Report of 20 June 2010
Hello from the Carmel library -
Books, books, books - free. Such therapy.
Happy Father's Day to all! This year, more than ever, I am aware of the contributions a father makes, and I hope all the phenomenal fathers on this reading list have a great day. I talked to the 2 fathers in my life - Scott and my father - and wished them. FD is not celebrated in India, and my father thanked me for the wishes. Naren and Navin had made Scott breakfast, his present having to be left behind here ("My presents are here in Chennai," said Scott), and Scott said he had enjoyed the day, which I was happy about. Naren reached home safely, sans "Random Security Checks," and I am relieved. There was a time when air travel was not the worrisome mess it is now.
Naren got safely off the ground at O'Hare - several pounds lighter as his baggage was overweight with candy and deos and junk that all of us had bought. So things had to be unloaded into the trash bags that I had taken along, and I brought them back with me. As I waited for Naren's flight to take off, I told a young lady that I had sat next to that I was not normally embarrassed by much, but having to wheel a cart around with 2 trash bags on it was truly a new, somewhat awkward experience.
I am now at the warm and loving home of Kris Rea and Gabe Soukup, and their daughters Isabella and Rosalia. My father was a bit concerned at the new location, asking if this was by choice or whether I'd been deported by the Tabers. :). It is by choice, wanting to spread out the pain of being a houseguest over several households. Naren and I had stopped by this house on Tuesday, to drop off some of my things, and Naren enjoyed the time he spent with the little girls. He talked of little else on the ride back. The home and people are truly lovely. There are more trees in the Rea-Soukup backyard than our entire Chennai street, and I have spent every evening sitting out, reading. It is beautiful, and relaxing.
The practice got busier, to my delight. It is nice to be busy, the day flies by, and we have taken care of many. The support staff at the clinic vary their pace of work accordingly and are customarily efficient, which is wonderful, and I appreciated "being run" by someone who put the patients in quickly, so that I could then do my job. One of our colleagues has been away in China to adopt a baby girl, and we have seen his patients, which has added to the nice busy-ness. One of the patients had called in saying her blood sugar was 47, she had been nauseated and unable to eat anything to get her sugar up; I did not want to field this issue by phone and asked that the lady be brought in for an appointment. I saw her on Friday: she was pale and pukey. I went through a very detailed history, saw that she'd had prior stomach surgeries, and asked for a cat scan (CT). It showed that she might have a partial bowel obstruction, and I have referred her to a surgeon. I phoned her soon after the CT results came, shared them, and asked how she was: she had been following my suggestion of small,bland meals, and the crackers and Sprite were staying down for the time being. I was pleased. The appointment with the surgeon is for tomorrow, and I hope the lady does well.
It is nice to work in a country where I can order a CT scan without worrying about its effect on wallets.
Naren and I finished some last-minute shopping before he left, and ate some junk food. We talked for a while over the meal. The boys are very opinionated (where do they get that?!), and I enjoy their opinions immensely. At one time, when we had to discipline one of them in India, he said, "I understand why you have to do this, but I don't like it." Naren and I saw "Harry Brown," the story of a vigilante, and I found it well-acted but unrealistic; Naren then mentioned a similar movie in Hindi, "A Wednesday," which was very slickly done and was completely believable. So we discussed that, and other things, and then it was time to return to the friendly Taber home (where we were until Naren returned to India), and watch the basketball game. The rats Celtics lost to the Lakers, and I was disappointed with that outcome.
My sister, Anu, was in the U.S. last week for some important meetings. She is a researcher of considerable caliber, and is in trials with Johns Hopkins, and researchers in the U.K. and other countries. We did not manage to meet, or speak on the phone, but caught up over email. She hoped that I did not miss my family too much. There was a very needy email from Chennai right around the time Naren left: it was something that could have been handled easily right in Chennai, but for some reason, I was roped in. Tell the wife and mother, she'll handle it. Que? Enna? Quoi? Entha? No, no, no - wife and mother is elsewhere, taking care of her own affairs and patients, and other capable individuals can handle the Chennai issue. As always, the cosmos righted itself, and I was soothed that I had really no occasion to miss the family too much. Let the workouts begin, let the movie-watching and eating vats of fruit continue, let the business of catching up with U.S. friends start. In a couple of months, all of us (Weisses) will feel the need for each other and then mindsets will change.
