Day 25

day 25 photos

Day 24

Day 24

May 4, 4:17 pm, flight from Coimbatore to Delhi via Mumbai

I don't even know what to say. I had been feeling pretty excited to go
home, but now that it's come down to it and the trip is underway, I
have to admit I feel a little depressed. I'm feeling quite a bit
better than I was yesterday, so I guess it is making me think that I
should have stayed longer.

I'm still not 100% though, so I shouldn't get too down on myself. I'm
hoping that I don't get quarantined somewhere for swine flu, but it
would not surprise me at all if I did. I still feel a little feverish,
but hopefully I can get by. I don't know if they're going to be
screening people or what. I guess we'll see.

So far the day has been uneventful. We got a taxi at 6 am, which we
shared with this other American guy who was also heading to the
airport. It was quite chilly up there in Ooty this morning, we could
see our breath! It was kind of refreshing. The drive was beautiful
again and I took some video, which I hope turns out well. I did start
to get a little car sick though with all of the hairpin turns and
braking and what not. I was glad when we finally reached the bottom.

Their flight left at like 10:40 am and mine wasn't until 3:15, so I
sat and read for a long time. I finished Eldest last night and started
Brisingr today. Anyway, the flight left a little late and the airport
was kind of funky, but everything went fine and I'm on my way. The
airport didn't really have gates, it just had one area and you waited
until they announced your flight. Actually, it was kind of like the
Wenatchee airport now that I think about it, except bigger.

I guess part of the reason I'm feeling depressed too, besides having
to leave early and not do all that I had hoped to, is that now that
I'm heading home I have to start thinking about real life again. I
don't know if I'm ready for the stress of residency! I hadn't really
had to think about it until now because I always had India on the
horizon. But now that this is over, it's back to reality. Ugh.

Well, once again I'll say that India is a love hate relationship.
Yesterday I couldn't wait to leave and now I hate the fact that I have
to go. I wish I didn't have to. None of the comforts of home really
sound all that enticing to me right now. I could do without them for a
little longer if it meant seeing more of India. I will say this
though, I have unfinished business in India and plan to go back
someday and see more of what I'm missing out on. What a shame I
couldn't do more while I was here.

Day 23

Day 23

May 3, 10:55 pm, Ooty
Today I accepted defeat and surrendered. I am kind of sad to admit it,
but yes. I changed my ticket and I'm heading home early. I just felt
so horrible today that I couldn't imagine staying here by myself when
Aurora leaves... so I was going to just go with her and then fly home
a week early. But then Janet (who was talking to the airlines for me)
said they could switch it to Tuesday at 12:15 am. I probably should
have stuck around until Friday at least, so I could see the Taj, but I
was just feeling so terrible at the time that I said yes, I want to
come home on Tuesday. So tomorrow morning I'll take a cab to
Coimbatore with Aurora. She flies up to Delhi at like 10:40, but my
flight is later, at like 3:30. I'll get into Delhi around 7:30 and
then I'll just stay there and make the connecting flight just after
midnight.

It's crazy to think that I'm leaving so soon. It's disappointing.
There was so much more that I wanted to see and do. I came home after
being at the Internet cafe for a while and getting everything set and
I just hid under my blanket an cried because I felt so sick. I wonder
what my temperature was, it must have been high. I know my heart rate
was up to 120 at one point when my fever felt particularly strong. It
was kind of scary. But a little after 3 pm I took a couple of advil
and a while later my fever seemed to break. Whether it was from the
advil or just the due course of my illness, I don't know. I just know
I started sweating a lot, my arms and legs were dripping, and then my
fever went down. So far it doesn't seem like it has come back. And my
heart rate even got down to 90. I guess this is why I am second
guessing my decision a little. Maybe I was too hasty. Oh well, what's
done is done. I guess it's better to be safe than sorry. And who
knows, maybe I'll feel like crap again tomorrow.

