First day at Siriraj Hospital

So, today I finally went to work. Janjira, an "international ambassador", met Chris and I at the apartment and walked us to the hospital which surprisingly was only a 15min walk. During that walk, we competed with motorcycles for walking room both on the sidewalks and edge of the road in addition to almost getting hit by several of them (come to think of it I'm really surprised that there aren't more in NYC given their ability to weave in & out of traffic).

When we got to the hospital, Siriraj is a massive hospital complex with many buildings and dormatories for the doctors. The heart center has its own building, pediatrics is in at least 2 9+ floor buildings, of which some floors have AC while others get fans--I haven't figured out yet what determines which building a patient gets admitted to or even what floor. I started on Nephrology and we have patients on all different floors and in both buildings. The cases I saw today are things I've always read about but rarely seen at either NYU or Emory. They have patients with all different stages of lupus nephritis, some well controlled on medications while others are recieving hemodialysis on a regular basis; while I know these exist in the US, I just haven't seen it much.

I am working with one resident by the name Plernpiss who is really shy and not very comfortable with the little English that she does speak, but she seems really sweet & fortunately/unfortunately being forced to speak english for me. I am also working with 2 attendings (whose names for the life of me I cannot remember, despite being told them multiple times today & they weren't long names either). Anyway, they all seem very nice and happy to have me, they even ordered lunch for me & attempted to teach me the basic thai on how to order water and say chicken. I think that I am going to have to spend some time on the Thai language or I've realized I will never know what I am eating unless it is Pad Thai & there is so much more out there.

PS--for those who are interested my typical day is: rounds with Plernpiss and attending in the morning, lunch, then teaching by the attending in the afternoon or clinic. On Thursday mornings I will get to go round with Toxicology, while everyone else is in gen peds clinic--not translating for me.