Report of 3 Nov '08

How time flies.

It is November already. We are facing the end of the year. I am sitting here with a bout of food poisoning; my sister treated us to breakfast yesterday and it was wonderful and I overate merrily - sausages and eggs and chicken and fish. This morning, I got up to exercise and got all my workout gear on and then the body said, "Please go back to bed." It's good for doctors to be sick periodically, you know, it teaches us what patients reel under.

I see from the monthly report for Adaikalam, our transit care facility, that Ms. B's husband, son and niece visited. She's the person I reported on last week, the one kept locked in a room for 20 years. Ms. B refused to see her husband - good for her! She did see the niece and son, and I assume they made her feel good. I enjoy talking to this lady; she conducts conversations willingly and I am delighted to see her spirit blossom.

We are facing many cases of uncontrolled diabetes at the B, and our diet of rice, rice and more rice ain't helping matters. I asked the good medical director of our helper hospital, Sundaram Medical Foundation Hospital, for assistance with the services of a dietitian and Dr. Arjun Ragagopalan sent one of the hospital's dietitians. We are hoping to revamp the diet with our meagre finances in mind and I am looking forward to it; anyone can eat somewhat healthily with any budget.

One of our neighbors, Ms. S, had been sick, and her young adult son, R, came bolting up to our flat to get me. It was a simple upper respiratory infection, easily treatable, but Ms. S looked so terrible with fever and bloodshot eyes and puffy face and unkempt hair that R panicked. The family and I discussed this, and I mentioned how glad I am to be in a position to be able to differentiate between panic-worthy illnesses and others. Ms. S is much better now, with antibiotics and that old standby, paracetamol or acetaminophen.

We had some great interactions last week. My late brother Manu's son, Sudhir, went for a job interview (found out at relatively the last minute) in Scott's suit jacket and tie, and got the job. His jacket button apparently went pinging out as he sat down, and he could hear it skittering across the floor; the General Manager of the hotel (the biggest cheese of all), whom the interview was with, apparently picked it up, said, "This might belong to you," and handed it over. We are pleased at the job offer, and celebrated wildly yesterday. We had my other nephew, Vikram, also spend the night with us on Saturday, and a fine time was had by all as 4 young men aged 19, 18, 17 and 15, sat around the table with Scott and me, and discussed life, movies, food and plenty of other topics. I felt very privileged. We also heard one of the city's prominent psychiatrists discuss teenagers and drug use at Navin's school; a couple of Navin's classmates are partaking and he told me and I told the teachers. It was an outstanding session, and I left with a wealth of info about what to do when the boys come to us with issues like this. I assure you, the fact that they feel they *can* tell us such things is an immeasurable honor.

Unw -

R