Got up early and head out to set up for the video conference. Things got crazy as soon as we set up and figured out that we could not see the other conference room. They could see everything and hear everything we were uploading but we could not hear or see them. I scrambled to try and figure out if this was a setting that I had control over. Eventually we figured out that it was not something I could fix and we opted to try another route. Someone had a magic jack and so we plugged that into Doc’s computer and called over to the conference room. We had to set up the router so that we had more than one connection to the internet, and I was afraid that it would hurt our upload speeds but it did not. So Doc had to wear an earpiece and conduct the interview that way. It wasn’t ideal but it got the job done. We started out by bringing out some of the crew we had been working with throughout the week and introducing them. Then we got the staff that worked at the hospital that had been helping our crew care for the patients all week. The kids and families all lined up at the window outside of the entry way, which is where we were conducting our broadcast. We didn’t get to move the camera outside or up the hallway of the hospital because we had to stay in one place in order to use Docs computer to get the audio with the San Diego room. We brought a few of the families inside and had a few questions for them on camera. It seemed to go over really well and was a big hit with everyone who participated. Word came back to me after that no one had fallen in asleep during the conference and there was standing room only! It was a victory:-) We managed to make it through the whole thing without losing our connection once which seemed like a miracle.
After the conference wrapped up I worked on wrapping up the cords and breaking down the mobile cart we had built. The guys who work here at the hospital all helped me with wrapping the cords and putting things away. They were so great and helpful. I also learned from J how to wrap my cords so that I could throw them down the hall and they would not be tangled.
After getting everything put away I was told that a few people were going to go into the street and shop so I asked if I could go and take pictures. I jumped in the car with another one of the photographers, C, that was on the trip. We went to a store where there were Sari’s and the women proceeded to purchase a few items. I took a few pictures and then sat on the side wall inside of the store waiting. One of the guys we were with looked at me and laughed. When I asked why he looked and me and said you are sitting here like you own the store! I jumped up and quickly moved but he said it was ok. I had no idea that the store owners sat at the front of the store. Soon it was time to leave and C and I went with 3 of the guys who had brought us. They said we were going to go on a tour of Damoh and see the old Damoh and the new Damoh. We went slowly away from the store and asked if it would be ok to roll down the windows so we could take photos. They said it would be fine and to let them know if we wanted them to stop. We started down the street and immediately a man approached us and offered us drinks. We politely said no thank you and he insisted. He kept saying the drinks were free they were on him. Eventually one of the guys in the front told us that it was his friend and that it was ok to accept the drinks. They had a good chuckle while we were thanking the man for the drinks. He handed us Mountain Dew and Coke in plastic bottles! We had seen Pepsi and Mountain Dew but everything was in glass bottles and a few aluminum cans. We stuck our drinks in the seat next to us and continued to take pictures. We headed up to the top of a hill where we could see old Damoh on one side and on the other side was New Damoh. It was a very beautiful view point. There was farm land and we saw the pipes that they used to bring water into Damoh. We were told that they bring water in from some dams that were near. As we were taking pictures on this hill top, it seemed from out of nowhere a man, woman and a dog came up the hill side and he starting speaking very loudly and waving his arms about. We thought he was upset and C looked at me and asked if we should run for the car. One of the guys we were with said it was ok and then translated to us what the man was saying. He said he was praying to his god that we were happy. We breathed a sigh of relief and ended up getting in the car anyway. We thanked him and then went on our way. On the way back to the hospital compound we were driving through town when the Magic of India Man, a Sadhu, approached the vehicle. He approached on the opposite side of me and I had my camera ready so got the picture. Its one of my favorite pictures. IT all happened so quickly and was gone just as quickly. We finally arrived back at the hospital and our grand tour was over.
I was so grateful that I was able to see the beauty of Damoh and take pictures of it.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Hospital Day Three
I stayed with J in the am at CICM(Central India Childrens Mission, I was referring to it as the orphanage,where we are staying) That was good because it allowed me to catch up and post a few pictures to the blog. Then at noon I was called over to the hospital because the monitor we were waiting to get had arrived. We plugged it in and tested it. We had to adjust a few settings but eventually we got it to work. After we got it to work we had to put together a way to get it all together and make it portable. I got some help from Mister MacGuyver in building a unit that would fit our purpose. We managed to use zip ties, duct tape, and velcro! It is quite the set up now.
Im between the set up I watched a little slide show that J had put together. He is filming here and taking pictures and I asked him if he could throw a little something together that we could share over the teleconference if things did not go as planned. He also took some time to show me a few of his photography lesson that he uses to teach his kids back home. I learned an amazing amount of useful information. I am learning how to better utilize my fancy camera:-) Its amazing that some of the rules of photography I was doing just naturally without knowing they were rules!
I then took the traveling Gnome around on a picture tour of the hospital. He had quite the adventure and we got alot of really nice photos. The crew here is just amazing. I am in awe over how well they function together and what a beautiful job they do with these patients. There are many issues that pop up over here and nothing seems to slow them down. The power here gets cut off at 6am-10 am and then again at 5pm to 6 pm. The hospital then has to go onto a generator. There is usally a lag time in between when the generator kicks on and the power is cut off. It only took me this long to figure out that it happens every day at the same time.
My ride over to the hospital this time was at noon. It was quite neat to see the town in full swing. Kind of like a monday in the US, everyone was back to work. The driver told me that Damoh is known for making Bidis which are little cigarettes. The families roll bidis and get paid 40 rupees for 1000 bidis.It takes them all day to roll 1000. When I asked him how much does it cost to feed your familiy for one day here he said about 240 rupees to feed a family of 4. One US dollar is worth 45 rupees. Also I learned that Damoh has 1.5 million people here. I am not sure what the amount of landspace is but it is incredible! After investigating a bit more Damoh has about 150,000 people in the town itself but the District of Damoh is 1.5million people. Damoh is 2821 sq miles, which is close to the size of Delaware at 2489sqmi.
When I arrived I was given the monitor for my project. The only known flat panel high definition televinsion in Damoh. We hooked it up and tested out the Lifesize. Its the portable unit we use for the telemedicine conferences. We managed to get it connected, just had to change the dns server address and a few other settings. Our speed was pretty poor 126kb but it was possible that it might just work. So we went to planning how we would conduct the conference. We planned to try and show them what life was like here in Damoh at the Hospital. How there are so many cases of Cleft lip and palate here the numbers are just amazing.
The staff set up large tents which the people stay in while they are here if they cannot afford to stay elsewhere. They travel many hours by bus, some of them walk for days or weeks to get here. Sometimes many of the family members come along. Sometimes its only the father or grandfather. They cook on open fires and bathe by dumping water over themselves.
