Old Friends and New Patients...

After a great night's sleep at Ma Maison ~ despite the attempts to disrupt my sleep by the noisy rooster(s) and/or chicken(s) located just across the alley ~ we had a delicious 'Healthy Breakfast' here with Mr. Hanh supervising.  It was, as always, delicious, except the yoghurt is no longer home-made, but still it was a wonderful way to start our day.  

Watermelon, pineapple and dragon fruit

Yoghurt with muesli

Then around 745a, Ms. Thu (pronounced 'Theux') and Hoang (pronounced 'Ho-angh') ~ both therapists from the Rehab department ~ arrived to transport us to the Pediatric Hospital #1 here in Saigon, located in District 10.  They both spoke English, so that is always helpful for us.  The final 2 totes of therapy supplies were gathered and we walked through the alley toward our transport, which was an ambulance from the Pediatric Hospital.  It had seats, etc., but apparently also doubles as an ambulance.

In the past we have traveled via motor scooter (with a driver from the hospital therapy staff) (in 2004 and 2007), but in 2010 we traveled back/forth mainly via taxi, due to the new helmet laws here for motor scooter/cyclo drivers.  Amy and I think our scooter rides ceased because they didn't have helmets large enough to fit our heads!?!?  In any case, this year we will apparently be transported to/fro our hotel to the hospital via ambulance.  It is now a part of our 'project,' we were told.  It's very nice...just kind of funny, as per usual.

We arrived at the hospital and noticed a few changes since our last visit.  The murals along the outside of the hospital had been re-painted, as well as the cyclo parking lot now has a security guard as well as several cameras.  Hi-tech has come to Saigon!!  We walked into the Rehab department and there was this lovely sign welcoming us.  I just realized I didn't yet get a photo of it, so will do so tomorrow. 

We were walking to the 'office' and happened upon a very excited Yen!!  Yen used to be the Director of the Rehab department and she had to retire about 4 years ago.  Retirement is mandatory here in Vietnam at the age of 55 years.  She is still involved, however, as she participated and graduated from a Speech Therapy training program here in Saigon run by the Australian Speech Therapy Association and is now a Speech Therapist.  She had, in 2008, also come to Chicago to spend time with me, Amy and our friend, Jeanine, so we have all developed a great friendship!  The Vietnamese are a warm people, but are not big huggers and she hugged both Amy and me so tightly it was so touching!  She is a wonderful lady and we are so happy to get to see her again.  :)

We then were greeted by several friendly faces and got ourselves ready to start to see patients.  Today was focused on 6 patients all with hypotonia or decreased muscle tone.  They were all incredibly different and a couple were quite puzzling.  For one child, I have translated her most recent MRI via Google Translate.  It yielded some interesting translations, but has given me a fairly good sense of what the MRI showed.  The other child was a 4 month old little girl with severe weakness of her hands and no active movement of her thumbs.  There really aren't any other notable issues with this baby, but it's very strange that her hands are so severely weak.  I have done a couple of hours of research and have reached-out to a couple of friends in the US for some help too.  Hopefully, I can help steer the medical team in the right direction to best understand this little girl's problem.

Here's some photos of all of them...

This is Dan.  She is a 2 year old little girl with hypotonia and developmental delay.  She has some significant brain issues and so is not yet sitting independently.  She did a good job of tolerating putting some weight through her hands with me, despite being sick today.  Yes...they brought her because we were there, as it is a big deal for many of these families, so I used a lot of hand sanitizer and hopefully will not get sick.  

Demonstrating some upper extremity weight bearing for Dan's treating therapist.

Oh...and yes...my hair was actually down for about 3/4 of the day ~ a record for me!

 This is Phat (pronounced 'Faat').  He is 12 month old and has a diagnosis of hypotonia due to rubella that his mother contracted while pregnant with him.  He is quite visually impaired, so has these fantastic glasses, but is in need of a little tightening of them as they kept falling down his nose.  Although it was a cute look for him, they really weren't in the right position to help him see.

He was a super-sweet and tolerant little boy and we worked on some transitional movements and some weight bearing through his feet so he can work toward standing with support.  

How sweet is he????  He loved the beads he is holding too.

He was such a trooper...working so hard with me.

 This was Huy.  He is 12 months old and also has hypotonia.  He was quite a chubby baby and after some discussion it was found his mom puts sugar in his water, because he likes it that way.  We suggested she slowly decrease the sugar in his water, as he is really doughy.

