A Tale of White Whales, Temples, and Internet

SUNDAY!

In case you haven't already figured it out, I am posting two blogs in one day. One from yesterday, and one from today today (Sunday). Both days were really busy, and I can't wait to tell you about what we've been up to today.

Today, we woke up at 7 to go to the Srirangham temple! It is the biggest temple in India, and has one of the highest towers in Asia. It was built a while ago (unsure of the exact time) but was highly regarded in literature in the 6th-9th centuries. Though many pieces of the temple compound were built earlier, and many built in the 14th-16th centuries, the most recent Gopuram (the tall ornate towers) was built in 1987. I will show pictures of all of this when I have the broadband! Pinky promise!

It blew my mind to see  such a compound, and we only saw a small section of it. It apparently spans over 156 acres and the fence surrounding the temple grounds is 6 miles around. Its huge! The pillars were all so ornate and the ceilings painted beautiful, bright colors. It was also just interesting to be in a place of worship other than a Christian Church or Hebrew temple. So many people were praying to so many different deities and performing different rituals and buying different talismans in order to worship and pray. It was really cool to witness, though many of the most sacred places in the temple were for Hindus only, and they were very specific about that (they also didn't like cameras either, though I paid to bring mine in in the first place, so I had to take some pictures as sneakily as possible). But regardless, it was a beautiful and amazing site to see today.

After the temple, we went through some small stalls just outside and found some neat Hindu crafts and traditional Indian items, such as games, utensils etc. Just to play opposites, we then went to a modern supermarket, which is almost identical to that of an American grocery store, but it contains many more Indian food products than back home, such as Ragi flour, pounds and pounds of rice, and traditional Indian veggies and spices. It was really cool to compare the two and buy some nifty food items as well to bring home.

We then came back to a delicious lunch of rice, chapatti, baby corn chili but with potatoes and yummy soup. It was the perfect end to an exciting day!

The rest of our day looks slow and relaxing, consisting of catching up on blogs and hunting for internet like Ahab hunted for Moby Dick. Tomorrow marks the beginning of our last week in India! I don't want it to end already!

Kidneys and textiles and cow dung oh my!

Hello all!

Saturday was a really great day!

My day started early, at about 5:30 in the morning, to get ready to watch a kidney transplant! It took 4 hours, but was one of the craziest, coolest things I have seen in my life. I actually got to see a kidney, complete  dissected from a woman's side (they had to take out one of her ribs in order to get to it) move it to ice where it was cleaned through (like external dialysis) until it looked "pearl like" (DID I MENTION I SAW A LIVE KIDNEY CHILLING OUT?) and then saw it placed into someone ELSES body (a man) where the arteries and veins were all connected, and then we saw the kidney PASS URINE (not as gross as you think, it was super cool, it went all on its own and pumped out of the ureter) and then saw the body accept the kidney (by passing urine) and then see the ureter be connected to the bladder of the man. It was super cool to say the least, and not something I will forget ANYTIME soon. Being able to see that was really a once in a life time experience. Unless I decide to do one myself one day. Eh, we'll see...

But anyway, after surgery we headed straight to shopping at the foot of rock fort in Trichy! It was crazy! There were so many vendors selling so many cool and nifty (and relatively cheap!) things! It was funny though, there were a lot more things for women to buy than men. I could buy a million pairs of earrings, bracelets, saris, salwars and scarves, but something for a guy? There were really only lunis (the skirts men wear as pajamas over here, when my wifi is better I will post pictures of this) tinware and um...man scarves I guess is all it could be called. Oh, or traditional male wear, but all of the sizes were different and it actually varied by garment, so if you were unsure of the man's size, you might as well opt for the man scarf (don't worry men in my life, I bought no man scarves this day) But regardless, the street was bustling and Sarathas, a large textile department store in Trichy, was chock full of gorgeous scarves, saris and salwar kameez, though very few modern tops, which is what I was looking for in particular. Oh well, it was still an awesome experience!

