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.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
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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