Report of 23 July '06
Hello all -
This is the stuff of which memories are made. One of my patients, RF, is a waiter at a very nice seafood restaurant and he just brought me dinner from said restaurant. It was very gracious, and a lovely addition to my day. He had asked in chitchat what kind of fish I liked and I'd answered, wondering why he was asking; well, that question was answered when he showed up. He's a handsome young man, made even better-looking by his nice gesture.
Speaking of this restaurant, it was where my friend Jon Marsh's parents took me out to eat last week. Holly and Frank Marsh are dear, sweet people and we met last year at Jon's graduation from St. V's residency program. Jon and I had danced ad infinitum, poor Jon being roped in as poor long-suffering Scott was unavailable, and then I'd spent a lovely evening chatting w/ his folks. So the evening repeated itself this year, and was just as lovely. I also met Jon's new girlfriend, Nicole. I tend to be very protective of my single male (and female, I think) physician friends, and am inclined to scrutinise their mates carefully. This might have unnerved Nicole, but she held her own.
A memorable patient from last week was a lady who'd survived breast cancer, and had had her right breast surgically removed. She was getting pain in the area, and removed her clothing so I could examine her. It's possible that a lot of people would think her flat right chest w/ the long surgical scar looked ugly, but she was beautiful to me: the missing right breast was simply evidence of her being alive. She was also extremely upbeat and funny, and we had a rollicking time. I love such patients, and asked her if she led a support group; she said she did not, as the parking lot was a long way from the hospital. I requested her to ask her cancer doc for some leeway in the parking, as I feel lots of folks could benefit from her perspective on life and her disease and her missing breast. Before I could stop myself, I'd hugged her at the end of the visit. She hugged back, so I guess she didn't mind.
The Banyan has emailed, asking when I'm returning. When I told them (17 Aug from here, to the B 1st of Sept), they sent a cheery note. It was nice. I miss the B. I miss the patients, who have come from such poverty and misery, but don't miss an opp to be nice to each other and to me. I miss the smiles. I miss the vanakkam (the folded hands, palms-together greeting) that even folks who have been beaten to a pulp will elect to give visitors. I miss Vandana and Vaishnavi, and others of their ilk who will do for others w/o thinking of return to themselves.
I have moved out of Deepali's warm, friendly home to the warm, friendly home of Maryam Massoumi, one of the staff MD's at St. V. This is a lovely place, and Maryam, Ali and their kids, Rustom and Golbarg, have made me feel at home. Ali lost a sister in the revolution in Iran; she was 22 when she was captured, rallied the prisoners into sharing food and sleeping space (they had to take turns sleeping as not everyone had the space to lie down at once), made the inmates donate cloth to diaper another inmate's newborn, and the guards did not like her because of all this. She was taken to trial, asked if she believed in Khomeini; she answered, "No, I believe in God," and was executed. As were several thousand other intellectuals. Isn't it amazing that repressive political regimes fear thinking/educated citizens. Her family was told 5 months later. This story made a huge impact on me, and now I know why Scott is so enamored of the democracy in India: we have sustained it in spite of differing political systems in the region, in spite of our colossal population and our different faiths. Maryam spoke of her father bagging the books in their house and throwing them in the nearby river; one could apparently be arrested by police barging into one's house unannounced and sent off to mysterious locales for reading/saying/thinking the wrong thing. It would be horrible for me to lose our books, and to have family members whisked off forever.
Cindy Ching, a classmate from residency days, hosted a get-together yesterday and Kris, Christy, Rich and I showed up - some w/ families in tow. It was fun, esp to see the little ones. Cindy is great about keeping up w/ us. I also saw "Lady in the Water" and "Pirates of the Caribbean - 2." Both were so-so, the latter was pretty entertaining. Managed to get together for dinner w/ Melinda and Colleen Taber, and that was a blast. St. Luke's has become a fairly regular part of my Sundays; there are certainly things said during services that I disagree with, but much there that captivates my intellect and soothes the soul.
