Lesli Fisher’s Blog

One week down, three to go!

So much has happened since my last update!  I can’t believe how fast the first week went, and I am sure the next three will fly by as well.   I spent most of last week in the clinical pharmacists in the Endocrinology Department who are working on various clinical trials.  I learned so much about how clinical trials in India are preformed and it was interesting to compare it to how it is run in the USA.  I also spent one day in the Casualty (ER) Pharmacy.  It wasn’t as exciting as I had hoped.  Again, the patient’s family member comes to the pharmacy to get prescriptions for the patient who is being treated in the ER.  Here, pharmacists don’t do any counseling and so they can dispense many more prescriptions than in the US during a days time.  The pharmacy is right next to the entrance of the ER and so it was strange to see everyone gather around to watch patients be taken out of ambulances and into the ER.  People just stand around the ER entrance all day long.  I wasn’t quite sure what they were doing.  There was even a guy lying on a stretcher outside all day. 

This weekend, my mother and I traveled to Madanepalle to visit some friends she made during her trip to India in 2000.  It was about 3 hours away.  We went through many little towns and villages.  It was a good reminder of how some people in the world live.  In America, it seems we have no idea what it really means to be poor and live on the bare minimum for ones entire life.  We arrived to James’ house around 11:00am and they immediately gave me a beautiful sari to wear.  I met his wife and their youngest daughter Sheela who was leaving later that day for an assignment to The Netherlands for work.  We then had breakfast and visited for a bit.  Their house is on a mission campus that has a hospital, lab, pharmacy, secondary school, and the Mother Geegh Nursery School.  We took a tour of the campus and saw all the different buildings.  It was such a shame however, that the hospital was not being used due to a falling out between some people on the mission campus.  They have a beautiful facility but only one doctor and a few nursing students work there to care for an occasional patient.  We then saw the Mother Geegh Nursery school for which my church in Holland raised money to renovate a couple of years back.  Unfortunately, because it was Saturday the kids did not have class so only a handful of children were there playing.  After seeing the old building, I could tell that the new building was such a blessing for them, and that it was meeting their needs much better than before.   After the tour of the mission campus we had lunch then headed back to Vellore. 

This past weekend was graduation for the medical students here at CMC.  On Saturday night, they put on the play “Arsenic and Old Lace” and they also had a dance performance.  On Sunday was Baccalaureate and today they had the graduation ceremonies.  I am so glad I was able to attend all the festivities. 

This week at the hospital I will be with two of the Clinical Pharmacy students and follow them all week.  Today we started in the Medicine 2 Ward and looked at charts then we went to the General Medicine Outpatient Department and saw about 25 patients before lunch!  I think I will learn a lot here because we had a patient with TB and another who was recovering from Malaria, and many others with more common disease like diabetes, high blood pressure, and asthma. 

I have uploaded some pictures of my time here to far, so be sure to check them out. 

Thank you for all your prayers.  I have adjusted quite well and can feel God giving me strength each day.  I have also had no health problems or chest pain since I’ve been here!  One thing that has been interesting is that I have never been in a community where a religion other than Christianity is so prominent.  I was surprised at how many people are Hindu, including my roommate here at the hostel.  I hope to have a conversation with her before she leaves for home on Friday.  Please pray that I can be a reflection of Jesus and be bold in sharing my faith. 

Lesli