Report of 27 Feb '08
And the 2nd month is about to end too.
Hello from the B -
Hope life is good with all of you. We are well.
The 2nd part of the B's fundraiser is this Saturday. Ravi and Anoushka Shankar are to play. We continue to reel under unimaginable financial strain, and Scott and his colleague are implementing a program called LEAN at the B. It aims to eliminate waste in all areas, and is timely - esp with the multiple projects of the B. I am not a huge fan of expansion, and think we should handle just 1 or 2 areas well. But I am not a visionary individual, and must take my hat off to Vandana and Vaishnavi for plonking on.
One of our patients, Ms. M, is very ill and wasting away in front of my eyes. She eats perhaps a spoonful of tender coconut, having forsaken all solid food long ago due to nausea and vomiting after eating, and is losing her verve and zeal. The classic signs of starvation are setting in, including weight loss on the sides of the forehead, called temporal wasting. All investigations so far have been normal. She is worrying me greatly. We had another patient like this some years ago, and she was found to have TB of the stomach ("Koch's abdomen"). The lesion was cut out, and then the patient couldn't stop eating - hooray! No such lesion has been found in Ms. M, and we have sent her to the hospital. Considering there is a great temptation at just a few places (certainly not all) to give our patients substandard care, I sent a note with the patient, signing my name and following it with the initials, "AB." (I don't ever like preening thus, but it is sometimes necessary.) "AB" means "American Board," and means I am board-certified in the United States. It also equates to the fact that my training is somewhat solid, and I add it when I feel the person at the other end must know that someone remotely competent is looking over the patients' care at the Banyan. It has sometimes produced good results, and Naren and I had a philosophical discussion on this once: he said that Gandhi said the means are as important as the end, and Subhash Chandra Bose said the means are irrelevant as long as they achieve the end.
The day Ms. M was going to the hospital, I squatted down next to her wheelchair and asked how she was. She answered as cheerfully as she possibly could, holding my hand, and then asked how my husband was. I bloody near melted: there's this lady oh, so ill, and she finds the reserves and wherewithal to ask about my esposo. Very moving, humbling, and energising.
We addressed the health care workers' stealing with them, and I find that the young ladies still greet me in the morning, and are cheerful and efficient. All of us make mistakes, don't we - no need to focus greatly on them, time to forgive and move on.
I spent Saturday in Madurai, as it was my alma mater Lady Doak College's Alumnae Day of the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations. (Did you know "alumni" referred to both genders and "alumnae" to women only? I didn't, until y'day.) It was lovely to be there, I have some absolutely fantastic memories of undergraduate days, and I saw some beloved professors. I stated during "Alumni Recollections" what I do - in English and Tamil - and had to leave before the session ended. As I walked out, a young woman came running up and stated that she had been told spirits had possessed her, the family was despairing of her condition and she wondered if there was help. I've put her in touch with the B's remarkable social workers. Then I went home and hung out with my parents, and with a beloved friend, Leela Kurien. That was a rejuvenating afternoon - full of good food, great conversation and laugh-out-loud humor.
Naren and Navin got good reports at school and Scott and I were euphoric! This is the first time ever. One of Naren's English essays is magnificent and he writes so effortlessly. Navin spent yesterday cooking with the class girls in preparation for the snack bar today, and was the only boy to do so. When Scott worked at Abacus, the 9th grade was divided into 2 sections to run the snack bar on consecutive days; the first group's food caused serious stomach upsets in about 50% of the customers (students and teachers and staff) and ergo, the second group's catchy marketing slogan for their endeavor was "Eat our food, you won't get sick." Ingenious!
Hope all are well.
Unw -
R
Hello from the B -
Hope life is good with all of you. We are well.
The 2nd part of the B's fundraiser is this Saturday. Ravi and Anoushka Shankar are to play. We continue to reel under unimaginable financial strain, and Scott and his colleague are implementing a program called LEAN at the B. It aims to eliminate waste in all areas, and is timely - esp with the multiple projects of the B. I am not a huge fan of expansion, and think we should handle just 1 or 2 areas well. But I am not a visionary individual, and must take my hat off to Vandana and Vaishnavi for plonking on.
One of our patients, Ms. M, is very ill and wasting away in front of my eyes. She eats perhaps a spoonful of tender coconut, having forsaken all solid food long ago due to nausea and vomiting after eating, and is losing her verve and zeal. The classic signs of starvation are setting in, including weight loss on the sides of the forehead, called temporal wasting. All investigations so far have been normal. She is worrying me greatly. We had another patient like this some years ago, and she was found to have TB of the stomach ("Koch's abdomen"). The lesion was cut out, and then the patient couldn't stop eating - hooray! No such lesion has been found in Ms. M, and we have sent her to the hospital. Considering there is a great temptation at just a few places (certainly not all) to give our patients substandard care, I sent a note with the patient, signing my name and following it with the initials, "AB." (I don't ever like preening thus, but it is sometimes necessary.) "AB" means "American Board," and means I am board-certified in the United States. It also equates to the fact that my training is somewhat solid, and I add it when I feel the person at the other end must know that someone remotely competent is looking over the patients' care at the Banyan. It has sometimes produced good results, and Naren and I had a philosophical discussion on this once: he said that Gandhi said the means are as important as the end, and Subhash Chandra Bose said the means are irrelevant as long as they achieve the end.
The day Ms. M was going to the hospital, I squatted down next to her wheelchair and asked how she was. She answered as cheerfully as she possibly could, holding my hand, and then asked how my husband was. I bloody near melted: there's this lady oh, so ill, and she finds the reserves and wherewithal to ask about my esposo. Very moving, humbling, and energising.
We addressed the health care workers' stealing with them, and I find that the young ladies still greet me in the morning, and are cheerful and efficient. All of us make mistakes, don't we - no need to focus greatly on them, time to forgive and move on.
I spent Saturday in Madurai, as it was my alma mater Lady Doak College's Alumnae Day of the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations. (Did you know "alumni" referred to both genders and "alumnae" to women only? I didn't, until y'day.) It was lovely to be there, I have some absolutely fantastic memories of undergraduate days, and I saw some beloved professors. I stated during "Alumni Recollections" what I do - in English and Tamil - and had to leave before the session ended. As I walked out, a young woman came running up and stated that she had been told spirits had possessed her, the family was despairing of her condition and she wondered if there was help. I've put her in touch with the B's remarkable social workers. Then I went home and hung out with my parents, and with a beloved friend, Leela Kurien. That was a rejuvenating afternoon - full of good food, great conversation and laugh-out-loud humor.
Naren and Navin got good reports at school and Scott and I were euphoric! This is the first time ever. One of Naren's English essays is magnificent and he writes so effortlessly. Navin spent yesterday cooking with the class girls in preparation for the snack bar today, and was the only boy to do so. When Scott worked at Abacus, the 9th grade was divided into 2 sections to run the snack bar on consecutive days; the first group's food caused serious stomach upsets in about 50% of the customers (students and teachers and staff) and ergo, the second group's catchy marketing slogan for their endeavor was "Eat our food, you won't get sick." Ingenious!
Hope all are well.
Unw -
R
posted by Renu Weiss at
10:09 PM
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