When we first arrived at the OR we needed to change into hospital scrubs and shoes. Here, most people wear green and we were given scrub dresses which were great until the ORs got really cold. Everyone also wears crocs, sandals, or flip flops.
In the morning, we observed two surgeries while shadowing Dr. Gong, who is an ENT surgeon. The first was removing a mass from the vocal cords of a patient. He used a microscope and let us see what he was doing throughout the procedure. The second patient needed the right lobe of his thyroid removed. His neck appeared swollen and the portion of thyroid that Dr. Gong removed was the size of a large clementine. The nurses showed us the esophagus, trachea, and carotid artery of the patient as well since they were all close to the surgical site.
In the afternoon, Dr. Gong removed polyps that were completely obstructing the nasal passageway of a patient. The surgery was more than two hours long and there were over 30 masses in each nostril. Because there were so many blood vessels going to the polyps, removal causes a significant amount of bleeding and the patient needed to receive blood during the procedure.
After work, we went to dinner with two amazing doctor interns, P'Mui and P'Bow. They have been friends since kindergarten and went through all the same schooling. There are 18 interns total working at the King Narai hospital, mainly locals from Lopburi. They work seven days a week for an entire year to serve the community since the government helps pay for their schooling.
After dinner, we went to the Big C for ice cream and then went to karaoke (except no one knew any of the songs). It was a super fun night and Brooke and I are so grateful P'Mui and P'Bow made time for us even with their incredibly busy schedule.
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