Bad Blogger

So I've clearly been a bad blogger, and now, to add insult to injury, I'm having technical difficulties!  As of a few days ago my laptop will no longer charge.  I noticed that my battery was getting low so I went to plug it in, and it wouldn't charge.  Because it was already on, I know that the computer itself is theoretically okay.  Hopefully it's just the cord or my outlet adapter!  Anyways, back to the catch up game!

January 6

I woke up in the morning feeling a little stuffy with a sore throat.  I was pretty antsy, and I started taking some Emergen-C just in case.  Thankfully, it ended up just being my allergies stirred up from all of the dust.

In the clinic I was able to watch a therapist named Arivarason do a few assessments, which was at least better than the last few days have been.  Even though he was speaking to the families in Tamil, I was able to learn some from watching and was even able to help a little bit.  At lunch, the family that I was working with that speaks English really well took me out for juice.  I was kind of antsy about it, but they were so sweet about making sure that there was no water or ice in it that I didn't feel like I could turn it down.  Thankfully, I didn't get sick!  And, because I had mentioned being stuffy from my allergies, the mother went and bought me some tissue.  The tissues were actually perfumed, which seems like an awful idea for allergies, but they get the job done!  In the afternoon I was supposed to go to the hemophilia clinic, but no one came to pick me up, so I just ended up staying in the gymnaseum.

The college was having a research symposium on campus, so they brought in performers to put on a "play" for all of the visitors.  It was basically a narrative of the history of classical Indian music with musical interludes.  It was pretty interesting, but between not feeling well and the rhythmical music, it made me really tired.  Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera yet again, so no pictures.  (Hopefully someone will post some on facebook that I can steal!)

Hopefully I will have time to get at least one more post in today, but it's Republic Day and there's a carnival on campus that we're heading over to check out.  I am trying to keep a pretty detailed journal for myself as well, so at least I can just pull information from there as I try to get caught up!

Falling Behind

So I know that I've been a bad blogger and fallen behind, but I'm going to fall even more behind this weekend.  We're going to Pondicherry!  Hopefully I will be able to catch back up next week, but I'm not making any promises...  (At this rate I might still be updating posts after I get back to Kansas!)

Catching Up

I'm still trying to get my posts caught up, so here goes....

January 4

This was the day that I finally got internet set up!  Otherwise it was a pretty uneventful day.  I spent the morning in the clinic and was able to meet one family that speaks English really well, unfortunately they are only around for a few more days.  Once again I had families taking pictures of me.  Apparently being a white makes you a big deal!

Raji had me try to do some patient assessments with families that speak English, but I felt guilty doing much more than a subjective assessment since the families will already be there for several hours for the day getting their children's exercises done.  Also, I've yet to figure out if there is any sort of formal documentation system in the gym.  The therapists seem to write some things down during the initial assessment, but I never see daily notes or updates done.


January 5

Most of this morning was spent getting our I.D. badges, paying fees, and then in the gym again.  Fees ended up being less than I thought they would be.  Yay for saving money!

For the afternoon I was scheduled to go to the traumatic brain injury clinic.  I was pretty excited for this because I don't have much experience with TBIs, and I figured that I would get to see some interesting cases.  Unfortunately, the PT that worked the clinic only ended up needing to see one patient the entire time, so I just ended up sitting around for quite awhile.

Once it became clear that we wouldn't be seeing any more patients in the clinic, the therapist that I was with sent me back to the gym.  Raji called me over to where she was working with a 9 month-old girl who had seizure disorder and had lost head control after one of her seizures.  I was excited to see something new (most of the children we see have cerebral palsy), but I was disappointed when we were unable to rouse the child from her sleep for therapy.  Instead I ended up spending an hour watching the child sleep while Raji spoke to the mother in Tamil.

