Hello again

Hi,
Genni, I'm jealous about your safari, that's high up on my list of travel things to do one day.
I finished my rotation early today so I have some extra free time. I'm still having a great time here in India. It is has been very interesting to see some of the similarities and differences in the health care systems. In DehraDun, there is the big government hospital, which is free. Then there are lots of small private hospitals (10-30 beds, some with ICUs, some without) that are individually owned. That's one thing I find really different, it is weird to see these little hospitals everywhere. The Doctors everywhere are super busy because the ones at the government hospital see so many patients and the ones that have their own clinics/hospitals still see lots of patients and also do a lot of the admin work. The doctor I am with this week is sometimes on his cell and landline at the same time. Our medical director here, Dr. Gandhi, is a cardiologist with his own hospital. He rarely sleeps and told us he once went 3 days without food. He's a bit hardcore and a bit of an extreme example, but they all work pretty hard. He does very well for himself though (well dressed, nice car, etc.). I've also heard stories of him regularly firing his staff, which reminded me of stories of Dr. Tzaki. I also found that some doctors fit the sterotypes we have at home. I spent some time with an orthopedic surgeon, who, in his physical appearance, fit the orthopod model. He was tall and athletic looking, and much better dressed than the other doctors. Despite being so busy, most of the doctors have been good about trying to teach us stuff. I haven't done a lot of hands on things but I've listened to lots of hearts,lungs, fetal heart rates etc and this week I've been trying to brush up on my ECG reading.
I've seen lots of HTN and diabetes, especially since I've been with cardiologists this week. I've also seen several women who get misoprostol over the counter for abortions, but then have retained products and need D&Cs later. There isn't much privacy in the clinics here- sometimes there are 2 or 3 patients in the office at a hime. The resources are also limited- the opthomologist just used hand sanitizer over his gloves after cataract surgeries and switched his gloves every 5 patients or so. They also reused the black caps on the otoscopes and just wipe them with disinfectant.
Another interesting thing is that there are signs in every clinic that say "It is illegal to determine the sex of a fetus", which relates to the community health project some of us did this year.
Well, that is pretty much it for now. Everything else is going well. I'm off to a rural village next week in the hills. Hope you're all having a wonderful time!

Jambo from Nkoaranga

Hey friends!!!

Just wanted to drop a line from Nkoaranga, Tanzania. Its a small mountain village, with a government run hospital, and we are staying in a hospital owned building, which we have dubbed the "German Sex Palace".

Clinical work has been fun ~ doing rounds with the physicians, some small procedures (ie: changing dressings), and scrubbing in to a couple surgeries (C-section, hysterectomy, appendectomy....). We've had that kind of experience where the lights go off mid surgery, and we all ran for our headlamps to light the rest of the surgery... or there was a time where mid surgery, the school boarding house behind our GSP went up into flames, and we saw it burn down =( I've also seen a very interesting case of a severe congenital malformation... and severe would be an understatement.

I don't have much else to report, other than that I'm leaving for a four-day safari in the Serengeti in two days!! Unfortunately my access to internet isn't always readily available, but we are keeping up a group blog at http://medoutreach2010.blogspot.com/ - so feel free to check it out too!!\

Miss you all!! Bisous, G-Mort

Hello Friends

Hey everyone!!
I hope you're all having a wonderful time. Everything in India has gone well so far. I arrived in Delhi, which is soooo busy and HOT, but I was only there for one night. Last week I was in a town in the Himalayan Foothills called Mussoorie. It was really beautiful there, and the temperature was much better (although it rained a lot- Monsoon season here). I've been paired up with a girl named Vivian, who is from San Fransisco and entering Pharmacy school this year. We have a lot in common and are getting along well. We stayed in a the hospital in Mussoorie and attended clinics there. The hospital is a missionary hospital and is pretty small, but does quite a lot. They run clinics in the morning and I saw some surgeries in the afternoon and attended a clinic at a Tibetian refugee home. That was interesting. The home is a pretty big campus with housing, school, an infirmary, among other things and has about 3000 kids, most of whom were sent from Tibet by their parents who they will probably never see again. I think they're pretty well treated and they look happy for the most part, but it is still sad to think about. The doctors in Mussoorie were really nice. A couple of them are pretty young (younger than us), and just finished school. They're working there for a bit and then write an exam before deciding what speciality they want to go into. They were fun to hang out with and they showed us some of the sights.
On the weekend, I went to DharamSala, the home of the Dalai Lama. We didn't actually see him, but we went to the temple. It is in a really beautiful area as well. The only bad part about that weekend was the 17 hour drive overnight to get there and 14hours back. It wasn't supposed to take that long, but I guess the main road was flooded. The roads are all narrow and winding through the hills so you can't go very fast either. To add to it, we had the windows down most of the trip so we were covered with car fumes and dust. Good times.
This week, I am in the city DehraDune. Vivian and I are staying with a family and attending clincis in the city (this week is Opthomology and OBGYN). The family is great. There are 2 girls, ages 10 and 11 and I think they are pretty enamoured with us. They both speak pretty good English and they have offered us personal Hindi classes each night. I think there is a quiz tonight. This afternoon, the younger one asked if I had read over my notes, haha. The city is a bit hectic. It's hot and dusty, until it rains and there is tons of traffic. People really like to use their car horns. Traffic jams are sooo noisy. Even if there is no one around, they will still use their horn.
The food has been pretty good. It was a bit simple and repetitive at the hospital, but it is getting more exciting now that it is home cooked!
I'm in DehraDune next week as well and then we're off to a little village for a week. I'm really excited for that, it is supposed to be gorgeous (in the foothills again) and peaceful (not much to do after the clinic but relax and medidtate and do yoga). After that, I'm meeting up with my friend Neha and her cousins to visit Delhi, the Taj Mahal and Jaipur (the pink city).
Well, that is it for now. Sorry if this was too long, there's lots going on.
Hope you're all having a good time. Don't be a stranger to the Blog posting!!
Caitlin

last day of 5010 for me and in 4 days I'm off to euro

now im off to manage a 27 year old type 1 diabetic ginger on methadone who went into DKA, fun times!!!

Happy Canada Day from London

Hi friends,

Thanks for all your stories. Melissa and Sylvie, I'm sorry to hear about your misadventures, but glad to hear that everything else is going well.

I've been in London with Robin visiting his sister since Sunday. When I arrived and used the washroom at the airport, I was pleased to see that they have accelerator hand dryers!! The weather has been really nice, which is a bonus. We spent Sunday having a picnic and playing frisbee in the park with Heather (Robin's sister) and some of her friends. You can drink in the streets/parks here so that was included in the picnic. She works during the days so Robin and I have had 4 full, but great days of being tourists and have seen lots. We saw Jersey Boys the other night, which was really good.

Today we went to Trafalger square, where they had a a big Canada Day celebration set up. It was complete with Canadian beer, a road hockey tournament and a Timmy's stand! All you Twilight fans out there will be pleased to know that we saw them setting up for the UK premiere tonight. Parts of the street were all blocked off outside a theatre and there were lots of screaming girls. Sadly, we did not see any of the stars. Robin wanted to stay to watch, but I told him we had to go, haha.

Tonight we're taking Heather and her boyfriend out for dinner as a thankyou for letting us crash at their place.

I'm off to India tomorrow night! It is just starting to hit me that I'm actually going there. I'm a little nervous about what it is going to be like when I get there but I'm also excited.

Well, that's it for me. Sounds like everyone is having a good summer so far. Keep enjoying.

Talk to you later,

Caitlin