Week 4 - MICU

Monday, October 28th

• We had the morning to work on our patient presentation and two other presentations for next week. Around 11:30am we headed to meet Mantha, Vee and Fafa for lunch! We all had Tom Yum soup, and it did not disappoint. It was delicious!

• 1:30pm - Dr. Pang joined us in the common room and and came to take us to our new home for the next two weeks...the MICU. She would be our preceptor until our Thailand Takeover was over.
  

• During the afternoon we worked up patients and talked through cases. Dr. Pang was a very good teacher, and we really enjoyed learning from her!

• As soon as we were done with rotation for the day, it was time for dinner! Mama Fonteno had not tried MK, and since it was her last night in Thailand, it was time to show her what it was all about. We met Mantha, Vee, and Fafa around 5:00pm and had a delicious meal!

• After MK restaurant, they took us to The Company, which serves a lot of different cheesecakes. We tried apple, chocolate, lemon, pecan, chocolate cream, and pumpkin cheesecake! They were all amazing of course, and we enjoyed many laughs this evening as well. The night came to a close, and they dropped us back off at our apartment afterwards.
  

Tuesday, October 29th

• The day started early, as we headed out for rotation at 7:30am. We arrived at the hospital by 8:00am to start working up patients for rounds that began around 9:30am. Rounds lasted until 11:00am, and we discussed patients afterwards with Dr. Pang. We spent the rest of the morning updating our patient information from the day before and analyzing the patient cases.

• 12:00pm - We met Mom and had lunch at the Green Cafeteria with Dolla (the pharmacist rotating through the MICU) and Bew (she is the resident who took us around the first day in Thailand, and to get our phones!). We all had the chicken basil since Mom had not tried this meal yet.
  

• After lunch we continued to work up patients and

• 4:30pm - Mom had to leave for the airport to make her flight back to America :( It was a very fun week having a visitor with us on our Thailand Takeover journey! We ended up getting matching elephant pants too!

• 5:10pm - Mantha picked us up for a Thai aerobic dance class that started at 5:30pm. We met Vee there as well. This workout class is free to everyone, and takes place every night on campus. It ended up being quite the workout! The dancing consisted of a lot of jumping, squatting, and coordinated movements. It was so much fun, but we definitely have a lot of learning to do.
  

• After the workout, we decided we had earned a big meal for dinner. Vee ended up taking us to Chokdee Dim Sum, which was a Thai restaurant that was absolutely delicious! You picked your mix of foods that you wanted to cook, and then walked across the street to grab a seat and have some endless soup. Each container had about 2-4 pieces of food, and each unique. One of our favorite dishes was the sweet pork belly. This restaurant is a must-try when in Hat Yai, and was recommended by everyone we asked about food.

• After our huge meal (that we of course finished), Vee dropped us off at our apartment, and we headed straight to bed. The workout class and food made for a fun, but tiring evening

Wednesday, October 30th

• We headed to rotation at 8:00am to meet our preceptor, Dr. Pang and Dolla. The morning started with working up our patient from yesterday, and continuing to work up new patients that arrived last night.

• Rounds started about 10:00am, and then we had a discussion with Dr. Pang about some questions about therapy, medication interactions, and interventions for the physician.

• Around 12:00pm, it was time for lunch, and we headed to the Green Cafe across from the hospital with Dolla for a pad thai lunch.
  

• After lunch, we had the afternoon to work on our patient case, curriculum review, and our Hat Yai experience presentations for next week. Amazon Cafe had been missing us the last couple of days, so we headed there for some coffee and tea to get work done.

• Dinner time came quickly as we worked through our presentations. We headed over to The Limb for some food before heading in the night.

Thursday, October 31st

• 8:00am - we met at the MICU to join Dolla, Dr. Pang, Noon, and Sin to work up patients and discuss our plans

• We had some good discussions this morning, and learned about some different medications that are part of and not part of the formulary.

• 11:30am - Lunch came early today, because Dolla needed to get ready for her presentation this afternoon! We headed to the green cafeteria and got a couple of different meals. Megan tried a new soup with pork, egg noodles, and celery. Cynthia had the pad thai, and Dolla had tom yum soup.

• 12:30pm - We headed back to the ward for more patient work-ups and discussions. Later in the afternoon, we had some time to work on our patient presentations for next week! They were coming up quickly.

• We headed to The Limb to get some more work done later in the afternoon, and had a snack to get ready for our boxing class that night!

• 6:30pm - Mantha and Vee picked us up for a Thai Boxing Class near Central Festival (the mall). It was an hour of fun, sweat, pain, and learning. We had a blast, and ended up doing a little photo shoot afterwards.

• We ended up not leaving the class until about 8:00pm. We decided to head to Central Festival to eat at Mantha and Vee's favorite dessert cafe. It's called After You......and man was this GREAT!! We had three desserts: a chocolate mud pie, a creamy bread with ice cream and cheddar cheese (don't knock it until you try it), and a dessert called hojichakagigiori (like a green tea shaved ice with frozen cream, cinnamon, and a jelly inside).
  

• They dropped us off after dessert, and again we went straight to bed to recover from our sugar coma. :)

Friday, November 1st

• We had a sleep in today, and came into the ward at 8:30am. We looked up patients with Dolla, and met our preceptor at 10:00am for discussions. Today was focused on Vancomycin dosing and adjustments.

• 12:00pm - Dolla took us to the green cafeteria, and everything came out great as always. Megan had the pad thai, while Cynthia and Dolla got themselves some fried rice that was AMAZING.

• 1:00pm - We headed back up to the ward to work on patients, presentations, and our assignments due next week.

• We got back in the afternoon, packed, had some dinner, and headed to the airport for one last weekend adventure. Head on over to our weekend post to follow the Bangkok experience, AND see who our surprise guest was :)