starting to get sad about leaving vellore

Hello friends and family

Although the end is in sight I am trying not to think about leaving. This week has already been incredible - yesterday I participated in the program CHAD and today I was in surgeries all day.


CHAD was awesome - we took the mobile clinic to a village about 15 minutes away. The clinic goes to the same villages every week so the patients are already there waiting for the van. Upon arrival a table and chairs are set up outside to treat patients and the " anti-natal care is taken care of in the bus/mobile clinic. In a short time we saw 80 patients! A lot of patients had hypertension but we also saw anemia, a seizure disorder as well as hypothyroidism. The patients in the village have a strong relationship with the visiting doctor/resident and it was very interesting to see how care is provided in a more rural setting. We were lucky to have a young intern with us to explain everything. He was 23 and already treating patients, where as I am also 23 but I can't do much more than take a blood pressure. We also got to play with some of the kids in the village towards the end of our trip. They were adorable and full of energy! What a cool experience. Completely different than the U.S.

Today I bounced for OR to OR with Alexis and we saw some really cool surgeries. From a hernia repair to a huge tumor resection it was an action packed day. I also jumped in on a left inferior parathyroid excision and lung excision. The Doctor I was following showed us the CT scans before each surgery and explained where the tumors were and how they were going to repairthe damage and take the tumor out. It was intense. We befriended an anesthesiologist and talked about the differences/similarities in our cultures. He was greatly amused by us, and he was also very cute but married. Shucks.

Tons more international students arrived yesterday as well as students from CMC - today I was with 4! I'm getting excited for our second international night.

Alright - that's all for now!

I'm pumped for the rest of the week and dreading the end -

Jennifer (everytime i try to introduce myself as Jen it gets very confusing)