Well today's the last day of the externship. In 1 hour I'll be on my way to Banglore and then off to see my family. In 3 days Nisha and Joel will depart to the North to go on a tour of Agra, Dehli, Jodhpur, Jaipur, and Pushkar.....not necessarily in that order.
So some have had a wrong impression from my posts, so I shall clarify a few things.
Through the last 1 week, I didn't per se get to touch or feel things like Nisha's and Joel's physicians let them do because I was mainly with PG registrars aka residents and not attendings. So they were less willing as they themselves were very clueless of the purpose of our visit and program.
I did see some things in my time there. organic phosphate poisoning, a case of suspected cushing's syndrome, HIV patients, rheumatic fever patients but the chance to ask questions about treatments and how they were going about the care options were not there because I was amongst a group of 10 people, mostly other residents and required to stay with the same group for a week.
But I would like to stress to those reading this blog that medicine in India is not too different than american healthcare. I didn't talk a lot about diseases because outside a few small situations, most were HTN and DM (hypertension and diabetes mellitus). This cna be said of internal medicine in America too. It is common fact that African descented, Indian descented, middle eastern descented, and Asian descented families have these 2 ailments esp. DM run in their families--something that is partially due to the diet, but also partly genetics and environmental factors. Even amongst the ID cases most were HIV, Tuberculosis, and leprosy had its own clinics at CHAD and Karagiri. Nisha's already told you our Karagiri story so no need for me to repeat it. Except for Leprosy the other 2 infectious diseases (HIV and Tb) are prevalent even amongst US populations especially in Detroit where I study. So this too was nothing truly unique. Does it mean I learned nothing?? No not necessarily. What it means is I learned the reality and value to appreciate that just because we are America, and just because we have the best of the best does not mean that we are the onlly place that has decent healthcare. The treatments are the same regardless of the country, the medications, the management, the diseases that are common in fields in America are also true to other countries like India.
My most important lesson is not details of exotic diseases. It is not how to manage htn or dm because these are things I will learn when I'm a 3rd year, they are things I will learn in med micro and immunology and pharmacology next year. This is not the value of such a trip indeed. It is this which is the value I've learned to take away from this trip.......
That no matter where you go where western medicine is practiced the same. sure there is less A/C and less sterilization or stuff (see my post the downsides of medicine and Nisha's post), but it is the same in the end in most differences. It is this reason i've not posted much about specific diseases.
Secondly, I reaffirmed from my own experience and from hearing from Joel and Nisha theirs in different sections that Internal medicine is something I want to consider and that surgery and ob/gyn are not amongst my interests.
Peace out!!!
Ekta
So some have had a wrong impression from my posts, so I shall clarify a few things.
Through the last 1 week, I didn't per se get to touch or feel things like Nisha's and Joel's physicians let them do because I was mainly with PG registrars aka residents and not attendings. So they were less willing as they themselves were very clueless of the purpose of our visit and program.
I did see some things in my time there. organic phosphate poisoning, a case of suspected cushing's syndrome, HIV patients, rheumatic fever patients but the chance to ask questions about treatments and how they were going about the care options were not there because I was amongst a group of 10 people, mostly other residents and required to stay with the same group for a week.
But I would like to stress to those reading this blog that medicine in India is not too different than american healthcare. I didn't talk a lot about diseases because outside a few small situations, most were HTN and DM (hypertension and diabetes mellitus). This cna be said of internal medicine in America too. It is common fact that African descented, Indian descented, middle eastern descented, and Asian descented families have these 2 ailments esp. DM run in their families--something that is partially due to the diet, but also partly genetics and environmental factors. Even amongst the ID cases most were HIV, Tuberculosis, and leprosy had its own clinics at CHAD and Karagiri. Nisha's already told you our Karagiri story so no need for me to repeat it. Except for Leprosy the other 2 infectious diseases (HIV and Tb) are prevalent even amongst US populations especially in Detroit where I study. So this too was nothing truly unique. Does it mean I learned nothing?? No not necessarily. What it means is I learned the reality and value to appreciate that just because we are America, and just because we have the best of the best does not mean that we are the onlly place that has decent healthcare. The treatments are the same regardless of the country, the medications, the management, the diseases that are common in fields in America are also true to other countries like India.
My most important lesson is not details of exotic diseases. It is not how to manage htn or dm because these are things I will learn when I'm a 3rd year, they are things I will learn in med micro and immunology and pharmacology next year. This is not the value of such a trip indeed. It is this which is the value I've learned to take away from this trip.......
That no matter where you go where western medicine is practiced the same. sure there is less A/C and less sterilization or stuff (see my post the downsides of medicine and Nisha's post), but it is the same in the end in most differences. It is this reason i've not posted much about specific diseases.
Secondly, I reaffirmed from my own experience and from hearing from Joel and Nisha theirs in different sections that Internal medicine is something I want to consider and that surgery and ob/gyn are not amongst my interests.
Peace out!!!
Ekta
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