Every day on this trip is an eventful day, but today seemed even more packed and restless from all the emotions. This morning, we visited two patients and experienced the Home Health Care with the community pharmacist from Wat Pai Tan. It was an eye-opening opportunity and us students left the patient homes feeling heart-throbbed and teary-eyed. The pharmacist was amazing and his passion to help others was clearly evident. He took a holistic approach in caring for his patients and you could just see the patients' attitudes and expressions change for the better after the visit. One even greeted us goodbye in tears while the other wanted to take a picture with us students for good luck.
That rewarding feeling that people go into the health field seeking was definitely exposed to a whole other level today. I would love for community pharmacists in America to be able to do this as part of their regular duties. It was a lot more effective in keeping up with the patients' disease conditions and accurate in seeing their medications, supplements, meals, and living conditions. It also provided them with an unimaginable amount of support. Afterwards, we visited Osot Sala and got to see one of the biggest community pharmacies. Here, I learned more about the differences in regulations of a pharmacy between our two countries.
After our site visits, the two Mahidol University students--Pink and Cream-- who guided us for the past two days, hung out with us some more and took us to lunch and a delicious dessert cafe. My group and I had so much fun with them and really had a hard time saying goodbye as it was most likely our last day together. Overall, it was a great day and it's moments like these that make my time here in Thailand all the more memorable.
-Yvonne