Unw -
R
Books, books, books - free. Such therapy.
Happy Father's Day to all! This year, more than ever, I am aware of the contributions a father makes, and I hope all the phenomenal fathers on this reading list have a great day. I talked to the 2 fathers in my life - Scott and my father - and wished them. FD is not celebrated in India, and my father thanked me for the wishes. Naren and Navin had made Scott breakfast, his present having to be left behind here ("My presents are here in Chennai," said Scott), and Scott said he had enjoyed the day, which I was happy about. Naren reached home safely, sans "Random Security Checks," and I am relieved. There was a time when air travel was not the worrisome mess it is now.
Naren got safely off the ground at O'Hare - several pounds lighter as his baggage was overweight with candy and deos and junk that all of us had bought. So things had to be unloaded into the trash bags that I had taken along, and I brought them back with me. As I waited for Naren's flight to take off, I told a young lady that I had sat next to that I was not normally embarrassed by much, but having to wheel a cart around with 2 trash bags on it was truly a new, somewhat awkward experience.
I am now at the warm and loving home of Kris Rea and Gabe Soukup, and their daughters Isabella and Rosalia. My father was a bit concerned at the new location, asking if this was by choice or whether I'd been deported by the Tabers. :). It is by choice, wanting to spread out the pain of being a houseguest over several households. Naren and I had stopped by this house on Tuesday, to drop off some of my things, and Naren enjoyed the time he spent with the little girls. He talked of little else on the ride back. The home and people are truly lovely. There are more trees in the Rea-Soukup backyard than our entire Chennai street, and I have spent every evening sitting out, reading. It is beautiful, and relaxing.
The practice got busier, to my delight. It is nice to be busy, the day flies by, and we have taken care of many. The support staff at the clinic vary their pace of work accordingly and are customarily efficient, which is wonderful, and I appreciated "being run" by someone who put the patients in quickly, so that I could then do my job. One of our colleagues has been away in China to adopt a baby girl, and we have seen his patients, which has added to the nice busy-ness. One of the patients had called in saying her blood sugar was 47, she had been nauseated and unable to eat anything to get her sugar up; I did not want to field this issue by phone and asked that the lady be brought in for an appointment. I saw her on Friday: she was pale and pukey. I went through a very detailed history, saw that she'd had prior stomach surgeries, and asked for a cat scan (CT). It showed that she might have a partial bowel obstruction, and I have referred her to a surgeon. I phoned her soon after the CT results came, shared them, and asked how she was: she had been following my suggestion of small,bland meals, and the crackers and Sprite were staying down for the time being. I was pleased. The appointment with the surgeon is for tomorrow, and I hope the lady does well.
It is nice to work in a country where I can order a CT scan without worrying about its effect on wallets.
Naren and I finished some last-minute shopping before he left, and ate some junk food. We talked for a while over the meal. The boys are very opinionated (where do they get that?!), and I enjoy their opinions immensely. At one time, when we had to discipline one of them in India, he said, "I understand why you have to do this, but I don't like it." Naren and I saw "Harry Brown," the story of a vigilante, and I found it well-acted but unrealistic; Naren then mentioned a similar movie in Hindi, "A Wednesday," which was very slickly done and was completely believable. So we discussed that, and other things, and then it was time to return to the friendly Taber home (where we were until Naren returned to India), and watch the basketball game. The rats Celtics lost to the Lakers, and I was disappointed with that outcome.
My sister, Anu, was in the U.S. last week for some important meetings. She is a researcher of considerable caliber, and is in trials with Johns Hopkins, and researchers in the U.K. and other countries. We did not manage to meet, or speak on the phone, but caught up over email. She hoped that I did not miss my family too much. There was a very needy email from Chennai right around the time Naren left: it was something that could have been handled easily right in Chennai, but for some reason, I was roped in. Tell the wife and mother, she'll handle it. Que? Enna? Quoi? Entha? No, no, no - wife and mother is elsewhere, taking care of her own affairs and patients, and other capable individuals can handle the Chennai issue. As always, the cosmos righted itself, and I was soothed that I had really no occasion to miss the family too much. Let the workouts begin, let the movie-watching and eating vats of fruit continue, let the business of catching up with U.S. friends start. In a couple of months, all of us (Weisses) will feel the need for each other and then mindsets will change.
Unw -
R
posted by Renu Weiss at
11:05 AM
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