It took a few hours to get set up and after the planning we loaded up and got on the bus back to CICM. Reports from the other crew came back that the mayor of Damoh had come to visit the hospital after the first bus of people had left (which I was on) Interesting that he chose to come after 9pm. At any rate I hope it was a good visit for the people who run this hospital.
Still hoping that things will go off without a major hitch and the live broadcast works!
Im between the set up I watched a little slide show that J had put together. He is filming here and taking pictures and I asked him if he could throw a little something together that we could share over the teleconference if things did not go as planned. He also took some time to show me a few of his photography lesson that he uses to teach his kids back home. I learned an amazing amount of useful information. I am learning how to better utilize my fancy camera:-) Its amazing that some of the rules of photography I was doing just naturally without knowing they were rules!
I then took the traveling Gnome around on a picture tour of the hospital. He had quite the adventure and we got alot of really nice photos. The crew here is just amazing. I am in awe over how well they function together and what a beautiful job they do with these patients. There are many issues that pop up over here and nothing seems to slow them down. The power here gets cut off at 6am-10 am and then again at 5pm to 6 pm. The hospital then has to go onto a generator. There is usally a lag time in between when the generator kicks on and the power is cut off. It only took me this long to figure out that it happens every day at the same time.
My ride over to the hospital this time was at noon. It was quite neat to see the town in full swing. Kind of like a monday in the US, everyone was back to work. The driver told me that Damoh is known for making Bidis which are little cigarettes. The families roll bidis and get paid 40 rupees for 1000 bidis.It takes them all day to roll 1000. When I asked him how much does it cost to feed your familiy for one day here he said about 240 rupees to feed a family of 4. One US dollar is worth 45 rupees. Also I learned that Damoh has 1.5 million people here. I am not sure what the amount of landspace is but it is incredible! After investigating a bit more Damoh has about 150,000 people in the town itself but the District of Damoh is 1.5million people. Damoh is 2821 sq miles, which is close to the size of Delaware at 2489sqmi.
When I arrived I was given the monitor for my project. The only known flat panel high definition televinsion in Damoh. We hooked it up and tested out the Lifesize. Its the portable unit we use for the telemedicine conferences. We managed to get it connected, just had to change the dns server address and a few other settings. Our speed was pretty poor 126kb but it was possible that it might just work. So we went to planning how we would conduct the conference. We planned to try and show them what life was like here in Damoh at the Hospital. How there are so many cases of Cleft lip and palate here the numbers are just amazing.
The staff set up large tents which the people stay in while they are here if they cannot afford to stay elsewhere. They travel many hours by bus, some of them walk for days or weeks to get here. Sometimes many of the family members come along. Sometimes its only the father or grandfather. They cook on open fires and bathe by dumping water over themselves.
It took a few hours to get set up and after the planning we loaded up and got on the bus back to CICM. Reports from the other crew came back that the mayor of Damoh had come to visit the hospital after the first bus of people had left (which I was on) Interesting that he chose to come after 9pm. At any rate I hope it was a good visit for the people who run this hospital.
Still hoping that things will go off without a major hitch and the live broadcast works!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Hospital Day Two
We arrived at the hospital and started to work right away. I worked on getting schedules up and printed. Once that was finished I made a trip over to the tent that was beyond the garden to take some pictures. I took quite a few pictures and spent about an hour in there with the families. Then I went back into the hospital and was given a new assignment. I was to interview the first three cases for thursday morning.
We are hoping to be able to broadcast live that morning back to the telemedicine center at UCSD. That was my major assignment for this trip to make the tele broadcast work. Upon arrival and unpacking I figured out that I did not have the hdmi to dvi adapter that is required to hook up the unit to the monitor. Without that I cannot see what I am doing in order to get things up and going. When I realized that this peace of equipment was missing my heart sank. How could I have forgotten this? I double checked that all the wires and cables we needed were in the box more than once. I took the equipment out multiple times also but not once did I think of looking for that adapter. The adapter screws into the back of the monitor and the last few times I broke it down I just left it screwed into the monitor. I started to run through my head how on earth I could have left that at home and where it could have been. I took a deep breath and looked through all our boxes once more. I was not expecting to find it but had to make doubly sure it was not there. Yet another lesson even two to be learned here. Always make a packing list and tape it to the inside of the box so that I can ensure this will never happen again. Lesson two letting go. I wanted to cry for a brief moment when I realized we would not be able to run the show without this. Breathing in and out I let go of these thoughts and the new thought that entered was “The Magic of India”. I went right to the tech support people that were here to help us and told them I needed this piece and asked them if the knew where we could find one. Then I also relayed that if we could not find one any flat panel hi definition television would work. The set out to try and find this for me. Another issue for the broadcast was the internet connection. When we first arrived it was getting 28megabits per second down and 03 up. It was also dropping the connection every few minutes. When I first looked at the computer set up here I had to reconfigure the network wetting because there was no working internet connection. Once I reconfigured it I was able to test the speed. It is hooked up through a dsl modem. After figuring this out I once again went to the IT crew and asked them if it was possible to get the internet running any faster. They told me they would work on this but it would probably take 3 days to make it happen. Without a faster speed we would not be able to live stream with our equipment. Once more I breath in and think “The Magic of India” and left them to figure out their work.
I set out on my task at hand, I had to find someone who would interpret for me and translate so I could find the families with the 3 patients. I found Sanjay and communicated to him my needs and he told me we would go over to the other building where they had a pa system set up he would make an announcement so we could find the families. I went back in the breakroom and got C. to come take the photos while I did the interviews. We set out to the other building and the calls on the pa were made. It took a few minutes but the first two families appeared in the reception area where we were standing. I intereviewed and this is the information I came up with.
We had a lunch of what they called fajitas. It was the flatbread they make with chicken and vegetables inside. Also there was a chicken broth and a little dumpling place in a cup for us to drink. I am really enjoying the food here. Everything I have eaten has been good. I love the curry potatoes and spinach stuff they make.
Throughout the day the hospital staff are really great about offering us tea and drinks. There is a fridge stocked with bottled waters (Aquafina) and bottles of Pepsi, Mountain Dew and a few others. The Masal Chaia tea is so great.
The day continued on and it was getting rather warm outside. We had air conditioning and a fan running in the medical hospital. The break room managed to stay at a fairly nice temperature. As the day went on I started giving should and neck massages to the crew. By this point everyone was getting pretty sore. Doing multiple surgeries one on top of another with limited amounts of supplies and equipment is really draining. They were all so appreciative of the massages. After that I returned to editing pictures.
