Yesterday our group was in the clinic again, this time doing routine physicals on all the kids. We all split up into stations for height and weight, blood pressure, HEENT, and the cardio, respiratory, GI and neuro exams. I was in charge of the HEENT portion. We set it up well in theory but then our automated blood pressure cuff was too big for the kids, one kid read at 164/133. Picture of health. We had a pediatric manual cuff but it was so loud and too hard to hear so we nixed the blood pressure. Then we did heights and weights on all the kids and their growth percentiles but about half way through we learn that when babies are born in India they are automatically 1 year old instead of 0 so all of our percentages were a year off. Super. All the kids checked out without major incident except one little girl who was complaining of abdominal pain. So when we checked it out her stomach was distended with absent bowel sounds. So I threw out Kwashiorkor, but they think it may be a parasite. We already gave the kids the antiparasite medication on Monday so they are hoping that will keep it at bay and just wait for something to go wrong. Stellar game plan. After clinic we had play time with the kids and I played frisbee and soccer, and carried this little girl 400 miles on my sweat laden back to the mango trees where she insisted on touching every one. We took some pictures and some videos and then the kids went to dinner. After dinner we went back to the kids hostel and played with them until bed time. Overall it was a pretty chill day. Then today we went to the hospital in Chennai. It is about a 2 hour drive from Rising Star to Chennai. The roads are absolutely ridiculous, how we didn't get hit a million times I will never know. In India there is still a class system and people who are more educated will not talk to those less educated and the less educated will not ask questions or provide information because them assume the more educated person should already know. Obviously this is problematic in health care because the doctor won't speak to the patient to get information, and the patient won't tell the doctor whats wrong because they assume they already know. So we were there to be the middle man between the doctor and patient. We were supposed to take our patient through the entire hospital process from registration to pharmacy to the procedure to discharge. Also when we get there we learn that we are supposed to be doing the procedure the doctor is just there to oversee. Well one of our patients was having cataract surgery... not sure we are qualified for that. Not to mention that we have no idea where to take them nor do we speak Tamil. Pretty sure we were more of a hindrance than a help. They had planned for us to have a seminar with a doctor at the hospital, it was scheduled for 12:00, we didn't get there til 11:30 so by the time we got our patients to where they needed to be we had to leave. So we just left our patient, totally defeating the purpose and went over to the dermatology clinic where this doctor was. We saw this guy wrapped from head to toe in sheets and then we saw him back in the exam room, and he has this autoimmune disease called Pemphigus which causes giant boils all over his skin. It was awful. So the dermatologist took us into his little office and launched into an hour long lecture on leprosy. I was dying, it was super long and I have such a hard time understanding anything. Basically it was just an hour of jibberish with an occasional mycobacterium or cranial nerve reference thrown in. Fascinating. Some of us were in serious need of caffeine so we began the hunt for diet coke. We had already stopped at a little "store" on the way to Chennai but they didn't have diet so we vetoed. We found this cafe at the hospital but all they had was apple juice. For lunch we went to dominos where I finally just settled for a coke and breadsticks. Then we went to a supermarket where we found the blessed diet coke and, drum roll please... peanut butter! I have been eating a piece of dry bread for lunch every day so the peanut butter will be a nice addition. I also found soy milk so I can have cereal. After the 2 hour drive back to Rising Star we had play time with the kids and then dinner. After dinner we had family time which was hilarious. There are too boys Josef and Sean that are 14 and they are hysterical. Josef taught be all the ballet steps and Sean trashed me in an arm wrestle. We did the macarena but with no music so tomorrow we are taking a lap top and playing the music and teaching them the boot scootin boogie. The people in my group are great, this girl Elle is my new best friend, she just voices all my inner thoughts, we are hilarious.
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