He had never worked on weight bearing through his legs, so he was able to do a little standing with some help from me.  His treating therapist is sitting to his right and was able to practice everything I suggested and did a great job too.



This is the PT therapy room.  It is all open-air and has a few fans on the ceiling.  It has an open door at each end of the room, which truly does provide some nice ventilation.  This is me doing some teaching with the staff.  They really ask great questions and work very hard to integrate what they are learning. 

Some standing equipment, at the ready!

This is Thuy (pronounced 'Twee').  She is the 4 month old baby with severe weakness of her hands and no movement of her thumbs.  She is simply beautiful!

I will see her again tomorrow so hopefully we can develop a plan for this child to get the appropriate testing to learn what is happening with her hands.

This is Nghi (pronounced 'Nhee').  She is 13 months and has a diagnosis of developmental delay.  Amy and I don't think she can see and/or hear, as she wasn't responsive to my inputs.  She had some seizures at birth and is quite impaired.

She will come again tomorrow to see me.

Some more teaching ~ about how to help Nghi to maintain her head in the center of her body, as she isn't yet able to do so.  

This little lady is Huong (pronounced 'Hong').  She is 3 years old and has Down Syndrome.  She does not like to put weight through her feet and is not yet walking, although she is a very bright child and should be walking.  Her parents were really great and instantly began working on the activities I suggested.  She, by the end of our session, would sit with weight through her feet (which she wouldn't do previous to today) and did a little standing with mom and dad's support.

She is super-sweet and working with children with Down Syndrome is always so wonderful.  She wasn't super-excited about sitting with me, but did for a little bit while facing mom.  She did a great job and was super-spunky!!





It was such a good day, but challenging too, which is just fine.  I have done all of my homework for tomorrow, so we'll see what we can sort out about the 2 more complicated cases.

We returned to our oasis and then decided to go for a walk in the 'exercise park' across the street from our hotel.  We have been here before, but here are a few highlights...

Folks working-out.  Lots of deep knee bends and working with great intensity.  They mean business!

This 'exercise park' also has an amusement park.  No idea why, but there's something for everyone!  This ride was notable, as each chair has the Vietnamese flag flying. 

One of the 'lakes.'  Not really sure if it's a naturally-occurring lake or man-made, but either way I wouldn't swim in it.  It definitely adds to the already humid air.

There are loads of folks roller-blading, badminton playing and kicking of the Vietnamese version of hackey-sack (looks like a large shuttlecock).  I've taken video in the past and so will again in the next couple of days.

This ride was a little creepy, as each seat has some manner of picture of Marilyn Monroe.  Some of them were a little scary.

Gentleman fishing...

Some more gents fishing in the lake!?!?

It also has an aquatic center in the park. 







Around 6p, in the center of the park, there was a congregating of many, many women and there was a platform placed toward the end of this large area.  All of a sudden, the dance music rang-out and there were at least 100 women there for their aerobics class.  We watched for a little bit and it was amazing!!  Jazzercise is alive and well here in Vietnam!!

We then walked back to our hotel to figure out where to eat dinner.  Natasha, the owner of Ma Maison, told us about a great Vietnamese noodle shop and so she drew us a map and also wrote our dinner order on a piece of paper, so that the folks working at the shop would know what we wanted and didn't want.  She basically wrote...

A bowl of soup, a bowl with noodles and vegetables with shrimp.  They only eat shrimp.  Do not give them anything else.

What she meant is that they typically add liver to the soup and pork and Amy and I both wanted to pass on that opportunity.  So we found our way and handed them our note, which was kind of like taking a note to school from your mom.  It was quite funny.  Here's our delicious dinner...

In the process of walking to the park and then to dinner, we had to cross the big street a few times.  I had forgotten how busy Cach Mhang Trung (the main street near our hotel) can be and how 'exhaust-y' smelling and tasting it gets when we are walking.  It's pretty polluted here.  Crossing the streets here is a bit of a leap-of-faith, as as a walker you just simply step-out and believe that the motor scooters and cars and buses will avoid you and shockingly, it works quite well.  One does have to pay close attention and to keep moving.  Stopping will get you hit!

Here's a couple of videos of traffic ~ the 1st video was taken from inside the hospital ambulance on our way back to our hotel today (I was in the front seat) and the 2nd was taken just standing aside the street...

Time to sleep for me.  More work tomorrow, then meeting up with the IEP crowd here in Saigon for a farewell dinner, as they are all traveling back to the US on Saturday and then on Saturday morning, Amy and I are taking a cooking class!!  Can't wait!

xoxo
Stacy