Next thing I know Doc comes in and says to me, come in here I need your help. I drop what I am doing and go into the OR3 room. There is a patient on the table and she says to me scrub in I need your help. I had to pee and should have gone before coming into the room but when she called me it sounded urgent so I didn’t dawdle I just rushed over. I scrubbed up and got my gown on and prepared to assist. Patient was a 22 year old male with a major burn. He was deaf and could not hear, I think if I remember correctly there may have been some sort of explosion and that is how he was injured. His burns happened two years ago. I am not sure if he lost his hearing due to the accident or he had hearing loss before that. The portion we were working on was trying to free up his shoulder so he could lift his arm. Doc made the incisions and started to free up the arm. I was pulling on his arm and using a great amount of force to stretch his arm up. eventually she got down to the ligaments and then went to work on the skin graft. She had to cut across his lower abdomen almost form hip to hip in order to get enough skin to close the wound under his arm. Eventually Dr. R came in to assist in sewing up the skin graft while Doc worked on the abdomen. Once the patient was closed up they put a cast on his arm and he was ready to be woken up. The next obstacle was that he needed to be in an upright position and they didn’t have a medical bed that could do that here. So we had to improvise and quickly. In comes Mr. Sony! Mr. Sony is super fantastic he is so creative and handy. He came in and then tied a stool up on the gurney and put pillows behind it to make it a functional upright spot they could transfer the patient to. Eventually the patient was slowly becoming awake. It was very difficult not being able to talk to him as he came to because they wanted him to be still and not thrash about so he didn’t rip open his stomach sutures. They got him transferred and into the recovery room and then the nurses from the hospital staff said they would stay with him because they could not safely transfer him to the other building where the rest of the post op patients were.
The rest of our crew cleaned up and loaded on the bus to go home. Word was that G had been throwing up and was increasingly more sick. She is also diabetic which can create additional issues. Everyone was in a hurry to get back and check on her and see how they could help her. Doc ended up staying with the patient as well as the two anesthesiologist N and L. Everyone else traveled back home on the bus for dinner. It was just after midnight by the time we got home. We ate and the doctors went to check on G. They ended up draining the abscess and hooking up IV fluids. After eating we al went to bed. By the time I got to bed it was after 1 and I hadn’t seen Doc so I have no idea when she got home.
We woke up in the morning to find out that another of our team was ill and had diarrhea and vomiting. J had been sick since 2am and so they started an IV drip on her and gave her some Zofran and anti-biotics. While everyone was organizing the plan for the morning I went to find someone to open the office so I could get schedules printed up for the day. I got that taken care of and Doc was working on the powerpoint presentation. I had to email it off to the people back in the USA she was arranging the conference with. The power goes out here at least once every morning when everyone gets up and starts using appliances and turning on lights and such. That kicks the router off and I have to get them to open up another locked door to reset the switch for the router. Every door here still uses skeleton keys and its quite funny watching them try each key to figure out which one works. I am sure the ones who use the office know which key it its but I usually find anyone I can grab to open it for me. While I was working on this a plan was created to move G to the OR in order to clean out the abscess. J was going to be staying here and would need someone to look after her and change out the IV fluids. I was designated that person because S. had done it the day before. S told me she would come relieve me at noon so that I could go out on the trip outside the hospital compound to take photos. We, C, J and myself were supposed to be taken out into the town to take photos because it was going to be an active day at the market. Tuesday is the day that everyone takes off here which is why we didn’t go yesterday. Anyway sitting here has given me the ability to update the blog and type this out. Now I am going to go find the wifi connection so I can send it to you all:-) So far I am feeling great and doing wonderfully, lets hope I stay a part of the group that doesn’t get sick!
`
We are hoping to be able to broadcast live that morning back to the telemedicine center at UCSD. That was my major assignment for this trip to make the tele broadcast work. Upon arrival and unpacking I figured out that I did not have the hdmi to dvi adapter that is required to hook up the unit to the monitor. Without that I cannot see what I am doing in order to get things up and going. When I realized that this peace of equipment was missing my heart sank. How could I have forgotten this? I double checked that all the wires and cables we needed were in the box more than once. I took the equipment out multiple times also but not once did I think of looking for that adapter. The adapter screws into the back of the monitor and the last few times I broke it down I just left it screwed into the monitor. I started to run through my head how on earth I could have left that at home and where it could have been. I took a deep breath and looked through all our boxes once more. I was not expecting to find it but had to make doubly sure it was not there. Yet another lesson even two to be learned here. Always make a packing list and tape it to the inside of the box so that I can ensure this will never happen again. Lesson two letting go. I wanted to cry for a brief moment when I realized we would not be able to run the show without this. Breathing in and out I let go of these thoughts and the new thought that entered was “The Magic of India”. I went right to the tech support people that were here to help us and told them I needed this piece and asked them if the knew where we could find one. Then I also relayed that if we could not find one any flat panel hi definition television would work. The set out to try and find this for me. Another issue for the broadcast was the internet connection. When we first arrived it was getting 28megabits per second down and 03 up. It was also dropping the connection every few minutes. When I first looked at the computer set up here I had to reconfigure the network wetting because there was no working internet connection. Once I reconfigured it I was able to test the speed. It is hooked up through a dsl modem. After figuring this out I once again went to the IT crew and asked them if it was possible to get the internet running any faster. They told me they would work on this but it would probably take 3 days to make it happen. Without a faster speed we would not be able to live stream with our equipment. Once more I breath in and think “The Magic of India” and left them to figure out their work.
I set out on my task at hand, I had to find someone who would interpret for me and translate so I could find the families with the 3 patients. I found Sanjay and communicated to him my needs and he told me we would go over to the other building where they had a pa system set up he would make an announcement so we could find the families. I went back in the breakroom and got C. to come take the photos while I did the interviews. We set out to the other building and the calls on the pa were made. It took a few minutes but the first two families appeared in the reception area where we were standing. I intereviewed and this is the information I came up with.
- 1. Pawan Patel is 8 months old 9 kg male, Left Cleft lip repair. He and his family live in a town called Rithi. It is a 3 hour bus ride into Damoh. He is here with his 25 year old Mother, Raina, and maternal Grandmother. They heard about the surgery clinic at a fair festival celebration in their town. They got a handout from a booth. They say this surgery is going to change his life for the better and are very thankful to have the opportunity for the surgery because they could not afford a surgery like this. The father is a laborer and could not come because he was at home working. They have one other son who is 3 years old.
