Report of 28 August 2015

Well, I am very hungry - we are to head to an Indian buffet for lunch.  Thusly, this post may be more succinct than originally intended :).

We are at Terre Haute's library.  It is a sweet little place, as is all of TH.  Previously, we used to blow into town, see Navin for about 20 minutes or so that he could spare, snarf a meal at Taco Bell and blow out.  This summer, we live here and like it.

Work has been great.  I had a patient with Down Syndrome and raging pneumonia.  The joy of the Banyan is the way it has equipped me to deal with folks with special needs and mental illness.  I found this patient delightful, admitted him and then had a few days off; I did ask a lung specialist (a "pulmonologist") to see him as I was concerned about the repeated attacks of pneumonia.  Down Syndrome sometimes produces heart problems; I wanted to watch out for lung issues.

We had some dear, dear friends visit us from Chennai.  Joan is a classmate from 15 year old days, her husband Mohanraj is a fine person and their first-born, Patricia, is an absolutely stellar young lady.  Patricia is engaged to a young man in Evansville, Tim, and they came to see him, this match having been arranged online.  We met everyone 5 days later in Evansville, and brought Joan, Mohanraj and Patricia back with us.  Tim joined us for dinner before we left and we had a wonderful time, being privileged to meet him before the rest of the extended family did; he is a nice, intelligent, personable young man.  

J, M and P, Scott and I went to the farm for a day, hung out, ate and laughed and talked and walked - all de rigueur at the farm.  We came back to Terre Haute, and the guests left the next day.  It was wonderfully invigorating to have friends visit.

I spoke to my Dad today and that was lovely; we discussed medicine and surgery, and family.  It was a gentle, fun conversation.

Naren arrives tonight for about 3 days.  We will wander and eat and see movies.  "Eating" figures quite prominently in my life.

Hope all of you are well!

Unw -

R    

Report of 16 Aug 2015

Back to writing!

It's almost exactly a year since I suspended writing.  I had to study for my Board exam - physicians have to recertify every 10 years - and was cramming my eyeballs out; I passed, did the required clinical project and now can breathe for another 10 years.  9 now, actually.  As I told Scott, it's a plan to be dead before I have to recertify.

Last year was in Jasper.  It was fabulous.  Memorial Hospital is a small and sweet little place, with employees very committed to each other.  The physician I worked mostly with, Dr. Nick Werne, is a Jasperian who returned with his wife, also a Jasperian and an OB/Gyn, to serve the hometown.  Both were phenomenally nice folks.  The place was predominantly German - thus, most food was fried - and the patients were stoic, fairly uncomplaining folks who spent quite a bit of time outside and encouraged their kids to do so, also.  Navin also worked for Memorial and Scott, he and I rented a lovely house from one of the nurses, lived right in the heart of the community, and spent a spectacular summer there.  We attended Strassenfest and a host of other town festivals, ate madly, took the required week off after the weeks of working and generally enjoyed our time in Jasper.  Naren visited us there and found it most intriguing that we actually lived near a "Moose Lodge."  [The Moose Lodge is an organisation similar to Rotary.]

Scott and I returned to Chennai in October 2014 and I to work at the Banyan.  That was the usual funfest it always is.  We live in our own apartment now and that was also a joy to return to.  My father came to Chennai soon after our return, and he and I attended an excellent conference annually run by Sundaram Medical Foundation, the hospital that treats our patients for free.  We caught up with the rest of the family, 3 med students joined us in Dec to work at the B, and all of us spent Christmas in Vellore.  Naren and Navin came in December, helped with "Family Day" at the Banyan, shared themselves with us for 4 and 2 weeks respectively, and that was a blast.  We visited Thailand - a first immigration experience for me with 16+ immigration counters for those with American passports and the 3 Weiss men clipping through in 20 minutes, and 2 counters for those of us with Indian passports and I taking 2 hours of standing to clear immigration. That was dreadful and humiliating, and I have stated I will not visit Thailand again.

This year, we left India in April and I work at Terre Haute.  It is wonderful, with colleagues sharing the same work ethic of caring for the patients, and a nice team of hospitalists working together.  Navin also works at the same hospital; he will return to school, in Terre Haute, in September.  We attended Naren's graduation in NYC in May, and then took a very nice vacation in magnificent Alaska.  That is probably the prettiest state in the country, certainly the most unsullied.  Scott has resigned his job and works from home, and enjoys it.

Well, this has been nice and I enjoy it.  Hope to write next week.

Unw -

R