Once we finished shopping, we went out for lunch for a change (to give the cooks a meal off) and went to Arab Spice! It was called Arab spice, but the place had Indian, Chinese, and Arab foods. It was really yummy! We tried Korma, a paneer dish, baby corn chili, veggie fried rice, and an assorted bread basket. It was all so delicious and flavorful, and so for dessert we all shared a sweet Lassi to try! (INSERT STUFF ABOUT LASSI HERE)

Once we finished all of that, we then went to a rural village! (did I mention that it was a busy day?) The village we visited receives outreach aid from Bishop Heber's social work department, and is technically owned by the government (or at least thats what I gathered from our guide Mr. Ravi). Ravi told us that this village was full of OC or the lowest caste of Hindu people, and were thus had the fewest resources. It was interesting, because just across the way was the BC settlement, which contained people of the highest caste, and seemed to be more well kept. I thought it very sad that even though India has come so far, the country is still so dependent on the caste system. Some of the highest paying jobs, such as heads of companies etc, are only given to those of the highest caste, while some of the nastiest jobs are still given to the OC, or lowest caste. I am really glad that places like Bishop Heber College though are trying to help these people.

Along with that, Ravi showed us a typical village home, which had a low front entrance way, and was made of clay and bricks. He told us the reason why the front entrance was so low was because it was built that way purposefully, so that everyone who comes into the home has to bow, which thus teaches the Indian people humility. I thought that was really interesting! I also found out that they polish their floors with cow dung. Also an interesting fact. It was a really cool visit, especially  because as we walked through a band of children slowly started following us and asking our names and trying to play and trying to get us to take their pictures. We of course obliged, and were then attacked to take pictures of all the children. It was very hectic and exciting. Sadly we then had to leave, but not without a picture with all of the kids that followed us around! (Again, I have very limited wifi, I will not post pictures today, but will tomorrow showing you all of my adventures this weekend).

We then came back to the hostel and just rested the rest of the evening, as our wi-fi was down for the night, and still is as we speak (luckily the computer science block is never without wi-fi, so we fedangled our way in in order to post our blogs).

It was an awesome second to last Saturday in Trichy!

Getting Cheeky

Greetings!

It starting to really set in that I'm already at the rear end of this trip. I have experienced and learned so much here, and to realize that I only have a week to go is really starting to bum me out a little bit. But I think if I crack a few jokes and really reflect on what I've been up to and put everything I have into this next week, I think it will top of a wonderful month here in India :D

If you haven't caught on already with all the puns, I saw a hemorrhoid surgery today, and boy, was it fascinating. And kind of not something I really would like to pursue as a career any time soon. I actually didn't know how extensive hemorrhoid surgery was until I witnessed this one. It was disgustingly cool to see the anatomy of a rectum, and Dr. Johnston (the general surgeon at Janet Nursing Home and Dr. Victoria's husband) was very good at explaining exactly what he was doing and why. They have to dilate everything, and then remove all the hemorrhoids, which takes some extensive cutting etc, and then place a very uncomfortable dressing in and around the whole thing. Luckily though, no stitches are involved. All I can say is, stay regular folks, and catch those hemorrhoids early.

Besides that I also saw a sterilization procedure of a female by literally "rubber banding" the Fallopian tubes! The procedure took literally 30 seconds. It took longer to set up the surgery than it did to actually do it, I was pretty impressed. I was also impressed by how something so simple is so effective. The rubber bands that section off a small loop of the tube cause a sort of fibroid to grow there making it so no ovulation can occur. It is reversible too if the person so chooses. A pretty nifty family planning procedure if I do say so myself!

