Tuesday, May 31

This morning me and Vicky did OB rounds with Dr. Muralidar and then continued to see outpatients with her and Dr. Chakko throughout the rest of the morning. We saw many anemic pregnant patients and scheduled two of them for blood transfusions. One patient was two months pregnant, 27 years old, and only 27 kilograms. Another patient we saw was from a tribal village, had experienced two home births years before, and was now experiencing a prolapsed uterus, which we examined with Dr. Chakko. Lastly, one patient was having some pelvic pain and was wondering if she was pregnant. We did a vaginal ultrasound to determine if there was a gestational sac, which we did ultimately see. Dr. Chakko estimated that she was approximately 2 weeks along. Following outpatient appointments, I went and got Alex and Annalisa to see a live birth. Me and Vicky were also able to stay and watch that. After this, we had all seen a birth while here! Afterwards, me and Samir watched a C section. In ways I thought it was more intense than a live birth. Probably because I didn't know what to expect, but once the uterus was cut open it was a very quick procedure to get the child out of the uterus. It was interesting to watch them stitch up all the layers of the abdominal fascias afterwards.  I also had no idea that patients were just given an epidural during these procedures, so it was interesting to have an awake patient.

After the exciting afternoon, Dr Clement invited us to his home to play / listen to instruments. He has a keyboard, guitar, recorder, piccolo, accordion, plus I'm sure other instruments he didn't bring out. He played for a while and also taught Vicky and Samir how to play the accordion. At the end, him and his wife sang is a Tamil song that is very dear to them and also showed us pictures of elephants outside his home. Because we spent almost an hour and a half at his house we missed evening rounds, however we were told there was a case of drug-resistant TB in the isolation building and it was suggested we go to the lab to see the bacteria under the microscope.

-Therese