Today was a very tiring and busy day, but it ended in the most refreshing of ways. To start, a group of us went on a 4 mile walk/run at 5:30 a.m., in which we enjoyed watching the city wake up and get ready for another long, humid workday. Some of us even jumped right in to a yoga class with the local Cambodians on the side of the road. Other interesting sights included the “town elephant” who was taking a stroll down to the king’s palace.
Later this morning, we headed off to Center of Hope for our second day in the hospital. We did similar kind of work as the previous day, but everyone rotated to a different department in the hospital to gain new experience. Anna even took control of many positions (Charge Nurse, Physical Therapist, RN, Nursing Student, etc…) all by herself. The pharmacy students were able to soak in an immense amount of information by following an Australian doctor during his rounds who was very generous in his teaching.
Today was also the first day for surgery (yesterday was the King’s birthday and no surgeries were to be performed), and Melissa and Halli enjoyed watching a thyroidectomy. This particular thyroidectomy was completed by a Cambodian surgeon and Claudine (the first assistant), who just completed medical school in the UK, and is now here volunteering at Center of Hope as well as serving Phnom Penh Church of Christ. The surgery was a great learning experience because the thyroid was the size of a small softball which usually would not get that big in the states due to early recognition. However, Cambodians are not so fortunate with early blood tests and other various methods to diagnose promptly. Also, Cambodians just recently started adding iodized salt into their diets, and many who have lived without this salt have not received sufficient iodide. Thus, their thyroid tissue compensates by enlarging and forming a “goiter”.

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