Ok so here’s the thing.. The blessing (or curse) of so much flying every year is gaining access to the Airline lounges). So here I am in the Thai Airlines lounge in Bangkok and it is 32 degrees outside. I am wearing a T-shirt, my pink fleece jacket, full length jeggings and I’m still cold. What is it with air-conditioning in these airports, I could chill beer in my pockets. I’m drinking yet another coffee just to keep warm.
Despite the Air Canada strike that started yesterday I managed to get out of Vancouver and travel to LA before it officially got underway. My connecting flights on Thai Airlines were not involved so I had no delays on this trip. I got ~ 9 hours of sleep on the flight to Bangkok and that left me time to eat three meals, watch a movie AND work on my first lecture. I was using a lecture I give to UBC medical students as a launching off point and as I went over my slides it really struck me just how North American-centric my lectures are. I use a lot of references to clinical cases to add relevance but they are all specific to tertiary care settings with ample access to care, availability of a myriad of diagnostic equipment, visits to specialists and pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment options. I only truly took that in when I had to systematically go through the lecture and remove most of it in order to make the case references relevant to the Nepali context. Patients don’t present to their “family doctor’s office”, or arrive by ambulance to the Emergency Department. MRI’s are not routinely available and multiple pharmaceutical options are not accessible. I’ve pretty much scrapped all my clinical scenarios as I craft this new lecture.
So I am cooling (literally) my jets here for another hour then on to KTM (4 hours). In my head are the words to an old Cat Stevens song:
Kathmandu I'll soon be seeing you
And your strange bewildering time
Will hold me down
Kathmandu I'll soon be seeing you
And your strange bewildering time
Will keep me home
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