This morning, we concluded our clinical portion of the exploration seminar, and it was quite impressive! My rotation brought me to an open heart surgery! I got to see the beating heart in the chest cavity, and watched the doctors artificially redirect the blood flow into a series of tubing, and then stop the heart! Apparently, the heart is not always stopped in these procedures, but was in this situation becuse the surgeon also had to replace the aortic valve, which requres severing the aorta, so blood flow was re-directed. So, we got to watch him cut off the valve and sew in a artificial one that seemed to work splendidly, as demonstrated by the surgeon. Sometimes animal valves are used as replacements, but it depends on the case and patient. We watched him sew in a vein harvested from the patients chest or leg (I wasn't sure which as we missed the harvesting) to serve as the by-pass. The surgeon was talking to us, and I was very impressed, as he sounded like a sports announcer. He was discussing Seattle, of which it would seem he is familier, directing his helpers, and commenting/describing the surgery in a fluent, continuous, effortless breath. Sadly, we had to leave before it was finished, to see the surgery ICU before going back to lecture and our farewell/thankyou tea party for the staff at Sri Ramachandra. I am hoping to be almost done with my paper by this afternoon, and tonight our journals are due so 1/3 of our grade will be complete!
Tonight, I am hoping to go to the final cultural event, which is Indian dancing. Last night I went to the Indian singing, and several very famous actors and movie directors made appearances and performed, and I was sitting not far from them at all. One of the young doctors who was sitting with us was trying to explain them to me, but for the most part I was lost, and their fame was wasted on me. Everyone else was excited. Now I really know what it is like to be a foreign exchange student. Tonight is the main event though... there will probably be many sightings of the rich and famous of Chennai! One of the songs last night was from a Tamil movie we watched on the bus last weekend, and I was excited to recognize something at least.
Tomorrow morning is the orphanage!
The sickness of the group seems to be worsening, and now I think everyone is about equal on worse-ness. My respiratory ailment has evolved from a sore throat to a cough to now a very runny nose with lots of sneezing, and most others have followed the same progression. It is not fun at all. I hope everyone is doing well in Seattle!
Oh, please tell Grandma Fay "thank you" for the kind birthday wishes, along with everyone else!
They let you in all those surgeries with such a bad cold? Seems risky.
ReplyDeleteThat is very inappropriate to be in surgeries when you are so sick. Last night I watched the first hour and a half of a 6 hour show about India, beginning from the first humans coming to India and goes all the way to its current situation. Apparently sanskrit is only spoken by the brahmans and is the India equivalent of latin, and in fact is strikingly similar to latin and greek.
ReplyDeleteIndia's first ecounter with the west was Alexander the Great's invasion way back when. So you can thank him partly for anything western about India.
ReplyDeleteDear Carrie,
ReplyDeleteWe have been traveling to California and Arizona. Daily we have tried to get on your blog but to no avail. On your birthday we sent a greeting to you via your Mom. We asked that she include it in her blog to you. She must have forgotten to send it to you. Sorry you have not heard from us. We really have appreciated all of your blogs. So belated happy birthday from Grandpa Bob, Uncle Ken and me.
Dear Carrie,
ReplyDeleteEach time we tried to send you a message before we tried "URL" and it did not work. Have you made changes on your blog system? So sorry to hear that you are sick. We are praying for you, concerned for you and love you.
I sent the missing b-day greeting to you, Carrie, via email. So, grandma and grandpa were included on your birthday, but perhaps not seen.
ReplyDeleteYou are getting lots of exciting experiences. Are you taking all your pills?
ReplyDeleteWe are having a little "mini-India" weather right now. For the last few days it has been unusually warm but rainy. We have had quite a lot of rain over the last couple of days and quite warm at the same time. So, it has been pretty muggy and very unusual for Seattle. We aren't used to it! Also, does your sari have a short plain top underneath it? Today I saw a lot of saris down in Seattle on authentic women and they all have that top, as I was noticing closely today, and wondered if you do too. They seem a bit incongruous with what you need to wear. We watched an IMAX movie today about climbing Mt Everest and there were brief parts of it about India, and it was strange to think that you are actually there! I can explain it more at another time. I hope your cold is doing better by today. Neil is on his way home right now and will be here in another couple of hours. He has surely had a wonderful trip too. Looking forward to your next post!
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