in VERY compromised mental states for months now 💔) as a result of brain hemorrhages and strokes.

I was excited to go the ICU since I used to work in the Pediatric + Neonatal ICUs but most of the staff in this ICU did not speak English. And there were only a few patients there this week. Honestly, it was a bit dull. But when the Head Nurse or MDs weren’t too busy, we chatted a lot about the differences in the Healthcare of our 2 countries. I also tried to share some medical information from the US that I thought might be helpful to them. They seemed receptive.

My biggest takeaway after this ICU experience was that in the US, our Medical System functions at a markedly higher level than Vietnam due to factors such as the more intensive training of our Healthcare workers and due to our increased access to more high-tech equipment. That said, millions of people in our country don’t have health insurance for a multitude of reasons. Some of these reasons being that our health insurance is tied to our full-time employment and it is quite expensive hence not affordable for so many. For example, since quitting my job to do these trips, I had to pick up my own health/dental/vision insurance. I’m paying close to $700 a month with a $6,000 deductible!! Thank God I can afford that but that is a luxury not a right in our country that so many can’t afford.

These factors above have created a system where our Healthcare expenditures are higher than ANY other country in the world yet when the Worldwide healthcare systems are analyzed (healthcare infrastructure, quality of care, healthcare access, health technology, and patient satisfaction), the US usually ranks about 18th in the world!!!

Now I’m certainly not saying that Vietnam has a better Health Care system than we do because they don’t (they are much further down that list) but being that this is a Communist country with Socialized Medicine, Healthcare is a right of birth here. Everyone has health insurance that covers 80% of their costs. So although the actual care is not what I would consider optimal due to the reasons I already mentioned, everyone has insurance so everyone gets care and lots of it.

Unfortunately, very hight rates of smoking+drinking combined with everyday life stressors and high salt / sugar diets here have all created extraordinarily high stroke and high blood pressure rates, the likes of which I’ve never seen in my career. There are 20+30 year olds in the stroke unit upstairs (and even a few teenagers) along with a plethora of 50+60 year olds. I think the only diagnosis that’s more prevalent here is Trauma from moped accidents.

Vietnam also doesn’t practice preventative medicine i.e. annual physicals (where we screen for diabetes, high blood pressure, increased lipids etc) so the Vietnamese only go to the clinic / hospital when they are sick….and sadly, it’s often way too late.

The other thing that I learned that I found interesting is that they do not have any DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) policies in place. So unlike in our country, even if you have a terminal diagnosis and there is no hope, you cannot ask for a DNR. Therefore, if you stop breathing in the hospital, you get a full code / CPR done on you.

Along those same lines, based on what I saw in the ICU, I don’t think they have any Living Will or Removal of Life Support (aka Pull the Plug or Feeding Tube) policies in place either. Because if they did, I’m quite sure a few of those ventilated patients would not be existing in the severely compromised states that they are in.

Another medical volunteer asked me if I thought the reason that the Vietnamese Health System doesn’t have these policies in place is because of the Buddhist beliefs around the value of life. Great question! I’m really not sure but I will look into that.

Shifting gears, there was a lot of fun to be had this week too. The college where most of our volunteers are staying (still lovin’ my hotel 😇) asked for some volunteers to play the part of restaurant customers in order for their Hospitality students to be tested in a simulation setting. Had a great prime rib meal served during this stint (great break from the rice+rice noodles) and met two wonderful Vietnamese woman at our table. They didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak Vietnamese but Google Translate gave us the gift of new friends.

Friday night, I rode on the back of a moped for half an hour through the city to meet my friend Tuyen ( Two- Yen) for a nice seafood dinner. She walks our medical team to the hospital and back everyday and helps get us set up in our respective departments. She is so sweet, happy and hardworking. This was just a little treat for her for being so good to us.

Saturday, our volunteer group was invited to Nova College for their Cultural Festival and a tour of their Campus. Carrie, Liv and I were picked up by the College and driven over there. It was quite sweet. That included nine Graphic Arts students begging us to let them do Henna tattoos on us. Got my first ever Tat!!! Still don’t want a real one on Moi but I really do like the henna!

When we toured the school, we stumbled across a nursing classroom. The student nurses were so excited to meet an American Nurse that they insisted on taking a picture together. They don’t have Nurse Practitioners in this country so I had to explain that role to them.

Later that evening, I got tickets to a Water Puppet Show. It is a celebration of Vietnamese folklore, music and singing. It really was quite beautiful. The puppeteers were standing waist- high in water behind screens, manipulating the puppets via some underwater poles. We didn’t see them until the end of the show when they came out to take a bow. The musicians and singers performed from each side of the stage so were also fun to watch.

There is a skyscraper called Landmark 81 that I can see off in the distance from my hotel room. It looks a lot like the Empire State Building and is lit up all in red+white each night- yes the colors of Vietnam. This was historically the tallest building in Asia until just a few years ago.

The observation sites are on Floors 79-81 and the views were spectacular! The elevator ascends and descends very quickly. In fact, I calculated our downward acceleration to be about four floors per second! “GOING DOWN?”…yes, real fast! I had to keep popping my ears because of the pressure.

Here are the views from up there. Made the 40 story buildings below us look like low-rises.

And this is Ho Chi Minh’s Central Park below, also seen from the 79th floor. Ran out of time today but will go back and walk the park another day.

On my way to Landmark 81, I passed the Bitexco Skyview Viewing Platform. But it was a mere 45 floors up so I didn’t bother going up cuz I was holding out for the better view down the street. It was a cool site to see from below though.

I walked along the river a good deal of the way to get to the skyscrapers and noticed some vegetation that I’ve been meaning to showcase. It’s called Water Cabbage. They are free-floating, usually about 2 – 3 foot clusters of greens. When I first saw them I thought somebody had done some clearing of vegetation and tossed it in the river so that these were just remnants floating downstream. But they are actually little tiny water cabbage rafts if you will, that thrive while floating down the river. I had seen these in Ghana too and remember dodging them as we were jetskiing on a river. There are numerous rivers in New England but I’ve never seen anything like these before.

But the best thing I found on my way to the skyscrapers was a really delicious cup of egg coffee in the Little HaNoi Egg Coffee Cafe.

The locals and the tourists rave about this. When I first heard about egg coffee, I thought it was like a poached egg in your coffee🤢 But no, no, no…. this is a cup of espresso topped with a thick layer of whipped egg yolks+sweetened condensed milk. It was almost like drinking custard with your rich espresso. I don’t normally like sugar in my coffee nor do I like those super sweet Starbuck’s Mocha Choke Ya’ Carmel Frappes… but I’m quite sure this was the BEST coffee I’ve ever had!! What a treat❤️

Need to head to bed now. Tomorrow I will be in the Traditional Medicine Department for the week. I’m really looking forward to learning more about acupuncture, cupping and some of the other Eastern therapies that they practice here.

Happy Sunday to all of you. It was a great one here so I’m sending it your way now. Enjoy.❤️🤗❤️