- 2. Mantri Kushwahar is a 9 year old 19kg male, Palate repair case. He and his family are from Fatehpur which is a 6 hour bus ride into Damoh. HE is here with his father, who has one other son. He is a Vegetable Vender but does not grow the vegetables only sells them. They came here for a previous surgery in 2007 with leap and during that time the fixed the cleft lip and also his right forefinger was burned and contracted so they fixed that also. He is in his second year of school studies and brought his books so he could study for his tests when he gets back home. His favorite food is Apple and his favorite game is pulling a tractor around on a rope, he drags it behind him. When he grows up he wants to become a doctor. When I asked him how he feels about the upcoming surgery he said he is happy about it and very thankful that he will be better.
- 3. Sibendra Patel is eleven months 20 days old 8 kg female. She is here with Father and Mother who are 26 and 24 and have been married for 4 1/2 years. This is their first child. They live in Rewa which is 4 hours to Damoh by bus. The Fathers younger brothers wife is here with them and they are staying at their house. Father works at HeroHonda the motorbike company as a packer. They expect that this will change their child’s life forever and make it better than ever before. There are no other children with clefts in their village and this is the first one in their village and all the surrounding area. They have no worries or questions about the surgery as they are putting their child in the hands of the surgeons.
We had a lunch of what they called fajitas. It was the flatbread they make with chicken and vegetables inside. Also there was a chicken broth and a little dumpling place in a cup for us to drink. I am really enjoying the food here. Everything I have eaten has been good. I love the curry potatoes and spinach stuff they make.
Throughout the day the hospital staff are really great about offering us tea and drinks. There is a fridge stocked with bottled waters (Aquafina) and bottles of Pepsi, Mountain Dew and a few others. The Masal Chaia tea is so great.
The day continued on and it was getting rather warm outside. We had air conditioning and a fan running in the medical hospital. The break room managed to stay at a fairly nice temperature. As the day went on I started giving should and neck massages to the crew. By this point everyone was getting pretty sore. Doing multiple surgeries one on top of another with limited amounts of supplies and equipment is really draining. They were all so appreciative of the massages. After that I returned to editing pictures.
Next thing I know Doc comes in and says to me, come in here I need your help. I drop what I am doing and go into the OR3 room. There is a patient on the table and she says to me scrub in I need your help. I had to pee and should have gone before coming into the room but when she called me it sounded urgent so I didn’t dawdle I just rushed over. I scrubbed up and got my gown on and prepared to assist. Patient was a 22 year old male with a major burn. He was deaf and could not hear, I think if I remember correctly there may have been some sort of explosion and that is how he was injured. His burns happened two years ago. I am not sure if he lost his hearing due to the accident or he had hearing loss before that. The portion we were working on was trying to free up his shoulder so he could lift his arm. Doc made the incisions and started to free up the arm. I was pulling on his arm and using a great amount of force to stretch his arm up. eventually she got down to the ligaments and then went to work on the skin graft. She had to cut across his lower abdomen almost form hip to hip in order to get enough skin to close the wound under his arm. Eventually Dr. R came in to assist in sewing up the skin graft while Doc worked on the abdomen. Once the patient was closed up they put a cast on his arm and he was ready to be woken up. The next obstacle was that he needed to be in an upright position and they didn’t have a medical bed that could do that here. So we had to improvise and quickly. In comes Mr. Sony! Mr. Sony is super fantastic he is so creative and handy. He came in and then tied a stool up on the gurney and put pillows behind it to make it a functional upright spot they could transfer the patient to. Eventually the patient was slowly becoming awake. It was very difficult not being able to talk to him as he came to because they wanted him to be still and not thrash about so he didn’t rip open his stomach sutures. They got him transferred and into the recovery room and then the nurses from the hospital staff said they would stay with him because they could not safely transfer him to the other building where the rest of the post op patients were.
The rest of our crew cleaned up and loaded on the bus to go home. Word was that G had been throwing up and was increasingly more sick. She is also diabetic which can create additional issues. Everyone was in a hurry to get back and check on her and see how they could help her. Doc ended up staying with the patient as well as the two anesthesiologist N and L. Everyone else traveled back home on the bus for dinner. It was just after midnight by the time we got home. We ate and the doctors went to check on G. They ended up draining the abscess and hooking up IV fluids. After eating we al went to bed. By the time I got to bed it was after 1 and I hadn’t seen Doc so I have no idea when she got home.
We woke up in the morning to find out that another of our team was ill and had diarrhea and vomiting. J had been sick since 2am and so they started an IV drip on her and gave her some Zofran and anti-biotics. While everyone was organizing the plan for the morning I went to find someone to open the office so I could get schedules printed up for the day. I got that taken care of and Doc was working on the powerpoint presentation. I had to email it off to the people back in the USA she was arranging the conference with. The power goes out here at least once every morning when everyone gets up and starts using appliances and turning on lights and such. That kicks the router off and I have to get them to open up another locked door to reset the switch for the router. Every door here still uses skeleton keys and its quite funny watching them try each key to figure out which one works. I am sure the ones who use the office know which key it its but I usually find anyone I can grab to open it for me. While I was working on this a plan was created to move G to the OR in order to clean out the abscess. J was going to be staying here and would need someone to look after her and change out the IV fluids. I was designated that person because S. had done it the day before. S told me she would come relieve me at noon so that I could go out on the trip outside the hospital compound to take photos. We, C, J and myself were supposed to be taken out into the town to take photos because it was going to be an active day at the market. Tuesday is the day that everyone takes off here which is why we didn’t go yesterday. Anyway sitting here has given me the ability to update the blog and type this out. Now I am going to go find the wifi connection so I can send it to you all:-) So far I am feeling great and doing wonderfully, lets hope I stay a part of the group that doesn’t get sick!
`
Interview questions
One of the many reasons I am on this trip is to get a Live broadcast of the hospital here and during one of the operations. We are going to be sending the feed back to the telemedicine building at the UCSD medical campus. If things go well I will need interview questions to ask so I need your help. If you could ask the team we have here or even the families or patients questions what would they be and what would you want to know????
Sunday, February 21, 2010
First Day of Operations
Well up on and off all night long. I was snoring and keeping Doc awake. I couldn’t breathe through my nose very well, my throat was sore so breathing through my mouth sucked too. I was so exhausted that I would dose off and no matter what position I was in I would start snoring. I wanted Doc to be able to get some rest but that was not going to happen so I just got up and started to work on the updates.
Right now I am sitting in the office of the hospital. There are operations going on in the two OR rooms 3 surgeons operating on 3 different patients.
