After a free Sunday, I was able to spend another morning in the Mae Tao clinic, in the surgical department. I also took a break at one point to visit the Acupuncture Department, and it was really quite amazing. A German doctor runs the unit, and they see ~50 patients a day with quite a lot of successful cases. We met a man who a few months ago had a cement wall fall on him, breaking his back and severing his spinal cord near the bottom, leaving him paraplegic. He was early on in his treatment (only several days I think), and he was already moving his legs. It was more than incredible to hear story after story about these unbelievable recoveries that would never happen in the Western Medicine world, but here these patients were, coming back day after day to prove that whatever the medics were doing was working when nothing else had.
Later that day, we headed across the border into Burma. We got there at about 4pm, only to learn that the border closes at 5:30pm. We loaded into 2 tuk-tuks, and booked it to a few temples, in the pouring rain, before racing back to the border into [of course] sunny Thailand. Home sweet home =)
The next day, we left Mae Sot and headed north to the Mae La refugee camp, the largest of the Thailand camps for Burmese refugees. It was weird to be there, as an outsider peering in on the lives of people who are suffering, and for what? The camp is occupied by as much as 100,000 people (this is one of the NGO's estimates, although the boy who showed us around said 30,000, and the principle of the school said 70,000. A lot of the refugees don't register, and just sneak in, so no one really knows). Looking around, it was strangely beautiful-- with the green mountains jutting into the air serving as the backdrop for thousands of handmade thatch-roofed bamboo homes-- until you realize what injustice has created this place. Our plan was to work in the camp clinic during our visit, but when we arrived, the clinic director had left for an emergency and the visiting doctor in charge was afraid of getting in trouble (with reason: the Thai gov't has been very strict about visitors lately, ever since a group of journalist came through and bashed them for the conditions). Honestly, I was impressed (?) with the set up of the camp-- it really was more like a village than the shambled slum I had pictured in my head (it's been established for something like 30 years).
After that, we began our drive back to Bangkok, stopping in Kamphaeng Phet to sleep. When we continued our journey, we stopped in Lopburi (where monkeys have taken over the downtown ruins, seriously), and also Wat Pra Bhat Nam Put AIDS Hospice, which was quite nice as far as those things go.
We finally arrived back to the lung-destroying city of Bangkok, and have been going non-stop this week. We hit up the Department of Traditional and Alternative Medicine (part of the Ministry of Public Health, which is awesome), the Chest Disease Institute (TB is very common here), Songdhammakalayani Bhikkhuni Arama (a women's Buddhist monastery), and more. Right now, we're heading downtown to visit the Chinese Traditional Medicine Hospital, and tomorrow we'll be at the Dermatology Hospital learning about leprosy.
I was telling Warren that yesterday I felt pretty out of my league at the CDI. We met with a couple pulmonologists (chest Drs.) and went over chest x-rays of several cases in the hospital. They would ask for abnormal findings in the film, differential diagnoses, recommended treatment, etc., and I had nothing to give. It was definitely a humbling experience that showed me how much I have left to learn. Yikes.
But I cannot emphasize how much I have learned on this trip. And laughed. And been in awe [of landscapes, architecture, etc.]. The other day we ate dinner atop the tallest building in Thailand, and I realized just how large Bangkok is. No American city knows this scale (maybe LA?); it just never ends. So like I said: a learning experience (I've decided I don't like big cities…).
In a few short days, I will be in New Jersey visiting family, and this experience will be behind me. Thanks for the prayers and support-- it's been an amazing journey!
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