This week flew by...

This store sign reminded me of the TV show Outsourced, just because I'm in India and the sign says "novelties." So sad they canceled that show!

5/30

I forgot all about my plan for today when I got back from Gokarna this morning. I looked at my schedule and realized I was supposed to go to Mugalur today to observe cataract eye surgeries! After a little bit of rushing around, I headed to the school to leave for Mugalur. Already a bit overwhelmed, I got to the clinic and realized they had a very official looking OT (operating theatre or room). I was required to change into scrubs and put on a cap and mask, and then they sat me down not more than 1 foot from the patient’s eye that was being operated on. Dr. Daisy was the surgeon and was so nice, she explained different things to me and asked what questions I had. Unfortunately the combination of not enough for breakfast coupled with being one foot away from an eye being sliced, poked, prodded, things pulled out of it, things put into it…ended up with me blacking out and having to lie down. I didn’t technically faint or lose consciousness, but I felt awfully sick for about ten minutes. My vision went black, I was cold and sweaty all over, and I had no balance and felt very weak. So embarrassing! I ended up being completely fine but I didn’t go back in to see any more operations…one eye was enough for me.

5/31 and 6/1

Tuesday was my first scheduled day in the Department to work on my research. Since I didn’t really get any details from anyone before I arrived about what kinds of things the faculty are researching, I had to learn from each person once I got there. I decided that cardiovascular disease (CVD) research was what I was most interested in, so I talked to the two doctors in charge to find out if there was something I could help with. I asked a week prior to my first day of research in the Dept., but of course things here take days and days to accomplish and you can’t ask for something just once, you have to ask 95 times. So, with that understanding, I set out again this morning to do what I came here to do—chronic disease research! I had a meeting with the head of the Department (Dr. Arvind- very nice guy) and the two CVD research faculty members, Dr. Farah and Dr. Twinkle. The meeting really didn’t resolve anything and was slightly unproductive. After the meeting I sat outside on a bench in the hallway, unsure of my next moves. I have traveled thousands of miles and literally halfway across the world to be here and do chronic disease research….and no one has anything for me to do?! Lucky, Dr. Farah came up to me and asked, “so, what are your plans for the day?” and I said “you’re looking at it!” She asked if I might be interested in working on revising/editing some papers for some of their research projects and I jumped at the opportunity. I love to write and love to edit, so this sounded to me like the perfect opportunity. I ended up working the rest of the day on a paper about their PACE (Program for Adolescent Chronic disease Education) and am very excited about the work. The paper needs quite a bit of help, and in fact we may do some other data analysis and write up a second paper for publication as well. I hope to at least finish one of these papers before I leave. Dr. Arvind said I might be able to get my name on the paper as an author for my role!! That would be AMAZING and just for that alone, the entire internship would be more than worth it.

Today I also had the chance to go to the Research Institute on campus to meet with Dr. Kedar, who works with electronic medical record (EMR) research. This is the field I am currently working in part-time in Tampa, so it was really interesting for me to sit down with him and go through the flow charts and applications they use. They’re even piloting a program in Mugalur, at the rural clinic, to assign 100 patients USB drives with their EMR on it, make this EMR available online, and also available via SMS (text message) on cell phones. We spent about an hour going through the applications and I learned all about what their team does in the Research Institute. Cool stuff!

Here's a picture of the pilot EMR project in Mugalur. These trained community health workers are entering patient data:

Data Entry into the OB application

6/2

Today was my last scheduled day to go to Mugalur. Katinka also went and so did two new German girls, Aurelia and Francisca. Perhaps these girls will be my new travel/dinner buddies once Janine and Katinka leave at the end of next week to go back to Germany. Anyway, today was the maternal and child health clinic Mugalur holds once a month. We saw lots of cute little babies being immunized. They were getting oral polio vaccine, measles vaccine, DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus), and BCG (tuberculosis), and possibly some others. After the shot the babies got a spoonful of an oral, oily substance which was a vitamin A supplement. They got the spoonful after the shots because by that time, their mouths were already wide open from all the crying! They also gave prenatal care today. There was one woman who started crying and after she left I learned that her husband has some psychiatric issues and it was really affecting her. Pretty sad L

Before her shots...

Tonight I went to dinner on MG Road (which I’ve been meaning to check out!) with Katinka and Steve, one of the Indian medical students. The bar was really cool and on the 13^th floor of a building with a great view of surrounding Bangalore. Most buildings aren’t that tall here, so we really got a bird’s eye view of the city. I actually had something different than Kingfisher beer..I had a Foster’s. While it’s not the best, at least it’s something different. They also had amazing tandoori chicken- 4 kinds on a platter! Afterwards we saw the Hangover 2 at the Forum Mall, which looks just like an American mall. The movie theater security was insane. First, just to get into the parking garage, they search your car for bombs. Then as I entered the mall, they searched my bag. They also searched it after I passed through the metal detector at the entrance to the movie theater. Next they made me take the battery out of my camera and check it at the door. I was further taken behind a curtain where they wanded me. Finally, a lady told me to spit out my gum. I was so frustrated that at this point, although it might have been a little rude, I said “oh, am I missing any more rules?!” Yeesh!!! At least the theater was really nice and big. Movie was a bit crowded but we had perfect seats—they even reclined a bit! The weirdest thing about the experience was the intermission. About halfway through the movie they stopped it for 10 minutes and people leave to go to the bathroom or get food. A few ushers also come around with ice cream menus. Might be a weird concept to have an intermission during a movie, but I really liked it! I think the U.S. needs to adopt this practice, that way, you don’t miss any of the movie if you need to run to the bathroom or get a snack.

13th Floor bar before the movies

6/3

Today is another day in the Department, where I will now be spending all of my time, unless I get the opportunity again to go out into the field. I am not really supposed to work Saturdays, but there are sometimes some interesting presentations given by the post-grad students so I think I will come in this Saturday, since I’m not traveling this weekend. They work Saturdays here for half a day- around 9a-1p. I could really use the time to get on the internet in the Dept. and do research for my special project. I’m getting really nervous because I think I’m falling behind on it. This weekend will definitely be dedicated to writing the proposal and getting a lot of background research done on the topic. Katinka and I also have some tentative plans to go to Lalbagh Botanical Gardens in Bangalore on Sunday morning.

I booked my flights for Cochin! Cochin is south of here in the state of Kerala. It is on the west coast (Arabian Sea). My friend from school, Rohini, is doing her field experience there and has invited me to come stay with her for a few days, so I will go from June 18-20 and take another long weekend. Should be beautiful there, despite it being monsoon season. We will hopefully do some exploring of Cochin including Fort Cochin.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!