Otherwise, I witnessed a very busy OP day, but still managed to ask Dr. Victoria what her most interesting case was, and this is what she came up with:

 Dr. Victoria had a young patient come in who had regular cyclic abdominal pain, but never had her menarche (first menstrual period). Dr. Victoria did an ultrasound, only to find severe bleeding in the uterus - and no cervix! So this young girl was having her period the whole time, but had no way of clearing anything out. I asked what became of this girl, and Dr. Victoria said all she could do was clear all of the hematose out of the uterus, and that this girl can never have children. She also told me that she would never get married, as many families with eligible batchelors want their sons to marry women who can continue the family line. I asked if it was possible at all for her to get married, and Dr. Victoria replied that if the man already has children, or if the family doesn't mind she can, but she said that these instances are rare. This made me sad, as this is definitely not the case in the United States. This is just another example of simple differences in cultures.

This case led me to ask about adoption and egg donation in India. Dr. Victoria said adoption is an absolute last resort, and that couples prefer to have their own blood related children than adopt. Egg donation is very rare as well for the same reasons. I found this interesting, and again attributed it to a difference in cultural values.

Speaking of culture, I was able to spend some time with the nurses in reception today! Usually Dr. Victoria takes her lunch break for half an hour and sends me to various places in the hospital to see things while she eats, such as the OR or labor room. Today there wasn't anything going on though, so she just sent me to reception. Boy did those nurses have a ball. Not only did I have to take pictures with all of them on their phones, they made me sing and record it, and wanted to look at pictures of my family, Boone and Appalachian State University. So I complied and they thought all of the snow was really "super" along with Boone and campus, and agreed that my cat Lucky is not in fact a cat, but a tiger because of his size, and now thinks that all american cats look like tigers. On top of that they have been trying to teach me some simple Tamil phrases, such as "hello" " goodbye" and "yes I have eaten". I only remember hello and goodbye though, as all the other phrases they showed me will take a bit more memorizing.

Here is a picture of me with a few of the nurses. One is Rahila, and the other is a reception nurse I met today who did not give me her name, but was very nice.

Besides my shadowing today, it was a rather quiet day, though the four of us did grab ice cream tonight after dinner which was quite delicious.

Tomorrow at the "crack" of dawn Alex and I will get to see a kidney transplant! So excited!

I will let you all know how that goes!

Poitu Varen! (thats goodbye in Tamil)

"Its for Digestion"

Hello again!

Today was a day of innovation and intrigue.

Medically speaking, I did not really see anything new. I did see another laproscopically assisted hysterectomy today, as well as another natural birth. But here's the thing about today's birth. When a woman is brought to Janet Nursing Home for labor, she is brought to the labor ward, is induced by the doctor, then the doctor leaves until the nurses call her and she returns to deliver the baby. This happened today, however, Dr. Victoria was on her lunch break, and couldn't be reached right away. So the nurses were physically closing the woman's legs, telling her to stop pushing (or at least I think, sometimes I feel like I live in a foreign film and I'm dubbing/subtitling everything that is going on around me). Finally, when it looked like the baby was going to pop out on its own, Dr. Victoria came to the rescue and delivered the baby with two pumps of a nurse. It was all very exciting and dramatic. My favorite part though, had to be the looks I saw on the faces of all of the MSW students who had just saw a birth for the first time, and for many of them, just saw a glimpse of their near future. I enjoyed it because that was totally my face the day before. Ah, the joys of childbirth.

Speaking of MSW students, today was the first day that four of them joined me today in my shadowing! I tried to be very friendly, and they all seemed very sweet. Sadly, I think it was my height (they were literally at my hips) and blonde hair that scared them though, as they all just huddled in a corner as far away from me and whispered and kept looking my way. I thought maybe they didn't like me, but they did a similar thing to Dr. Victoria as well whenever she entered the room, so I think its a height phobia, or something I can't really explain. Luckily, I did manage to ask if they were MSW students, compliment their sari's, and...well thats about it. Maybe tomorrow I will make more progress and get their names! (as well as get them to stop being scared of me haha)

Speaking of firsts, I myself had a few of those tonight at dinner. For the past few days, our wonderful and thoughtful cooks have been pumping us for our favorite foods, and Alex mentioned that she liked sweet potatoes. Well, we got what we requested, at dinner tonight was a plate of boiled white potatoes, sweetened with sugar water. We all thought it was really sweet that our gracious cooks tried so hard to make foods we enjoy at home.