Oh and one other thing that sucks is that it cost me like $500 to make
the change. Ouch.

So yeah, that's the scoop. I guess it's only going to be 25 days
instead of 35 days.

Day 22

Day 22

May 2, 7:15 pm, Ooty
Dang, I am absolutely miserable. I can't believe how bad India is
being to me. The day started out well enough, I just felt like I had a
cold. The train ride was not comfortable, but it was bearable. We
arrived in Coimbatore around 4:30 am and then caught a rickshaw to the
bus station without problems. Found the Ooty bus right away and jumped
on for the 3 hour bus ride. It was a beautiful, beautiful ride. Ooty
is way up in the Western Ghats, the specific area is known as Nilgiri
hills. It was very windy and full of hairpin turns and more than once
we felt like we were going to just drive off the side of the mountain.
But we didn't. Haha.

It was really great to feel the air getting cooler and cooler as we
rose in elevation. We finally escaped the heat! Once we actually
arrived in Ooty, around 8 am, I realized that, as usual, nothing in
India is quite what you expect. It is still India, with all the
business and pollution, etc. Don't get me wrong though, the weather is
beautiful and so is some of the scenery around town. The town sprawls
out over a number of hills and it sort of fun to walk around.

It is especially busy here right now because apparently it is a
holiday weekend. There are loads of wealthy-looking Indians that are
on vacation here. We are staying at this Reflections Guesthouse. That
overlook the small lake that is here. It's not a bad little place.
Clean, friendly, hot water in the mornings... and there are lots of
foreigners staying here. At breakfast we talked with this young couple
from DC who are travelling around the world for like 7 months or
something. They were nice.

After breakfast, we headed over to this old church built by the Brits
back in like 1829. It was very peaceful and well-kept. Afterwards we
wandered down to this little cafe for some cake and water. By this
time I started feeling worse and worse. We ended up just coming back
to our place and my fever has been pretty horrible all afternoon /
evening. It's so terrible! I just want to feel well!

I took some Tylenol earlier that didn't seem to have any effect on the
fever. I just took a couple more and I'm praying that they bring my
fever down and let me sleep. Otherwise it's going to be a long,
horrible night. :(

I hope this is nothing too serious and that I get feeling better
within the next couple days. Otherwise I just want to to home!

I don't know what is worse, the food poisoning I had previously or
this. I think I'm leaning towards this.

day 22 photos

Day 21

Day 21

May 1, 11:09 pm, Train from Vellore to Coimbature

Well, Vellore is history. We are headed for higher ground, literally.
We finished up our last day at CMC today and now we're headed to Ooty.
It was an okay day. We did rounds this morning and it seemed to go on
forever. After rounds we had a little birthday party for one of the
residents. There was a delicious chocolate cake and chips and fanta.
It was kinda fun. They do birthdays here the way they do it in the
Philippines... the birthday person buys treats for everyone else. I
think it's a good system. You only have to buy stuff once a year.

After eating they were just sitting around shooting the breeze and I
felt like a total outsider. It started to get awkward because they
were all joking around and having a good time and I had nothing to
say. It kind of made me sad that I felt such a gap. I wish I could
spend more time here and really get to be friends with some people
here. I think there are some really great people at CMC. I did get a
picture with everyone, so that was nice.

We had to kill a lot of time this afternoon and evening because our
train wasn't until now. We just barely got on. We couldn't really
figure out where our seats are supposed to be because everyone has
already gone to sleep. We did find a couple of empty ones though, so
we took them. Hopefully we don't get booted later.

I'm up on a top bunk and you don't get too much of the breeze up here.
Kinda sucks. Especially because I'm not feeling that hot. Well, bad
word choice. I am feeling hot. I'm not feeling that well. I guess I
just have bad luck or something, but I've started to develop a cold.
My throat started hurting last night and I've progressively developed
a runny nose today and feel slightly feverish. Hope I don't have swine
flu!! But yeah, really I just hope it doesn't last long. I don't want
to feel bad the rest of my trip.