We were supposed to start at 8 but this being the first day working out all the kinks we started at 9. I think that is pretty fantastic considering all the hurdles.
Once it hit 6am I jumped up out of bed and pursued trying to make copies of the schedules that Amanda was up all night typing up. The internet service stopped working(found out later it was because the power went out) and I didn’t have the two schedules, one we made the night before and the one Doc just made. I failed to bring a flash drive and only brought my large hard disk which is only configured for a mac so wont be read by a windows machine which is what they have in both offices. I had to get crafty and load the files onto the cf card I had for my camera using the card reader. Once I had the file on the card I had to get online and download the other file which I had saved on google( I make a draft and attach a file and then just save it). Things got so complicated. I grabbed my laptop and started looking for someone who could let me into the office so I could fix the internet connection. I walked around and could not find any one who even lived there. No one was out yet. I had to go to the bathroom and had been holding it for a few hours already trying to get things done. I went back up stairs(we are staying in room r3 which is up on the second floor) but the bathroom was occupied. I am sharing a room with the director of the trip S. and Doc. There are 3 beds in our room as well as our own separate bathroom with a full bathtub and shower. I was still trying to get the internet working but having no luck so back out for a search for someone who could let me into the office. We were supposed to eat breakfast at 6:30 and leave on the buses by 7. It was 6:25 and I did not have the schedules printed up which is what the top priority was. I finally found someone and was let into the office. He went into the back and turned the power to the internet back on. A few minutes later my connection was up and working. I got the files I needed down loaded and set off to printing them. Doc came back down to find me and see how the progress was going. I was still working on it but making progress, not about to give up to go get food. Then another one of the staff came to stick his head in and let me know I should go eat. Doc went back up I finished up and printed out the copies and then went up to go to the bathroom then into the dining room to eat breakfast. I had to eat as fast as i could and then grab my bag and get on the bus to head to the hospital.
We arrived and I started working on the internet connection so I could check the upload speed. I also worked again on printing out schedules. I got the files to the computer but I could not print because the printer was out of black ink. I worked my way around this by changing the text to color. I tried dark blue, dark purple, and green. Then I ran out of paper. I asked for some paper and eventually someone came in and handed me two sheets. It was quite funny and we all got a chuckle out of it. I told him I needed more and off he went to make it happen. That is one of the great things about India, here you ask and they do what they can to make it happen.
I walked around outside and took some pictures out there, they walk and travel for weeks to get here for this week in hopes that their child will be one of the ones to be fixed. There are big tents where they camp out and wait to see the surgeons, and then wait to have surgery. The families are really great about having us walk around and take pictures. Some of the kids really love it and some of the kids are shy. I took quite a few photos and then headed up to the dental clinic. There I met up with one of the nurses who was teaching a mother how to use a breast pump. Her son was 3 months old and weighed 2.2kilos. She also had a daughter that was 2 years old. After talking with her they figured out that the 2 year old was still nursing and the baby was trying to nurse. There are so many of these kids and even the adults who are malnourished. The man who takes all the video and pictures for the mission told me that in the summer it gets up to 104 and there is no water anywhere. They have water at the mission and the purifier runs 24 hours a day and up to 600 people a day line up for the water. So water and food are major issues here. I also learned that most of the girls are married off by the age of 14. The nurse was showing the parents how to use the cleft palate bottles and also she gave some of the families formula.
Things I need to bring the next trip over here, good hand pumps for expressing breastmilk, slings to hand out to the mothers, EC information in Hindi to hand out, clothing for the babies, prefolds? potty bowls?
multivitamins? maybe chewable for the kids.
I got to scrub in on a hand surgery today....too tired to write more going to bed now.
Right now I am sitting in the office of the hospital. There are operations going on in the two OR rooms 3 surgeons operating on 3 different patients.
We were supposed to start at 8 but this being the first day working out all the kinks we started at 9. I think that is pretty fantastic considering all the hurdles.
Once it hit 6am I jumped up out of bed and pursued trying to make copies of the schedules that Amanda was up all night typing up. The internet service stopped working(found out later it was because the power went out) and I didn’t have the two schedules, one we made the night before and the one Doc just made. I failed to bring a flash drive and only brought my large hard disk which is only configured for a mac so wont be read by a windows machine which is what they have in both offices. I had to get crafty and load the files onto the cf card I had for my camera using the card reader. Once I had the file on the card I had to get online and download the other file which I had saved on google( I make a draft and attach a file and then just save it). Things got so complicated. I grabbed my laptop and started looking for someone who could let me into the office so I could fix the internet connection. I walked around and could not find any one who even lived there. No one was out yet. I had to go to the bathroom and had been holding it for a few hours already trying to get things done. I went back up stairs(we are staying in room r3 which is up on the second floor) but the bathroom was occupied. I am sharing a room with the director of the trip S. and Doc. There are 3 beds in our room as well as our own separate bathroom with a full bathtub and shower. I was still trying to get the internet working but having no luck so back out for a search for someone who could let me into the office. We were supposed to eat breakfast at 6:30 and leave on the buses by 7. It was 6:25 and I did not have the schedules printed up which is what the top priority was. I finally found someone and was let into the office. He went into the back and turned the power to the internet back on. A few minutes later my connection was up and working. I got the files I needed down loaded and set off to printing them. Doc came back down to find me and see how the progress was going. I was still working on it but making progress, not about to give up to go get food. Then another one of the staff came to stick his head in and let me know I should go eat. Doc went back up I finished up and printed out the copies and then went up to go to the bathroom then into the dining room to eat breakfast. I had to eat as fast as i could and then grab my bag and get on the bus to head to the hospital.
We arrived and I started working on the internet connection so I could check the upload speed. I also worked again on printing out schedules. I got the files to the computer but I could not print because the printer was out of black ink. I worked my way around this by changing the text to color. I tried dark blue, dark purple, and green. Then I ran out of paper. I asked for some paper and eventually someone came in and handed me two sheets. It was quite funny and we all got a chuckle out of it. I told him I needed more and off he went to make it happen. That is one of the great things about India, here you ask and they do what they can to make it happen.
