So today I registered for the ISHRS 2020 Virtual World Congress. That made me realize one thing: I didn’t write my blog of the 2019 one! So this will be a quick post about that.

The 2019 ISHRS World Congress was last November in Bangkok, Thailand. I’d never been there, so I was excited to check out the city. I was also tempted to hop on the plane to the islands and get some much deserved sun and relaxation at the beach, but alas, that was not possible as I was needed back in Porto and had to focus on my work.

The trip itself was easy. I always enjoy these long haul flights with no internet. I get so much stuff done it’s not even funny! Just me and my books, my pen and journal, my offline email (on which I can actually clean up the inbox!), a couple of movies, etc. So yeah, I don’t want in-flight internet. Not having wi-fi for a set amount of time is actually rather enjoyable.

I try to arrive one or two days earlier to do some sight-seeing as when the congress starts it gets pretty intense, pretty soon. There’s just so many people that I’m so glad to see and hang out with that, along with the sessions, visiting exhibitors, keeping an eye on how things are going back at the clinic and how patients are doing, I barely have time to get a little workout in.

The congress itself was pretty good. There were some new topics and some not so new ones. Some things that I thought were super simple but important, such as the presentation on ergonomics (with live audience exercises!). That was a fun one. Ergonomics is something I worry about quite a bit and I do take care of my body since surgeries can be very heavy and take many hours. And since time passes super quickly, I sometimes notice I’ve been sitting in the same position for 4 hours! So it was nice to see that there was a presentation on this.

I loved the presentations from Dr. Ramon Grimalt! Super engaging and interesting. Very good and on some controversial topics. His presentations on finasteride and PRP were my favourite ones this year.

Dr. Grimalt’s talk. This slide on Post Finasteride Syndrome was so on point!

And at the end, we always have the gala dinner, which is always fun and engaging as all work is done and we finally get to relax and let loose. Some embarrassing karaoke moments from some of the attendees might have happened, but let’s just say fair play and leave it at that. :D

Hanging out by the pool at the end of the day’s sessions.

After hours, me, Dr. Josephitis and Dr. Pinto and a few others went to the most unlikely little bar right over the river. I’m not even sure if the light was on! Haha The locals were super friendly. They had a guitar with them and I even played and sang a bit with them. Good fun.

The night ended with the concierge taking us on golf-kart ride around the vicinities of the hotel (not even sure how that happened!).

On the last day before my flight, me and my good friend Dr. Pinto went to do some sightseeing and, of course, went to get a Thai massage. We found Dr. Josephitis there who was basically addicted to massages at this point! :D The woman who did my massage was super friendly. That woman proceeded to “destroy me”. She bent me in ways I though I could not be bent! I never though someone so small could be so strong.

All in all, a great congress. This year sadly there won’t be a live meeting, but a virtual one. Once again I’ll be part of the faculty in the FUE Basics course, albeit in video form. Honoured to a be part of it.

Overlooking the beautiful city. Bangkok has amazing rooftops.

Until next time!

(Hopefully in a shorter time period than the last blog.)

Beautiful lunch view from this restaurant.