So I checked out of Sri Vishnu Annexe tonight. Ready fir my grand
total for two weeks there? $47! What up! That's a steal right? I
couldn't stop laughing about that as we were riding in our
rickshaw over to the train station. Very funny.

I reserved a hotel in Delhi for the two nights before I fly home. I
picked a little nicer place. It's going to cost me about $52 for two
nights. But it should be nice. AC, Wi-Fi, breakfast buffet, airport
shuttle. Good stuff.

I think I might miss Vellore a little bit. It's strange because I'm so
excited to be leaving and heading for the mountains and eventually
home, but at the same time I sort of didn't want to leave. I guess
that's the effect India has on you. You can't wait to go home, but you
don't really want to leave. At least that's the effect it has on me.

I will miss the friendly people at CMC and their funny little
mannerisms. And when I leave India I know I'll miss a lot of things.
The way women dress, for example. I just love the way they dress. So
colorful and beautiful with the patterns on their fabric. It's just so
different from how people dress at home.. almost like it's something
out of a fairy tale or fantasy story. So many things just intrigue me
here.. I think I could spend years here getting to know and understand
these people. It's a shame I only have 35 days. I feel I'm barely
scratching the surface.

day 21 photos

Day 20

Day 20

April 30, 9:41 pm, Vellore
I can't believe that my time in Vellore is so quickly coming to an end. Tomorrow is my last day of the rotation and then we'll be heading out of town on a train at about 11 pm. Crazy how fast the past few weeks have flown by!

Today was a good day, though nothing too exciting. I started off the day with an egg dosa at Aavana. It's not on the menu but they said they could make it for me. I think the egg dosa is my favorite indian breakfast food. It was good. Went to clinic today and Aurora and I worked with Anisha again. It was outpatient day again and we saw some interesting things once again. Let's see, a middle-aged man with chicken pox, tinea versicolor, eruptive xanthoma, and some more leprosy. Some fascinating things to see. Anisha was very nice again and did a lot of teaching and explaining for us. She also pimped me some on things that she had taught me on Tuesday. Some stuff I remembered, some I didn't. It was a pretty fun morning though. We took our break mid-morning and went and got some lime juice (kind of like lemonade). It was refreshing and we shot the breeze for a few minutes and then went back to work. Found out that Anisha is about our same age and she is a PG registrar, which is sort of the equivalent to a resident in our system.

We took lunch at about 1 pm and Aavana was super crowded so it took a long time. It's funny, when it gets crowded they just make you share your table. So Aurora and I had to sit and eat lunch with this two random guys sitting across from us. Strange... that would never fly back home. But lunch was great. We got our beloved baked tandori chicken. Oh man, it's so good. Plus we got our paneer butter masala again and some potato dish that was pretty good too. We always order too much food, but we enjoy stuffing ourselves. haha.

After lunch we went to check on our tickets to Ooty. They had our ticket from here to Coimbatore, which is pretty close to Ooty, and then they had to book our ticket from there to Metupalaiyam separate. We were waiting and waiting for the guy to bring that one and finally he brought it but I had to make a run for the bathroom, so I left Aurora to get it. Hopefully it was what we needed. By then it was so late in the afternoon that I didn't go back to the clinic. I just went and hid from the sweltering heat (I think the heat index was like 107 or something today) in my room. I slept some and read for a while and then ventured back over here to the computer lab once the sun had gone into hiding.

