Report of 8 Oct 2017
Hello from our balcony!
The Bay of Bengal is still blue, the clothes are drying and falling off the rack in the breeze, there is a cricket game in full swing downstairs, about a dozen custard apples are ripening on our kitchen counter and I have eaten. That's a big thing for me - eating. The word "Hangry" is a fine one; if I have to work and am hungry, all the cylinders do not fire, I get irritable, miss details in the patient's history or lab reports, etc. And that's one day or one meal. Imagine the unfortunate folks for whom hunger is a state of being. We are indeed fortunate, my mother said, that we can afford the food we like to eat.
The Banyan is fine. There is a Diwali hamper-packing effort on, and many personnel were engaged in it. The Indian festival of lights - Diwali or Deepavali - is coming up and one of the B's fundraisers is a hamper that can be gifted; we pack pickle and sweets and papads, and the giver can then gift it. The B secured an order for 6000 (yes, 6000) gift hampers from a local company and then everyone was off and running; the pickle was made, the homemade papads were attempted but there was not enough sun to dry them and they had to be procured from elsewhere, the containers were painted. The whole place has been abuzz with activity. The patients are well and well-treated, and fed, this last being a matter of great pride for me. There is a lot of dengue around and I have tried to insist on mosquito nets + repellent. Dengue is a reportable illness and the city's health officials visited us last week after we reported a case. We have no standing water on the premises, but there is stagnant water in a drain nearby that I have tried for years to have closed. No success yet. Let us see.
My private practice is also good. The owners of Swaram Hospital are fine, ethical and committed folks and all try to provide exemplary care to the patients. One of the patients in the ICU a few days ago was a 24 year old lady who had attempted suicide. I saw her, and she seemed fit for discharge; usually, I refer such patients - and other depressed folks - to the Banyan and did this time, also. She told me she did not want to marry and that had caused stress in the family; when my 24 year old tells me he does not want to marry, I say fine, but - as the patient and I discussed - it is different for a young woman in a traditional family. Her mother was alongside; she and I did not speak the same language but often motherhood is a language in itself, isn't it. I held her arm as I explained through the patient our options for counselling, etc., and the mother started crying; as I looked at her, her face, and tried to find words or actions to soothe her, a slender arm came into our field of vision and long fingers gently wiped away the mother's tears as the daughter tried to spare her mother more sadness. It was a spectacularly beautiful moment and I teared up at it, also; so there were 3 of us practically blubbering there. That was really dignified, wasn't it - the physician also almost crying.
Sometimes it is good for physicians to fall sick. We then know firsthand what the patients go through. I had battled a respiratory virus for 3 weeks and I think it has just turned bacterial; I am a little wiped out and am coughing up nasty stuff, and will start an antibiotic tomorrow. I was also evaluated in Vellore by a great friend of my sister; the friend is a dermatologist and evaluated the hideous dark pigmentation on my cheeks and neck. We have started treatment; as I told the dermatologist, I was not in a hurry to get this condition evaluated as my husband still thinks I am one of the most beautiful women he has ever met and I don't sit around staring at my own face all day, thus was not bothered by it. It has distressed my patients and colleagues, though, and I did think it prudent to see a doctor about it, cosmetic implications aside. Christian Medical College, Vellore, was started by an American at least a century ago and is one of the pre-eminent colleges + hospital in all of India. My sister, Anu, and brother-in-law, Benji, studied there, Anu still works there, my niece, Sanjana, is now a student there and you can rest assured that an eval at CMC will be thorough and good. My eval was no different and I am sitting here, comfortable as a clam with the treatment plan.
We got together with Anu and Sanjana after my derm appointment, had lunch, overate merrily and talked and laughed all afternoon. It was a fine time.
We Skyped with the boys today and that was grand fun. Lots of laughter here, too. The boys are now at the stage where they talk freely with us about all manner of things and for this, as always, I am grateful. We discussed intimacy today with some eye-rolling, but I stated my point and the young men listened: take your time getting intimate. A med school classmate once told me she had stayed in a toxic relationship only because she and the man were intimate and I thought my sons needed to know that. There were also various happy tidings shared by both sons and that was nice.
May you have many things that make you happy.
