time to say goodbye/mumbai and goa

Ok, time to update! The past week has been a whirlwind. I can't believe it's my final week in Vellore. Last week I got to go on doctor's rounds. This is where you follow doctors and nurses on a mobile van into the rural villages surrounding Vellore. It was a LONG day. We went to four villages and there were probably around 40-5o patients in each village. The intern saw older patients with chronic problems, like hypertension and diabetes. Each patient comes in with a card which tracks their progress from their previous visits. It was amazing to see how far people would come in just to have their blood pressure checked. The intern I was working with was young, but you could tell that the patients placed a great deal of weight on any advice she had regarding their health. On the van itself, there were antenatal checkups for pregnant women. Most of these women were very young-around 18-20 years old, and for many it was not even their first baby. The one thing I've noticed here is that I've never seen an overweight pregnant woman here. The women here are so skinny to begin with that when they do become pregnant they still look like a normal weight. This would never be the case in San Antonio, where the average pregnant woman almost doubles her body weight during pregnancy. In general, the patients here are very skinny by American standards. This week I got to do observe round with medicine team 1, which is the infectious disease team. Something that I have never seen back home is that physicians here at CMC gather for a prayer meeting for an hour in the morning before dealing with any medical issues. I wasn't expecting this, so for an hour I sat through a Bible study session. It was interesting to see how religion and faith are tied into their daily routine at the hospital. Afterwards, one of the residents made a presentation on clotting factors which was quite lengthy and detailed. Rounds that day were for the most part patients with general medical issues. But we saw multiple HIV positive patients with disease that was much more advanced than anything I had seen in the U.S. Most of them probably did not have even a few months left to live, and some had never had medical care in their entire lives. It was pretty sobering. Also, family members here assume the role of nurse. They do everything care-related for the patient: bathing them, taking urine samples to the labs, changing their sheets, etc. It's almost expected because the actual nurses there are so busy. On Wednesday, we went to Karigiri, which is the leprosy hospital. It's about a 30 minute drive from Vellore. The hospital was started by Dr. Paul Brand in the 50s, and it orginiated as a hospital for leprosy patients only. But as the prevalance of leprosy has declined over the decades, the hospital now sees patients with all illnesses. We went on hospital tour and saw the microbiology lab where they use mice to do experiements for leprosy research. We also saw the prosthetics department, which makes orthopedic devices for leprosy patients who are unable to walk properly as a result of nerve damage. I'd never seen anything like that, so that was pretty cool. Our last night in Vellore we went out to dinner with many of the international students. I can't believe how quickly the time in Vellore has passed.

So I have to update about our travels in our final week in India. Bimpe, Erica and I flew out of Chennai to meet our classmates Ruchi and Neha (who were doing a rotation in Delhi) in Mumbai. Mumbai, or Bombay as I call it, is India's largest city, and where the term "Bollywood" originated. It's a huge city, and there's a little bit of something for everybody there. We spent 2 days sight-seeing there. Among other things, we saw the Gateway of India, walked through the Taj Hotel (which is supposed to be the most expensive hotel in India), saw Chowpatty Beach and Marine Drive (and of course stopped for photo shoots), and did our fair share of shopping and bargaining at flea markets along the streets. From there, Bimpe and Erica went on to tour north India and Ruchi and Neha and I went to Goa for a day. Goa is a state in southwest India and it is known for it's beaches. It also attracts lots of foreigners for this reason. We stayed at a beach resort with a beautfiul view of the beach. We also did sightseeing and saw many of the churches Goa is known for (it was a former Portugese colony). Afterwards, I went to Chennai and wpent time with my family there-mainly relaxing but lots of shopping as well. :-)