I've been trying to plan out the rest of my trip. I think this is how it might shake out: 3 days in Ooty, then spend a day taking a bus to Kodai (probably Tuesday the 5th), another town up in the moutains (can you tell I'm running from the heat?) where I will stay for another 3 days, then try to get a train to Goa on Friday night / Saturday the 9th. I should be able to spend 2-3 days in Goa (relaxing on the beaches) and then fly up to Delhi on Tuesday the 12th, probably in the afternoon or evening. On Wednesday the 13th I think I'll just pay for a day tour out to Agra and the Taj Mahal. It's a bit pricey, but I think it will be a lot easier than trying to book a train and stuff on my own. It's a VERY popular trip. I guess people really want to see one of the seven wonders of the world and all that. :) As do I. Anyway, then that will just leave me Thursday the 14th to bum around Delhi for a day and get myself to the airport by around 10 pm for my flight home, which is early Friday morning (just after midnight). How's that for a plan? I think it will be much more relaxing and enjoyable than trying to work in Mumbai, Udaipur and Jaipur. It's just too much and the trains are just too full and a hassle to try and book. Flying and the day tour to Agra will cost me a bit, but it should only be a couple hundred between the two I think. That's okay. I guess I'll have to come back someday to see the rest of the sites!

Okay it's getting late and I'm tired of this HOT computer lab. Goodnight!

Day 19

Day 19

April 29, 10:04 pm, Vellore
Yeah, you can probably tell that I fell asleep again last night while I was writing. I was so exhausted. I erased the last line of jibbrish that I had typed in my sleep. It always cracks me up to read the stuff I write as I'm dozing off to sleep. I think I had said something about seeing a lot of potential and then something about a room and I don't know... didn't make any sense.

I don't feel much like writing tonight, so I think this will be somewhat brief. I'm tired. Things have been going pretty well though. Dermatology is good. It's been pretty interesting and they are pretty friendly and helpful about explaining things and teaching us. I really like Anisha, she's nice and helpful. Maam (as they call the female attending) is also great. She is very kind and also makes sure to include us in her instruction. We've already seen a lot of crazy cases! It seems that people don't come to the doctor for a long time here, so when they finally present, they have rather severe cases. I saw a case of leprosy yesterday and we've seen a number of bad cases of pemphigus. I've also seen some psoriasis, lots of tinea, moluscum contagiosum, melasma, HSV-1, cutaneous amyloidosis, tinea versicolor, candida, scleroderma... just lots and lots of interesting things. Dermatology is a good rotation to do here because even if you can't understand what they are talking about with the patient, you can always see what is going on with the skin. It makes outpatient clinic a lot more interesting than some of the other things we've rotated through.

Yesterday I watched Anisha do a couple of biopsies, one of them on the bad pemphigus patient that was admitted yesterday. Today we had rounds and then procedures in the morning and into the afternoon. Anisha let me do cryotherapy on one of the warts on a patient's foot. We also injected a keloid scar. I watched a removal of a mole on the face of a young lady and then later we watched a hair transplant. That was very interesting. This young man had viteligo, which caused a white patch of skin and hair just above his forehead. So they took a bunch of plugs of hair from the back of his head and then transplanted them into that patch and apparently the pigment from the hair follicles will get taken up and take care of the white patch. Interesting. It was fun to watch.

Tonight dinner kicked my butt. Seriously. I got the chicken biryani from the canteen here at the hospital and it was so flaming hot I could not stand it. I couldn't even eat half of it, it just hurt too much. I felt like everyone in there was watching me, the poor white boy who couldn't take the heat. Probably they really weren't, but it sure felt like it. I felt bad leaving so much food sitting there, but I really just could not bear it. It was sad, because I thought that I was doing better with the spicy foods. I still think I've improved, but I guess I'm not Indian yet.

Not much else going on. I've been trying to plan out my trip after the rotation ends this week. I guess I'm going to be traveling on my own for a while, and I'm still trying to figure out what that means. I don't know if I should change my itinerary because I'm going to be alone or what. I wasn't really that worried about it, but certain family members (probably all of them, I just haven't talked to them all yet) think that I'm going to die if I travel by myself. Hmmmm.

Okay, I'm tired of thinking about it so I'm going home to read Eldest and forget about it for now.

day 19 photos