I walked around outside and took some pictures out there, they walk and travel for weeks to get here for this week in hopes that their child will be one of the ones to be fixed. There are big tents where they camp out and wait to see the surgeons, and then wait to have surgery. The families are really great about having us walk around and take pictures. Some of the kids really love it and some of the kids are shy. I took quite a few photos and then headed up to the dental clinic. There I met up with one of the nurses who was teaching a mother how to use a breast pump. Her son was 3 months old and weighed 2.2kilos. She also had a daughter that was 2 years old. After talking with her they figured out that the 2 year old was still nursing and the baby was trying to nurse. There are so many of these kids and even the adults who are malnourished. The man who takes all the video and pictures for the mission told me that in the summer it gets up to 104 and there is no water anywhere. They have water at the mission and the purifier runs 24 hours a day and up to 600 people a day line up for the water. So water and food are major issues here. I also learned that most of the girls are married off by the age of 14. The nurse was showing the parents how to use the cleft palate bottles and also she gave some of the families formula.
Things I need to bring the next trip over here, good hand pumps for expressing breastmilk, slings to hand out to the mothers, EC information in Hindi to hand out, clothing for the babies, prefolds? potty bowls?
multivitamins? maybe chewable for the kids.
I got to scrub in on a hand surgery today....too tired to write more going to bed now.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Trip to Hospital
We are sitting in Orphanage, waiting to eat lunch. We will go to the hospital and do the pre op interviews. SO I AM UPDATING now in the dark at 4am from my room. The hospital was absolutely amazing. Nothing in my life in the USA could have prepared me for what I was about to witness. We rode in a car over to the hospital and I was in the front seat. I was able to record the 15 minute trip with Avery’s little ipod. There were people of all ages walking, riding bicycles, motorbikes, cars, other buses, trucks, never have I seen 4 people on one motorcycle before. They drive down the middle of the road because the edges of the road are filled with more holes than the middle. Using the horn to navigate and weave through all the traffic. There were cows walking around as well as goats and a few dogs. The driver told us that every cow is owned by someone and at the end of the day each cow knows where it lives and goes back to its owner. We saw one cow with what looked like a log that had been broken and never healed properly. One that had its horns painted green. It was quite an adventure just getting to the place.
Once we arrived we were greeted by a group of five men, There also were men holding flower lei’s not sure what they call them here, waiting to put them over our heads. The bus with the rest of the crew was still in transit so we decided to walk through the new hospital and check out where we would be setting up shop. We walked in and immediately I was taken aback by the smell. I couldn’t pin my finger on what it was exactly but very similar smelling to bug poison. We walked through looking at each room and laying out in our minds where things might be place so to make a functional operating room. There was one room with two operating tables, then a room like an office with a desk a computer a fridge and a couch, the door to the bathroom was also there. Down the hallway some more there was a smaller room to the left that had some equipment and led into another small room which had a sink and some shelves. Behind the room was another longer room with an operating table. Coming out of that room and back down the hallway a bit more and there was a large recovery room with many beds.
After viewing the new hospital we went back outside as everyone else had arrived and the people were anxious to greet us. We walked through a pathway lined with mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, some holding babies and young children, some sitting on the ground some in plastic chairs. Hundreds of people. They were all clapping for us as we walked into the old hospital. This was quite a warm welcome.
Once inside everyone starting to set up where they would be seeing the patients. The 3 surgeons were in the front room and as each patient was called in they were weighed and given a file with afew forms. They were then seen by the surgeons and either scheduled for surgery or told they would have to come back for either the dental clinic or the pediatric clinic where they would learn more about how to support healthy feeding and nutrition. They had been given hemoglobin tests which check for anemia, before coming into the interview room with the surgeons. From what I am gathering it needed to be at least 9 for surgery but depending on their age and weight a little below 9 may have been acceptable. They were asked repeatedly if the child had been sick or had a cold or runny nose in the past month. These surgeries are very risky to do on a patient that is not completely healthy, if there is any respiratory illness previous it could lead to an infection that would easily kill them. In the US it would land them in the ICU and still could result in death if not a few weeks stay in the ICU. Not only for the safety of the child but for the safety of the whole operation and all of us who were there we could not have even the slightest doubt about the childs respratory health. In the beginning of the morning the parents seemed pretty honest about if the child was sick or not, by midday you knew that word had probably spread that they would not receive surgery this year if they were sick because everyone kept answering that the child was healthy even though we could plainly see snot or hear coughing. There were interpreters there helping the surgeons to communicate with the families. There were also a few burn patients with what they call contracture, meaning the scar tissue had made it so they could no longer extend or retract their limbs.
After passing through the interview room they were then handed off to anestesia who did a thorough exam, I wasn’t in that room much so I am not sure what all was entailed there. After passing through anestesia they were then handed off once more to more nurses who would advise them of when the surgery would take place and the instructions not to eat anything after midnight before the surgery were given.
A whole schedule of surgeries was made as well as a waiting list for cases that could be done if there was extra time at the end of the day.
In the early part of the day I attempted to set up the camera equipment. I went into the office and found a dsl modem connected to the computer. They had not even gotten it working so I edited the network settings and got the computer online. After testing the connection I found that we were getting 30 megabits per second download speed and 3 megabits per second upload. This would not work if we were going to attempt a live broadcast tele medicine conference. The guys who were working with me told me they would work to see if they could get the connection speed upgraded to a faster speed that would be suitable for working with. The other snag I hit was I was missing an adapter. I needed an HDMI to DVI adapter for the flat panel monitor we had. Coming out of the life size machine is an hdmi output. That is the only output on the new machine we got before we left. The old machine had a VGA output and boy was I wishing we had that back in that moment. I thought I had checked that we had all teh wires and cables and equipment necessary to perform the live broadcast set up, however after retracing I think that what happened was when we went to the College to perform out testing and pick up the new machine for traveling with the guy who was helping us set it all up and test it broke down the equipment when we were done and removed the connector from the back of the monitor. It is possible that I removed it but not as likely because I just left it attached to the monitor knowing I could not use the monitor without it being there. In any case I wanted to kick myself and wondered how the heck I could have over looked that. Needless to say I will be making a packing check list for the equipment box for future use. No sense in dwelling on the mistake but I felt horrible about it for a minute and then moved on to finding a solution. So I found that they have an electronics store in India that would probably carry such a thing however getting one here in time would probably be near impossible. The next line was to try and find a flat panel tv that would accept the hdmi cable. So I have the guy here who updated we that he would do his best to find a monitor that would work by tomorrow evening.
The rest of the day I was in the surgeons interview room where I did manage to get some video recoding done of some of the patients. There is someone else on our trip who is also recording and many of us who are taking pictures so I am sure I will have tons to share eventually.
The day seemed to drag on forever and the surgeons saw every last patient which by estimated count was over 225 of them. The order of patient priority goes from youngest to oldest, then females before the males usually because the females wont be able to be married off or get their dowry if they are not fixed. There was a 24 day old baby we saw who I think may have been the youngest but they cannot do the surgery until they are at least 3 months old here. Many of the kids were soooo small, underweight and probably malnourished, and many of them with anemia.
