MedCAP’s are AWESOME!!! You have to get up REALLY early for them but it is totally worth it! For my first MedCAP (which stands for Medical Civil Assistance Program) I was replacing a volunteer who lost her shore card (which is the card that the Vietnamese government gave each person on the Mercy, and you can’t get on or off the boat). I had to muster at 0510 and I was so excited I had a lot of trouble sleeping that night. We went out to a school in the city and there were TONS of people! Most MedCAP days are 13 to 15hrs and you can see anywhere from 600-1100 people a day (depending on where your site is located). Even the days that you aren’t on a MedCAP you stay pretty busy. Shifts in the boat pharmacy are about 12hrs and we work every day (no days off in Vietnam). Time here is FLYING by, and I am loving every minute of it :-D!!!
Since I am a little behind on my blog post, I will try and catch you guys up… in Vietnam we saw approximately 19,000 patients and handed out over 33,000 prescriptions (not to mention the hundreds of surgeries that were preformed on the ship)! It was a crazy few weeks. The trip to Cambodia took about 2 days and most of our time was spent getting the drugs ready for the first two “fly away” MedCAPs. One of the MedCAPs will be gone for 11 days (basically the whole time that we are in Cambodia). The other one will be out for 5 days (which I am sure Renee will be telling you all about when she gets back from it). I will be going on the last “fly away” and will be gone for 7 days. They are expecting us to see about 800 patients a day and we are just about done getting all the drugs packed up for the trip. I am VERY EXCITED about my first helicopter trip!!! I leave in 2 days, so I might not get to post again before I go, but when I get back I will be writing ALL ABOUT IT!!!
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