We also were given a drink called Jal-jeera (CLICK ON THIS LINK) to try, a sort of minty digestive drink, flavored with salt, pepper, cumin (for digestion), mint and lime. The wikipedia page compares it to lemonade, but there was no sugar here folks. Though it was not quite what we expected, we all drank the whole thing, marking it a definite cultural experience.

Tomorrow marks my second to last Friday, and I am a little saddened. Everything has flown by so fast!

More tomorrow!

P.S. Unrelated to India, but shoutout to my Dad for his birthday!!! He's turning...um...older!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD I LOVE YOU! :D

Long time no "see"! :D

Hello all!

I apologize for my lack of posting last night, our internet decided it didn't want to play until the middle of the day today! So now I have two days worth of stuff to talk about, no worries though, I'll just talk about the highlights.

So yesterday, I got to see a live natural birth!! It was awesome! And kind of made me not want to have kids ever. If I could ever thank my mom for pushing me out, now is the time. You are AWESOME mom, thank you so much for going through childbirth, because that stuff is PAINFUL. And you didn't even have anyone assist you! Here in India, many women have a nurse pushing down on their abdomen "pushing" for them to get the baby out, as the mother is usually "too exhausted to push when the time comes" as said by Dr. Victoria. So when the woman is dilated enough, the doctor comes in, along with a small army of nurses, and generously assists the mother in the childbearing. I thought this was a very interesting path of assistance.

My favorite part of the delivery though was when Dr. Victoria handed the newborn to the father and family it was so joyous. The father's face was so full of joy, excitement, anxiety, and fear, all at the same time. The scene made me tear up a little, and just re-affirmed that I would like to do something like this the rest of my life!

I also saw the beginning of a complete hysterectomy where they opened the patient up. Normally this is done laproscopically, but apparently this patient's uterus was so large and full of fibroids that it had to be removed using the same methods as a c-section - through the abdomen. I thought it was really cool, and thought the uterus kind of resembled a large cantaloupe, but that's slightly off topic... Anyway, I am so blessed that I get to see so many procedures while I'm over here!

I also met all of the lovely ultrasound nurses yesterday, Nithiya and Mahalakshmi, along with the other nurses I already knew, Sophia, Saranyia, and Rahila. They taught me some Tamil phrases and asked what I had for breakfast - multiple times. I thought it was really entertaining that that is one of the first things they asked me.

That was yesterday, onto today!

This morning, Emily, Alex and I took a trip to Joseph Eye Hospital for a tour! Our tour guide Julian, was very thorough, even showing us accounting, HR, fire extinguishers, and almost every disabled friendly ramp. I was grateful that I got to see so many faces of this hospital. Apparently, this eye hospital also has a disabled rehabilitation center, where they teach blind, deaf, and physically and mentally disabled people vocational and life skills! Once they have gone through training, many of these people are then employed at the hospital. Julian told us that 35-40% of their workforce is comprised of disabled people, as compared to the national average of 5%. I was really impressed with this, as well as their impeccably clean and modern set up, as well as their rural health services that they offer for free. It was a very productive trip overall.

The front of the eye hospital!

The three of us and our gracious tour guide, Julian!

This afternoon, I went back to Dr. Victoria, to be ushered into the OR to see a laproscopically assisted pan-hysterectomy. This was really cool to see, as I've only ever seen laproscopic surgery in the States before, and I was pleased to find out that they do it the exact same way here, no difference. And once all of the female parts were taken out (hence the term "pan-hysterectomy) she showed me a cervix, uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries. I was pretty pumped to say myself.