The nurses set up the OR rooms and then came to help in the interviewing process and then one group was
I am sure I have many more details but time is already running short we will have to get to breakfast at 6:30 and then off the the hospital at 7 to start a long day of surgeries.
Once we arrived we were greeted by a group of five men, There also were men holding flower lei’s not sure what they call them here, waiting to put them over our heads. The bus with the rest of the crew was still in transit so we decided to walk through the new hospital and check out where we would be setting up shop. We walked in and immediately I was taken aback by the smell. I couldn’t pin my finger on what it was exactly but very similar smelling to bug poison. We walked through looking at each room and laying out in our minds where things might be place so to make a functional operating room. There was one room with two operating tables, then a room like an office with a desk a computer a fridge and a couch, the door to the bathroom was also there. Down the hallway some more there was a smaller room to the left that had some equipment and led into another small room which had a sink and some shelves. Behind the room was another longer room with an operating table. Coming out of that room and back down the hallway a bit more and there was a large recovery room with many beds.
After viewing the new hospital we went back outside as everyone else had arrived and the people were anxious to greet us. We walked through a pathway lined with mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, some holding babies and young children, some sitting on the ground some in plastic chairs. Hundreds of people. They were all clapping for us as we walked into the old hospital. This was quite a warm welcome.
Once inside everyone starting to set up where they would be seeing the patients. The 3 surgeons were in the front room and as each patient was called in they were weighed and given a file with afew forms. They were then seen by the surgeons and either scheduled for surgery or told they would have to come back for either the dental clinic or the pediatric clinic where they would learn more about how to support healthy feeding and nutrition. They had been given hemoglobin tests which check for anemia, before coming into the interview room with the surgeons. From what I am gathering it needed to be at least 9 for surgery but depending on their age and weight a little below 9 may have been acceptable. They were asked repeatedly if the child had been sick or had a cold or runny nose in the past month. These surgeries are very risky to do on a patient that is not completely healthy, if there is any respiratory illness previous it could lead to an infection that would easily kill them. In the US it would land them in the ICU and still could result in death if not a few weeks stay in the ICU. Not only for the safety of the child but for the safety of the whole operation and all of us who were there we could not have even the slightest doubt about the childs respratory health. In the beginning of the morning the parents seemed pretty honest about if the child was sick or not, by midday you knew that word had probably spread that they would not receive surgery this year if they were sick because everyone kept answering that the child was healthy even though we could plainly see snot or hear coughing. There were interpreters there helping the surgeons to communicate with the families. There were also a few burn patients with what they call contracture, meaning the scar tissue had made it so they could no longer extend or retract their limbs.
After passing through the interview room they were then handed off to anestesia who did a thorough exam, I wasn’t in that room much so I am not sure what all was entailed there. After passing through anestesia they were then handed off once more to more nurses who would advise them of when the surgery would take place and the instructions not to eat anything after midnight before the surgery were given.
A whole schedule of surgeries was made as well as a waiting list for cases that could be done if there was extra time at the end of the day.
In the early part of the day I attempted to set up the camera equipment. I went into the office and found a dsl modem connected to the computer. They had not even gotten it working so I edited the network settings and got the computer online. After testing the connection I found that we were getting 30 megabits per second download speed and 3 megabits per second upload. This would not work if we were going to attempt a live broadcast tele medicine conference. The guys who were working with me told me they would work to see if they could get the connection speed upgraded to a faster speed that would be suitable for working with. The other snag I hit was I was missing an adapter. I needed an HDMI to DVI adapter for the flat panel monitor we had. Coming out of the life size machine is an hdmi output. That is the only output on the new machine we got before we left. The old machine had a VGA output and boy was I wishing we had that back in that moment. I thought I had checked that we had all teh wires and cables and equipment necessary to perform the live broadcast set up, however after retracing I think that what happened was when we went to the College to perform out testing and pick up the new machine for traveling with the guy who was helping us set it all up and test it broke down the equipment when we were done and removed the connector from the back of the monitor. It is possible that I removed it but not as likely because I just left it attached to the monitor knowing I could not use the monitor without it being there. In any case I wanted to kick myself and wondered how the heck I could have over looked that. Needless to say I will be making a packing check list for the equipment box for future use. No sense in dwelling on the mistake but I felt horrible about it for a minute and then moved on to finding a solution. So I found that they have an electronics store in India that would probably carry such a thing however getting one here in time would probably be near impossible. The next line was to try and find a flat panel tv that would accept the hdmi cable. So I have the guy here who updated we that he would do his best to find a monitor that would work by tomorrow evening.
The rest of the day I was in the surgeons interview room where I did manage to get some video recoding done of some of the patients. There is someone else on our trip who is also recording and many of us who are taking pictures so I am sure I will have tons to share eventually.
The day seemed to drag on forever and the surgeons saw every last patient which by estimated count was over 225 of them. The order of patient priority goes from youngest to oldest, then females before the males usually because the females wont be able to be married off or get their dowry if they are not fixed. There was a 24 day old baby we saw who I think may have been the youngest but they cannot do the surgery until they are at least 3 months old here. Many of the kids were soooo small, underweight and probably malnourished, and many of them with anemia.
The nurses set up the OR rooms and then came to help in the interviewing process and then one group was
I am sure I have many more details but time is already running short we will have to get to breakfast at 6:30 and then off the the hospital at 7 to start a long day of surgeries.
India Travels Day two
We waited at the hotel until 2pm. Then we all loaded up and drove down to where the train depot was. We sat in the bus for a few hours and waited for word on weather or not our stuff would be released out of customs. Finally got word that the ransom had been paid and our stuff would be on its way to join us. We were told to get out of the bus at 4:00 and get onto the train platform. We ended up waiting until 4:30 got out on the platform and waited for the train to arrive. Once the train arrive we boarded and waited to depart. WE had a sleeper car and our section had 6 beds in it. 14 hours of train ride and we arrived in Damoh. Then onto another bus and out to the orphanage.