Luckily, the evening was better because it was Wednesday!  Wednesday night in Vellore means that all of the international students head to the Darling Restaurant for dinner.   I have been told that January is a busy month for having international students at CMC, and that was clear at dinner.  In all there were about 40 students at dinner.  We got to meet lots of students who are staying at places other than our hostel.  I had a dish called the fish tikka, and I really enjoyed it.  (Especially since at the canteen our meals are mostly carbs!)  I can't lie though - I'm already eying the pizza that's on the menu for dinner this week!

After dinner some of the students went downstairs for drinks, but it was already 10:00 and I was exhausted.  I caught an auto back to the campus with 2 girls from Australia instead.  Our rickshaw was interesting.  Our driver had installed a REALLY loud sound system and flashing lights.  Our driver would zip in and out of traffic even more than usual, and we think he was just trying to get a reaction out of the tourists!

The Gymnasium

As I mentioned in the previous post, my first two weeks are in the gymnasium.  Just to give you an idea of what this really means I took a few pictures of the gym before patients arrived one morning.  Bear in mind that usually most of the beds that you see are full and each person arrives with at least one (usually 2 or 3) family member.  Things are really crowded and there are people everywhere!

Gymnasium

Another view of the gymnasium



Pediatrics Area

 

Parallel bars in the pediatrics area


In the pediatrics area I have counted up to 8 pediatric and 1 adult patients using the 2 mats, 2 patients at the parallel bars, and 2 walking with walkers or crutches all at one time.  (And remember that they aren't allowed to come to therapy without at least one family member to help them!)

Besides the crowding and the family presence in therapy, one big difference I have noticed working in pediatrics is that the children perform exercises much like adults.  They are told to do a certain number of each exercise and expected to do them.  I have only seen two toys in the entire pediatrics area.  Many of the children are there 4+ hours each day because the parents are given over 20 exercises that their children are to complete.  I can't believe how well the children do each day given how their therapy is approached!

The Real Reason We Are Here

January 3 - First day of work!

Normally we take the student bus across town to the hospital campus, but Mr. Babu from the Physiotherapy Department picked us up today outside of our hostel at 8:00.  He took us to the campus, where we met in his office to confirm our schedules.  He was very accommodating to our interests, and I have been given the following schedule for the next 6 weeks:

• Weeks 1-2: Gymnasium (Pediatrics)
• Week 3: Pediatric Cardiopulm and Hemophilia
• Week 4: Pediatric Neurology and General Wards
• Weeks 5-6: Rehab Institute

I'll try to give a more detailed explanation of each area as I find out.  I am currently in the Gymnasium, which is the outpatient clinic at the hospital.  I am working under a therapist named Raji.  Mr. Babu introduced me to her after a brief tour of the facilities and then left.  Within a minute of meeting Raji, she took me to a family and told me that they "understand English" and walked away.  I had not received any information on the patient - no name, diagnosis, age, etc.  The family stared at me, and I looked back at them.  I quickly excused myself, and I went to ask Raji for further direction.  I have since found out that in this clinic the family learns a child's exercises on the first day and then is largely responsible for performing them each day with their child.  I did not realize that this family already knew what they were doing, so all I had to do was follow them.   The family-oriented therapy approach has been a double-edged sword for me so far.  On the one hand, I really respect that this facility is really training these families to work with their children who usually have life-long conditions.  On the other hand, it means that I spend a lot of time as an observer more than a therapist.  (I also end up feeling like a bit of an attraction, as people stare all day, and a few of the families have taken pictures of me working with their children.)

The language barrier has also been a big issue so far.  The staff all speak English, but very few of the patients and their families do.  This further adds to my feeling of simply being an observer.  I knew that language would be an issue, but I had the impression that we would have more assistance communicating with our patients.  Instead the therapists are typically working with at least 3-4 patients and their families at one time and don't have a lot of spare time to be spent acting as a translator.

On the first Monday of every month there is a welcome dinner for international students at the Alumni Center, so we wandered over there after dinner.  They had coffee/tea and dessert along with several of the long-term international faculty present.  At each of these gatherings they try to present some aspect of Indian culture.  Tonight they had a man play a drum called the tabla while his father sang.