Until next week,
R
The Bay of Bengal is still blue, the clothes are drying and falling off the rack in the breeze, there is a cricket game in full swing downstairs, about a dozen custard apples are ripening on our kitchen counter and I have eaten. That's a big thing for me - eating. The word "Hangry" is a fine one; if I have to work and am hungry, all the cylinders do not fire, I get irritable, miss details in the patient's history or lab reports, etc. And that's one day or one meal. Imagine the unfortunate folks for whom hunger is a state of being. We are indeed fortunate, my mother said, that we can afford the food we like to eat.
The Banyan is fine. There is a Diwali hamper-packing effort on, and many personnel were engaged in it. The Indian festival of lights - Diwali or Deepavali - is coming up and one of the B's fundraisers is a hamper that can be gifted; we pack pickle and sweets and papads, and the giver can then gift it. The B secured an order for 6000 (yes, 6000) gift hampers from a local company and then everyone was off and running; the pickle was made, the homemade papads were attempted but there was not enough sun to dry them and they had to be procured from elsewhere, the containers were painted. The whole place has been abuzz with activity. The patients are well and well-treated, and fed, this last being a matter of great pride for me. There is a lot of dengue around and I have tried to insist on mosquito nets + repellent. Dengue is a reportable illness and the city's health officials visited us last week after we reported a case. We have no standing water on the premises, but there is stagnant water in a drain nearby that I have tried for years to have closed. No success yet. Let us see.
My private practice is also good. The owners of Swaram Hospital are fine, ethical and committed folks and all try to provide exemplary care to the patients. One of the patients in the ICU a few days ago was a 24 year old lady who had attempted suicide. I saw her, and she seemed fit for discharge; usually, I refer such patients - and other depressed folks - to the Banyan and did this time, also. She told me she did not want to marry and that had caused stress in the family; when my 24 year old tells me he does not want to marry, I say fine, but - as the patient and I discussed - it is different for a young woman in a traditional family. Her mother was alongside; she and I did not speak the same language but often motherhood is a language in itself, isn't it. I held her arm as I explained through the patient our options for counselling, etc., and the mother started crying; as I looked at her, her face, and tried to find words or actions to soothe her, a slender arm came into our field of vision and long fingers gently wiped away the mother's tears as the daughter tried to spare her mother more sadness. It was a spectacularly beautiful moment and I teared up at it, also; so there were 3 of us practically blubbering there. That was really dignified, wasn't it - the physician also almost crying.
Sometimes it is good for physicians to fall sick. We then know firsthand what the patients go through. I had battled a respiratory virus for 3 weeks and I think it has just turned bacterial; I am a little wiped out and am coughing up nasty stuff, and will start an antibiotic tomorrow. I was also evaluated in Vellore by a great friend of my sister; the friend is a dermatologist and evaluated the hideous dark pigmentation on my cheeks and neck. We have started treatment; as I told the dermatologist, I was not in a hurry to get this condition evaluated as my husband still thinks I am one of the most beautiful women he has ever met and I don't sit around staring at my own face all day, thus was not bothered by it. It has distressed my patients and colleagues, though, and I did think it prudent to see a doctor about it, cosmetic implications aside. Christian Medical College, Vellore, was started by an American at least a century ago and is one of the pre-eminent colleges + hospital in all of India. My sister, Anu, and brother-in-law, Benji, studied there, Anu still works there, my niece, Sanjana, is now a student there and you can rest assured that an eval at CMC will be thorough and good. My eval was no different and I am sitting here, comfortable as a clam with the treatment plan.
We got together with Anu and Sanjana after my derm appointment, had lunch, overate merrily and talked and laughed all afternoon. It was a fine time.
We Skyped with the boys today and that was grand fun. Lots of laughter here, too. The boys are now at the stage where they talk freely with us about all manner of things and for this, as always, I am grateful. We discussed intimacy today with some eye-rolling, but I stated my point and the young men listened: take your time getting intimate. A med school classmate once told me she had stayed in a toxic relationship only because she and the man were intimate and I thought my sons needed to know that. There were also various happy tidings shared by both sons and that was nice.
May you have many things that make you happy.
Until next week,
R
posted by Renu Weiss at
5:22 AM
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