Friday, February 19, 2010
India Travels Day 1
I spent the night at Docs and we finished packing. She was up all night packing and trying to finish up some paper work. I dozed off on the couch for a few hours and got up at 3:45am. Our ride to the airport arrived at 6:30 and we loaded up and took off. We checked in the luggage and got a bite to eat. Then it was time to go through security. We all stood in line and it was moving rather quickly. I sent my stuff through and got sent to a secondary pat down. A woman patted me down. Then a man brought my laptop over and said he needed to scan it again. He scanned it once more and it was handed back to me. Then another man was going through my carry on bag. He toook everything out of it. They put my liquids into another ziploc bag. I had most of my pills and liquids in a ziploc already but I had forgotten about the things in my purse. They discussed that I was only allowed one pint sized bag and not two but that i didn’t have to put the pills in the bag so all the liquids I had would have fit into one bag. The rest of the other 5 people I was traveling with were through security and waiting for me. They started taking pictures of me sitting in security as I was there for what seemed like at least 10 minutes. They rescanned my bags again. Then the security guy found a box of Junior Mints that I had brought along. He asked what I was doing with them. I replied I had brought them to eat. Then he said something to the effect of I didn’t really need them and he could take them for me. I laughed at him and he proceeded to help me repack my bag. After putting everything back into my bag the last thing he put in was the Jr. Mints. We had another laugh and I was on my way. Doc and I stopped at teh Gadget Store and she purchased an inverter that she could use on the plane. Then we were joking that I had one too many gadgets and that is what the hang up was in security. We met back up with the rest of our group and it was about time to board the plane. We took a few pictures of us all and I posted one to facebook.
We started lining up to board the plane. Doc tried to hand them the wrong boarding pass, the one from Chicago to India so she had to step out of the line to find the right pass. We all found our way onto the plane and took our seats. I ended up sitting next to a young guy named Daniel that was from San Diego but going to Chicago to see his girlfriend graduate from something. He told me he was going to propose to her and showed me the ring he was carrying. We chatted for a bit and then we both started to listen to our ipods. The flight went by fairly quickly and we landed very smoothly. After deplaning we walked around for a while. Then we went to restaurant to eat. Ended up that we ate at Macaroni Grill. Next stop was the book store and then we walked back down and met up with the rest of the crew. There are 27 of us total. Rahit came from San Fransisco and he was the only other west coaster. Many are from Dallas and Iam not sure of the other places. I was introduced to Macguyver who I will call M. He is an anestesia tech. I met a few more people and then it was time to board the plane. We boarded the plane everyone got loaded and then we sat. They came on the loudspeaker and said were were too full and overweight so they asked people to volunteer to get off for $800.00. the found 3 people to get off. Then we waited some more for them to find their baggage,..in total we were two and half hours sitting in the plane before we even went down the runway. Take off finally happened and we were in flight. 14 hours and 5 minutes was the estimate.
We made it into India. Went through the customs line. We checked through with our passports and a form we had to fill out on the plane. we got our bags...the other team brought 36 boxes. We ended up bringing 4 total. Then came going through the customs checkpoint. Sherri took all the guys to help carry the boxes and they ended up getting stopped. After waiting a while on the other side we went to the hotel. Doc stayed behind to make a phone call into a friend of hers whose father has some sort of political clout. Its now 5am and I am catching up on the journal. We actually got to the hotel at about 2am.This is all local time. In california it is 3:30 pm on friday and here it is Sat 5am...I jumped forward a day! Got a text from Doc and said they are on the way to hotel. at 4:45.
We started lining up to board the plane. Doc tried to hand them the wrong boarding pass, the one from Chicago to India so she had to step out of the line to find the right pass. We all found our way onto the plane and took our seats. I ended up sitting next to a young guy named Daniel that was from San Diego but going to Chicago to see his girlfriend graduate from something. He told me he was going to propose to her and showed me the ring he was carrying. We chatted for a bit and then we both started to listen to our ipods. The flight went by fairly quickly and we landed very smoothly. After deplaning we walked around for a while. Then we went to restaurant to eat. Ended up that we ate at Macaroni Grill. Next stop was the book store and then we walked back down and met up with the rest of the crew. There are 27 of us total. Rahit came from San Fransisco and he was the only other west coaster. Many are from Dallas and Iam not sure of the other places. I was introduced to Macguyver who I will call M. He is an anestesia tech. I met a few more people and then it was time to board the plane. We boarded the plane everyone got loaded and then we sat. They came on the loudspeaker and said were were too full and overweight so they asked people to volunteer to get off for $800.00. the found 3 people to get off. Then we waited some more for them to find their baggage,..in total we were two and half hours sitting in the plane before we even went down the runway. Take off finally happened and we were in flight. 14 hours and 5 minutes was the estimate.
We made it into India. Went through the customs line. We checked through with our passports and a form we had to fill out on the plane. we got our bags...the other team brought 36 boxes. We ended up bringing 4 total. Then came going through the customs checkpoint. Sherri took all the guys to help carry the boxes and they ended up getting stopped. After waiting a while on the other side we went to the hotel. Doc stayed behind to make a phone call into a friend of hers whose father has some sort of political clout. Its now 5am and I am catching up on the journal. We actually got to the hotel at about 2am.This is all local time. In california it is 3:30 pm on friday and here it is Sat 5am...I jumped forward a day! Got a text from Doc and said they are on the way to hotel. at 4:45.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Tech Support Camera Testing
So I had a meeting today with Doc and Zia. Zia is the man who we got a new lifesize camera and unit from! A smaller unit which is fantastic cause that means it’s lighter. We tried for a while to get the backup system going but it is not working well. We are suspecting a hardware issue with the camera, the laptop and the software. I am looking into alternatives ways to stream video over the internet with the mac and the handheld camera we already have.
Next is the power issue. I had to figure out what we need as far as a transformer or a converter and adapter plugs for our power source. Power is a major issue all over these remote places so solving this will be a key to having successful missions in the future.
Next is the power issue. I had to figure out what we need as far as a transformer or a converter and adapter plugs for our power source. Power is a major issue all over these remote places so solving this will be a key to having successful missions in the future.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Camera Set up
So as the date for departure approaches near I am working on the setup for the Camera in the the operating room. So far my only experience has been in Mexico when I traveled down there for the day. There was already a camera boom rigged up for use which we brought along.We had to bring a 25 pound weight as a counter balance also. The problem with the current one is that it weighs too much. I have to bring the scale over to Docs house where the camera and setup are living to weigh it. When traveling to foreign countries the amount of stuff you can take and the weight and size of it becomes an issue. Working with zero budget at the moment is not making the task any easier. I found a decent set up but it costs about $500. I will add pictures of the current set up in the next few days as I am working on this. I have a meeting on Saturday to go over technical issues and equipment. Then Sunday I will meet with someone else to try and figure out a new rig to hold the camera up.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Preparing for India
I am starting this blog to make sure I have a way to communicate my travels and adventures. Departure is Feb 18 - 28th. More info to follow.
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