Tablas

I forgot to bring my camera along, so I'm including a photo that I found online.  The drumming was very intricate, and we were informed that the tablas actually have to be tuned for each performance.  They are played on a 12 note scales, instead of the 8 note (octave) scale that we are used to.

Here's a random tabla video that I found on YouTube to give you an idea:

First Full Day in India

January 2

After arriving the day before, I didn't set an alarm for the morning, allowing my body to catch up on sleep.  I woke up around 8:00 but lounged around in bed until around 10:00.  I eventually got up and took a shower and thankfully figured out how to work the water heater!

A little while later I wandered upstairs to find Andy.  (Our rooms are on different floors.)  We wasted a few hours in the common area watching T.V. (there are 2 English language channels) and playing cards.  Eventually a student named Lucky from Australia joined us.  We wandered down to the canteen on campus for lunch and then back to the lounge for some more cards.  Lucky taught us "Donkey" which is pretty much another version of "P & A."

When Lucky left, Andy and I decided to try the ATM again.  At first it appeared that my card still wasn't working, but thankfully there was a man working today who came to help us.  Turns out that the ATM across the street is just incredibly finicky, so good news -- I HAVE MONEY!!!  We ran by the store to get some water and other staples (conditioner!) and then split up for a bit for the afternoon.

That night we were on our way out to the canteen when Yoshua, a German student, invited us to join them for dinner at the Darling restaurant in town for a Punjabi food festival that they were having.  We got to meet several of the other international students, and it was a really pleasant evening off campus.

Are you wondering what you've gotten yourself into?

January 1 - Arrival at Modale Hostel for International Students

I left off after the cab ride from Chennai to Vellore, so let's start with our arrival at Modale.  Our "hostel" is on campus at Christian Medical College, and it is housing strictly for visiting international students.  It holds up to 20 students at a time, and right now there are many more students than the hostel can actually hold.  Here is a few pictures of the hostel from the outside:

When we arrive to Modale we weren't on that days list of expected arrivals, but the list was hand written and this was quickly resolved with a phone call.  While we were waiting for our keys Andy looked at me and said, "Are you wondering what you've gotten yourself into?"  All I could do in response was look at him and say, "Yes."

 Front desk

Lobby 

Upstairs common area 

 "Computer Lab"

(Thank goodness for wireless!) 

We split up and each went to our own rooms for a little bit to get settled it.  Shortly thereafter my roommate Deviti arrived back to the room.  I was exhausted and was having a hard time getting her name, so she told me that I could just call her Devi (pronounced similar to "Davie").  She is originally from Singapore, however is going to university in Tasmania.

The rooms are pretty bare but do have 2 twin beds, closets, and desks.  The climate here is incredibly humid and we don't have A/C, so I'm very thankful that it's winter!  I was pleasantly surprised that we do have our own bathroom in our room.  I don't have any pictures to post of our actual room yet, as there was laundry drying everywhere when I went to take the other pictures here.

Door to my room

Later Andy and I walked around campus for a bit.  The campus is largely set on dirt roads and nothing like you would expect for a college campus in the States.  The is a small store on campus where you can find almost anything, and it has been great for finding snacks when the canteen doesn't sound too good.

View of our road

There is an ATM directly across the street from the campus, so we walked over there to get some money.  The ATM would not recognize my card, so now I felt completely dependent upon Andy for everything at this point.  Andy was nice enough to buy me dinner in the canteen, which cost around $2 for both of us to eat, and then we just went back to our rooms.

Our showers have their own individual water heaters that have to be turned on 10 minutes before showering to let them heat up.  Apparently I did not let the water heat for long enough, so I ended up taking a cold shower.  At this point I was too tired to care though.  I didn't even notice that I had 2 bottles of shampoo, instead of having any conditioner, until my second shower because I was so tired!  I then went to bed around 8:00 and slept for a WONDERFUL 12 hours!