First day down

So we started our clinical rotation today and it was so interesting. I'm on an oncology floor at Tan Tock Seng that is actually a Hopkins floor (the only in the whole hospital). Let me mention that Tan Tock Seng is the hospital that had the SARS outbreak in Singapore six years ago. H1N1 is currently ablaze here (with hardly even a dozen cases) so consequently they fire thermoregulator guns at everyone when they walk through the doors. Luckily, I was only 37.1 degrees . . . which actually came as a surprise to me. I suspected they might turn me away this morning after the 2 block walk from home to the hospital because my clothes were nearly drenched in sweat.

We did rounds with the docs this morning and learned about the patient population. There are many from the UAE and there are actually much fewer from Singapore. We are learning so much about how each culture deals with cancer. For example, many of the patients families do not want them to know their diagnosis. They don't want them to know they are getting chemo; when the nurse goes in to hang a bag, she says, "time for your medicine," and leaves it at that. How foreign to us American trained nurses who are focused on patient-centered advocacy and care. Many of the patients require a full-time translator. Some are wearing religious garb; first thought was: how am I going to give someone a bedbath with that on? I'm not being facecious; seriously, how will I? There are about 30 beds on our unit and 2 are ICU. Many of the patients are there for months at a time. Something fascinating we learned today is that the patients from the UAE are sent here and paid for by their government. Every single bit of their care is paid for! Can you imagine a patient in the US sent overseas for care and the whitehouse footing the bill? Crazy.















Went to Little India tonight and it might as well have been high noon; there were so many out and about! We saw a hindu temple and walked around the fruit/vegetable and many stands.



Oh, I almost forgot. I went on a run today after clinical. Outside. In Singapore. In June. Clearly I WON'T DO THAT AGAIN. Someone should have stopped me on the street. Lord knows they were all staring at me; I just figured it was the white girl/red hair thing again, but I think this time it actually was the "who the hell runs in 100 degree heat" thing. I got 15 minutes into the run and surrendered. So Looking forward to seeing you all 20 lbs heavier in August. Til then . . .