Unw -
Renu
This is the stuff of which memories are made. One of my patients, RF, is a waiter at a very nice seafood restaurant and he just brought me dinner from said restaurant. It was very gracious, and a lovely addition to my day. He had asked in chitchat what kind of fish I liked and I'd answered, wondering why he was asking; well, that question was answered when he showed up. He's a handsome young man, made even better-looking by his nice gesture.
Speaking of this restaurant, it was where my friend Jon Marsh's parents took me out to eat last week. Holly and Frank Marsh are dear, sweet people and we met last year at Jon's graduation from St. V's residency program. Jon and I had danced ad infinitum, poor Jon being roped in as poor long-suffering Scott was unavailable, and then I'd spent a lovely evening chatting w/ his folks. So the evening repeated itself this year, and was just as lovely. I also met Jon's new girlfriend, Nicole. I tend to be very protective of my single male (and female, I think) physician friends, and am inclined to scrutinise their mates carefully. This might have unnerved Nicole, but she held her own.
A memorable patient from last week was a lady who'd survived breast cancer, and had had her right breast surgically removed. She was getting pain in the area, and removed her clothing so I could examine her. It's possible that a lot of people would think her flat right chest w/ the long surgical scar looked ugly, but she was beautiful to me: the missing right breast was simply evidence of her being alive. She was also extremely upbeat and funny, and we had a rollicking time. I love such patients, and asked her if she led a support group; she said she did not, as the parking lot was a long way from the hospital. I requested her to ask her cancer doc for some leeway in the parking, as I feel lots of folks could benefit from her perspective on life and her disease and her missing breast. Before I could stop myself, I'd hugged her at the end of the visit. She hugged back, so I guess she didn't mind.
The Banyan has emailed, asking when I'm returning. When I told them (17 Aug from here, to the B 1st of Sept), they sent a cheery note. It was nice. I miss the B. I miss the patients, who have come from such poverty and misery, but don't miss an opp to be nice to each other and to me. I miss the smiles. I miss the vanakkam (the folded hands, palms-together greeting) that even folks who have been beaten to a pulp will elect to give visitors. I miss Vandana and Vaishnavi, and others of their ilk who will do for others w/o thinking of return to themselves.
I have moved out of Deepali's warm, friendly home to the warm, friendly home of Maryam Massoumi, one of the staff MD's at St. V. This is a lovely place, and Maryam, Ali and their kids, Rustom and Golbarg, have made me feel at home. Ali lost a sister in the revolution in Iran; she was 22 when she was captured, rallied the prisoners into sharing food and sleeping space (they had to take turns sleeping as not everyone had the space to lie down at once), made the inmates donate cloth to diaper another inmate's newborn, and the guards did not like her because of all this. She was taken to trial, asked if she believed in Khomeini; she answered, "No, I believe in God," and was executed. As were several thousand other intellectuals. Isn't it amazing that repressive political regimes fear thinking/educated citizens. Her family was told 5 months later. This story made a huge impact on me, and now I know why Scott is so enamored of the democracy in India: we have sustained it in spite of differing political systems in the region, in spite of our colossal population and our different faiths. Maryam spoke of her father bagging the books in their house and throwing them in the nearby river; one could apparently be arrested by police barging into one's house unannounced and sent off to mysterious locales for reading/saying/thinking the wrong thing. It would be horrible for me to lose our books, and to have family members whisked off forever.
Cindy Ching, a classmate from residency days, hosted a get-together yesterday and Kris, Christy, Rich and I showed up - some w/ families in tow. It was fun, esp to see the little ones. Cindy is great about keeping up w/ us. I also saw "Lady in the Water" and "Pirates of the Caribbean - 2." Both were so-so, the latter was pretty entertaining. Managed to get together for dinner w/ Melinda and Colleen Taber, and that was a blast. St. Luke's has become a fairly regular part of my Sundays; there are certainly things said during services that I disagree with, but much there that captivates my intellect and soothes the soul.
Unw -
Renu
posted by Renu Weiss at
2:57 PM
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