Report of 20 Feb '08
Hi from the B -
It has been a hectic 2 weeks. The Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health (BALM) and University College, London, ran a course on Mental Health at the Margins here in Kovalam, and I was sponsored by Vandana to go. Mental illness is not my thing, but one can always learn from any conference, so I went, and did learn. Some of the anthropological discussions were way beyond the scope of my limited medical mind, but the discussions were good and the participants were great! One young man, an engineer, spoke of being cured of his cancer by Jesus Christ. (This was in a session on faith healing, esp as applicable in the mental health field.)
A distressing piece of news is that one of our patients unexpectedly died in the hospital. We asked for a post-mortem, and the private hospital declined. We met the Medical Superintendent, to no avail. Requests for p-m have to be routed through the police, and the language used therein is fraught with suspicion, as though the blame is initially and relentlessly cast on the hospital/doctors. That was not my intent, the mission was to find out the cause of death (especially if preventable) so as to apply the info in caring for the other 400+ women I help take care of; even the dead have powerful lessons for us medical people. But I was deprived of a treasure trove of info, and am still disappointed and hurting.
My sister-in-law, Susan, was here for a day. Her son, Sudhir, had got into a "spot of bother" (skipping class and such) at college, Scott and I had gone to check it out, and then Susan came. She went to visit her son by herself, as we had an appointment with Naren's teachers. It was apparently a productive visit, and Sudhir has settled down. I feel like I have 3 sons, and must also ensure that Sudhir is ok, as education is a vital ingredient for success, I think. It was nice to have Susan here; she does ably by herself, poor young widow that she is. We were pleasantly surprised by the visit of my sister, Anu, and her family the same evening, and a wonderful family reunion was had - replete with non-stop eating and gabbing and laughing. I will always appreciate being able to get together with my sibs, sibs-in-law and parents; so many people don't.
We met with Naren's teachers and heard yet again about the "Lots of potential but unmotivated" saga. Naren has found a friend at his new school who is exactly like the kid at his old school who guided all Naren's actions (sassing the teacher, not studying) and we now have a motivation plan in place. We also have such a plan for Navin, who apparently does not require anyone else's help to be unmotivated. The boys walk a fine line between academic success and failure, and it requires all my energies to ensure they stay on the "S" side. We let them have an afternoon by themselves last Saturday, and Scott and I went out for lunch and to a most beloved activity: hanging out at the bookstore. It was fabulous; Scott is such great, intelligent company that the afternoon rejuvenated me nicely.
I'd better wind up, I have patients to see.
Unw -
R
It has been a hectic 2 weeks. The Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health (BALM) and University College, London, ran a course on Mental Health at the Margins here in Kovalam, and I was sponsored by Vandana to go. Mental illness is not my thing, but one can always learn from any conference, so I went, and did learn. Some of the anthropological discussions were way beyond the scope of my limited medical mind, but the discussions were good and the participants were great! One young man, an engineer, spoke of being cured of his cancer by Jesus Christ. (This was in a session on faith healing, esp as applicable in the mental health field.)
A distressing piece of news is that one of our patients unexpectedly died in the hospital. We asked for a post-mortem, and the private hospital declined. We met the Medical Superintendent, to no avail. Requests for p-m have to be routed through the police, and the language used therein is fraught with suspicion, as though the blame is initially and relentlessly cast on the hospital/doctors. That was not my intent, the mission was to find out the cause of death (especially if preventable) so as to apply the info in caring for the other 400+ women I help take care of; even the dead have powerful lessons for us medical people. But I was deprived of a treasure trove of info, and am still disappointed and hurting.
My sister-in-law, Susan, was here for a day. Her son, Sudhir, had got into a "spot of bother" (skipping class and such) at college, Scott and I had gone to check it out, and then Susan came. She went to visit her son by herself, as we had an appointment with Naren's teachers. It was apparently a productive visit, and Sudhir has settled down. I feel like I have 3 sons, and must also ensure that Sudhir is ok, as education is a vital ingredient for success, I think. It was nice to have Susan here; she does ably by herself, poor young widow that she is. We were pleasantly surprised by the visit of my sister, Anu, and her family the same evening, and a wonderful family reunion was had - replete with non-stop eating and gabbing and laughing. I will always appreciate being able to get together with my sibs, sibs-in-law and parents; so many people don't.
We met with Naren's teachers and heard yet again about the "Lots of potential but unmotivated" saga. Naren has found a friend at his new school who is exactly like the kid at his old school who guided all Naren's actions (sassing the teacher, not studying) and we now have a motivation plan in place. We also have such a plan for Navin, who apparently does not require anyone else's help to be unmotivated. The boys walk a fine line between academic success and failure, and it requires all my energies to ensure they stay on the "S" side. We let them have an afternoon by themselves last Saturday, and Scott and I went out for lunch and to a most beloved activity: hanging out at the bookstore. It was fabulous; Scott is such great, intelligent company that the afternoon rejuvenated me nicely.
I'd better wind up, I have patients to see.
Unw -
R
posted by Renu Weiss at
10:58 PM
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