Then Dr. Victoria had her lunch, so I was sent off to ultrasound, only to find out the technician was done for the day, so no blurry pictures of babies and ovaries :( BUT I hung out with the nurses for a bit, where they asked me to sing, so I gave them a rousing rendition of Celine Dion's "And I will Always Love You" - you know, the part where she does the key change, and the ooooohs and ahhs, and that really high note at the end that no one can hit but her because she's canadian and Celine Dion? Yea I did that part. They weren't too impressed, maybe I'll sing them something better tomorrow.

Well, there were the highlights for today, some plans in the future to look forward to - a Hindu temple visit, possible kidney transplant (we'll see), and french toast for breakfast (*drool*)

Anyhoo, stay classy America!

Efficiency

Louder. Bigger. Hectic...er. These are all words I would describe my first day in Janet Nursing Home. 

To give you some perspective, the practice I was in before was all on one and one half floors, had a small number of inpatients, and the pace of seeing patients was amiable at about 20-40 patients a day tops. 

Janet, on the other hand...

Janet is on three floors, at least, and that doesn't include half floors and subfloors and ramps and wings etc. When going on rounds, Dr. Victoria (the new doctor I shadow) saw three floors worth of inpatients, all having had children one way or another within the past 5 days. It was crazy! We flew threw rounds, zig-zagging all along the hallway, and there was a different set of nurses on each floor to assist her. Janet Nursing home is very large! It even has its own Canteen where food can be bought for patients, I was astounded. 

Also, there are many more patients here. Each patient is given a token, and when your number is called, you get to see the doctor. But Dr. Victoria's office is so huge, 3-4 patients are let in at a time and wait their turn one at a time to be ultrasounded, checked over, prescribed something and sent on their way. It was all very efficient and very fast! 

Because of this fast pace, Dr. Victoria has these 4 nurses that all aid her at the same time. But even though these women are flying through their work a mile a minute, they are so funny and crack jokes and laugh at each other and managed to ask me lots of questions, such as "what did I have for breakfast?" or "age?" or "married?" I got the full monty of interviews, which I'm sure will continue into the up and coming weeks! This was very different from the sweet, quiet nurses at Ravi's office, who would answer my questions, but preferred working over entertaining an international student. 

As well, the mannerisms of the doctors are very different. Dr.Ravi, in contrast with his nurses, makes small talk with his patients, and asks them about their family life, and makes jokes and tells stories, and is more colloquial in his explanations of medical maladies. Dr. Victoria on the other hand is straight to the point, very business like, and is much more scientific in her explanations, though is still very good at consoling the patient and quelling any anxieties they may have. The nurses are the ones who provide stories and laughter in the office (though I think Dr. Victoria makes jokes as well in Tamil, I'm just not sure yet) Both do the job wonderfully, it is just interesting how different their approaches are.

As well today, I also got to see another C-section! It was super fast, I swear that baby was in and out in 12 minutes. It took longer to sew the mother up than it did to get the baby out, it was just so efficient!

I guess that is the word I have for Janet Nursing home today - efficient. They maximize efficiency in every aspect of their practice in order to help as many patients as they can. I was very impressed!

Also, little known fact. Today, I have a cartilage piercing in my left ear, but not my right. Many women have nose piercings here, as well as cartilage piercings, so I never thought to take it out. All of the nurses noticed it today, then expected to see a cartilage piercing on my right ear, only to find it unpierced. Upon this discovery they found it very funny and laughed at me, implying I was uneven, as women who have cartilage piercings here do it on both sides, if at all, and it is never as high as mine is. I explained that in the states we only pierce one side sometimes as it is "in style". They also thought that phrase was super funny and repeated it the rest of the morning. 

I think I will have some very interesting stories to write about these next two weeks. 

Well, all for now, more tomorrow!

Adventures in the land of Ooty!

Welcome back lovely readers!

