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| Leah teaching some of the children songs as they wait to be checked up by us. |
July 7 2011
7:45am: I’ve been up since 5:30. While it’s hard for me to drag myself out of bed to do yoga, afterwards it’s nice being awake and ready to start the day. I laid in bed for probably an hour afterwards reading my book. I’ve finished another book and have moved onto “The White Tiger,” which is an autobiography on an Indian’s life who grew up in poverty. I’ve probably had 7 cups of tea. It’s like eggnog during Christmas; because I’ll only have it for a limited time, I need to ingest as much as humanly possible. IT’S SO GOOD! Crap... forgot what time it is... I gotta go. Getting yelled at to get ready! Chao
1:45pm: We were supposed to go on another hike to a village today but instead we did a “health day” at the local school and checked all the children. It was probably my best clinical experience yet! We checked lungs, heart, ears, throat, teeth and weight of 59 children in 2 hours. I got to practice my stethoscope skills and my ear-wax investigation skills (I don’t know the name of the ear-light looking tool). I was surprised by how awkward I was at touching the patients at first. After I looked over to see Dr. Paul twisting a little boy’s head all over the place to look in his mouth, I took his lead and started being more hands on. The 3rd year medical students let the three pre-meds (Chris, Maggie, me) do most of the work and explained everything so well to us. I learned to look for the tympanic membrane that’s white in the back of the ear, what dried earwax looks like (black nasty stuff) and what level 4 swollen tonsils are. The grossest thing I “diagnosed” was a bug that had crawled into a little boy’s ear and died. It was nasty. Haha. I said, “Leah? I think there is a bug in this boy’s ear…” haha! Never thought I’d say that line, but it doesn’t surprise me. Classic India. My favorite part of the school was listening and feeling the beating of all the small children’s hearts. Each was slightly different with faster or louder beats. I could literally hear the blood flowing through their alive little body’s. AMAZING
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| Listening to a little girl's heart during the "throat, teeth, ears, lungs, heart etc." checkups. |
Afterwards we went back to clinic to treat a patient who had a cist-like infected boil on his butt. This was another experience that really opened my eyes to what being a doctor is all about. It’s not about the white coat or being smart or having power or respect. It’s about rolling up the sleeves to help people who are SO vulnerable and helpless. As Dr. Paul started injecting the local anesthetic the guy started screaming in agony. I was closest to him so Dr. Paul told me to rub his back and comfort him. My first thought was, “but I don’t even know this guy. I don’t rub my friends backs. That’s weird. The patient will think it’s weird. I don’t want to make him uncomfortable. Do I have to?” However, I did as I was told. As the doctor started cutting open the cyst to drain it, the medical students told me to kneel down and hold the guys hand and reassure him with “You’re doing great. It’s ok. It’s almost over.” Now this was even more out of my comfort zone, but I followed orders. As he screamed I rubbed his back and did the best I could to keep him calm. It made me feel like an awkward mom taking care of their little kid who is sick and crying. After it was over I kept small talking with the man as he lay there recuperating. I asked him if he was getting hungry for lunch, which made everyone laugh (stupid question). We talked about his job as a teacher, how Dr. Paul is second to God, and how much the procedure hurt. When it was done he left to get his prescription drugs and then popped his head back in to thank the doctor and single me out to thank me for helping him through the surgery. It was kind of mind blowing and took me off guard. During the procedure I felt super awkward and in the way. I know if I was helpless with my butt showing in pain I wouldn’t want some foreign kid in my face trying to comfort me. (I don’t think so at least) Being a doctor is about forgetting the red tape of “professionalism” in order to connect on a human level of sympathy with the patient. Today I experienced a small piece that J You can’t learn that first hand by job shadowing in the U.S.
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| This is what our work stations looked like. Dr. Paul (on bottom) was the records keeper; Maggie, Leah and I on left at one station; and then Chris and Star on the right at another station. |
10:15pm: How much living can be done in one day? I put my journal away thinking that nothing else meaningful could happen today but I was wrong. After another round of tea at 4:30 we took a walk to visit Kamela’s house (volunteer pharmacy tech lady) and her family. She helps Verubai in the pharmacy and jokes with the patients and Dr. Paul. The first time Chris and I saw her we were both mesmerized. She’s really pretty with a great big white smile and laughs all the time. The only problem is the fact that she’s married with 3 boys even though she looks like she’s about 20 years old. When we got there we drank more tea and Leah handed out Canadian hats, balls and candy to the children. It was fun seeing their faces. Then we climbed up to their roof to take pictures.
It was getting dark so we headed back home and stopped at the man’s house who we did surgery on earlier in the day. Again they brought out tea (probably my 15th cup of the day by this point) and the most amazing onion/potato French fry things ever (same thing Verubia shared as a snack the first day I came). We then started talking about snakes…. Dr. Paul and Verubia had told us during our hike, “There are no snakes. I have never seen a snake in 9 years.” I’m not sure if there was a communication problem or something but now they were swapping snake stories. The man told us the paper usually writes about 2-3 deaths from snakebites per day, and the other day he almost stepped on a black cobra. The topic then meandered to the 20 foot Cobra killed earlier in the summer, the snakes three miles north that are bigger than Anacondas (they tried to call Discovery channel to have them come) and how cobras over 15 ft tall can stand taller than a man and bite him in the face. Quote of the night.. Me: “If I get bit is there medication?” Dr. Paul: “You get bit, you live 3 minutes…. No 2 minutes… no 1 MINUTE!” Other man: “Yeah! You get bit, there is no escape.” Bahahahaha After the group is shell shocked with snake horror stories it’s time to hike back to base camp. However, it’s now 8:30 and pitch black outside. As we walk back Dr. Paul and Aki (Yoga master) repeatedly run ahead, hide in the bushes, and scare us with their umbrellas. It was another action packed day. Phew
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| Back left to right: Leah, Maggie, Teacher 1, Teacher 2 Middle left to right: Chris, Star, Teacher 3, Dr. Paul Front: ME (I wore India's baby blue cricket team's shirt "Sahara" to impress the children) haha |
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