I have returned from the land of Ooty (sounds like it is spelled) where I embraced the spirit of adventure! This weekend, the awesome and gracious Dr. Relton (the man who has made all of this possible along with Dr. Jones) gave up his weekend to drive 6 hours to show the four of us the Nilgiris Mountains, specifically Ooty and an awesome Tiger Reserve! Now you have to understand, India is a very diverse place ecologically, for example, we went from this

To this

It felt kind of like travelling from Florida mixed with Colorado desert, to a tropical Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. And, like Pigeon Forge, Ooty is a big tourist attraction too! (it is also colder and mistier, as it is in the smoky mountains back home) It was a really nice and gorgeous change. 

First, we get up the mountainside (yes we went around at least 36 hairpin turns...and yes..they were literally shaped like hairpins)

And then get to Hotel Tamil Nadu, located on the Tiger Reserve 36 miles away from Ooty. Upon arrival, we were greeted by the cutest monkeys, who got a little too close for comfort. We came upon our first mini adventure, when one especially resourceful monkey jumped up into the trunk of our car and stole an entire loaf of bread we had brought for our breakfast the next day.

Cheeky monkey.

Fortunately we were still able to have breakfast, and it was pretty funny. We then went on a safari to look for tigers and leopards! No, we didn't get on a jeep Jurassic park style, but we rode in this large camo bus, and were completely silent the whole time. No tours, or conveniently placed lions and tigers and zebras, just silence and searching. It was really cool actually, and made sense, considering that we were looking for real wild animals and not ones that kind of hang out in their invisible enclosures  (or tear through their entrapment and try to kill everyone like the velociraptors in Jurassic Park). Though we saw no leopards, we did see a giant squirrel, Gar (a type of bison) and spotted deer! As well as a peacock :D

After our safari, we checked into Hotel Tamil Nadu, that was dormitory style complete with bucket showers (as in, your shower is a bucket of water!) and bunk beds. The room was really nice, and surrounded by greenery, fields and a small river where we could see some of the domesticated elephants washing themselves. Speaking of elephants, we got to see elephants get fed! The domestic elephants of the reserve that help keep the villagers of the reserve safe and act as park rangers themselves, get fed a big ball of barley, wheat, rice, coconut, and other yummy cereals that elephants like!

It was really cool to see how they feed, even though the chains on their feet were a little sad to see. But, the people in charge of the elephants treat them humanely from all that we saw and heard.

We then ate and went to sleep (the beds were so comfy) and woke up early to go on another safari trip with the reserve. Apparently the night before a predator, most likely a leopard, had killed a carcass, ate some of it, then left the rest for later (leftovers in the wild? who knew). Because of this, we thought we might see the predator come back early in the morning. We didn't, just the carcass, but saw more giant squirrels and deer!

We then went and packed up, where mini adventure number two occurred. Danielle, being her trusting self, thought the indoors meant the indoors, and so left her handy ziploc full of toiletries open in her bag that was lying on the floor. When I returned, my perception of indoors/outdoors was destroyed, when I realized a lizard had crawled in and left a cute little present all over my toothbrush and other toiletries. That's right folks, a lizard pooped on my toothbrush. Fortunately Alex had a spare from the airline she flew on, and I can still have clean, lizard free teeth! I thought it was rather entertaining, and a once in a lifetime experience if you put it in a certain light!

We then embarked for Ooty, where we went on a boat ride! Because this was essentially the Pigeon Forge of South India, it was misting and a little chilly, but of course beautiful

I thought it was the perfect temperature, but apparently the native people of India found it rather nippy.

Men were all wearing these hats, and the women were wearing shawls and scarves and hats. I guess it is rather cold for someone who lives in the hot desert.

Anyway, after going on our boat ride, we went shopping for lots of souvenirs, had lunch and traveled home!

Overall it was a really exciting and restful weekend. Ooty and the surrounding area has some really interesting terrain that I will put up pictures of and talk about tomorrow. In the mean time, I need to get some sleep, I start part two of my internship with Dr. Victoria at Janet Nursing Home tomorrow! Here's to part two!