Marcy’s Blog

Back in the US

Sorry, for the late post but I wanted to let everyone know that I did make it back home safely.  I came back last Monday (8/17) and spent the week relaxing at my parent’s house to recover from jet lag.  This week I came to Columbus to finish everything for school and get ready for graduation on Sunday!!  Then I will be going back to my parents for a month or two to study for the national physical therapy boards exam and look for jobs!

I wanted to thank you again for all your support and prayers!  I had such an amazing expereince and I’m so glad that I was able to go.  This was a challenging trip that encouraged me to grow personally, spiritually, and helped me continue to develop as a physical therapist.  I’m also so thankful to God who provided and protected me for the entire trip! I didn’t get sick once!  God provided people for me to meet and I was able to make some really good friends there.  I’m just so glad that I was able to go, this was definetly a once-in-a-life-time expereince and I had such a great time!

To give you a little update on my last week there I was able to travel to the state of Kerala with 2 other international students.  It was so beautiful there, we went up to the mountains and spent a day on the back waters. During our trip we stayed with a couple families so we were able to have good conversations about their family traditions, culture, and the history of Kerala.  We also had some tasty home cooked meals! 

My last week at CMC was busy with saying good-bye to everyone and doing my presentation.  The presentation went well and afterwards I showed them some pictures of Ohio and my family, they really enjoyed this.  It was hard saying goodbye to everyone, but I was excited to go home to graduate and start the next transition in my life!

Thank you again for all your support!  I’m looking forward to visiting with you all and telling you about my trip!

Visits to the village and more…

Well, this is going to be a short post because I have so much to do in the next couple of days!  I’m preparing my educational presentation on gait training interventions for Parkinson’s Disease and I’m leaving tomorrow to spend 4 days in Kerala!  I’ll be going with 2 other international students, so it should be a great time.  I’m looking forward to experiencing a new part of India and developing more friendships.

This past week I was in the general wards department treating patients primarily with stroke, traumatic brain injury, and patients with amputees.  I got to do more hands-on treatment with the patients and did an assessment on my own.  We also did two sessions of chest physiotherapy in the ICU each day so I was able to practice my techniques and by the end of the week I was treating patients independently.  I also got to know the interns and the physiotherapist well and learned more about their families and home life.  On Friday I went to CHAD (Community Health and Developement) another satellite hospital for CMC, which primarily treats patients from the surrounding villages.  In the morning I went to the leprosy ward to observe treatment and discussed with the occupational therapists the process of the disease and primary impairments that these patients have.  The patients here have all been treated, but continue to receive care especially for foot ulcers and they work there making candles or shoes during their stay.  Most patients are treated for free or very minimal payment so they have jobs to help contribute.  I also went on a community visit into the village with the occupational therapsist intern.  We visited a family with two children who are mentally disabled and a patient with a below the knee amputation.  It was interesting seeing the village life compared to the poor areas in Vellore.  The streets were all dirt roads and the houses were spread further apart.  Many people in the village made bricks so it was interesting seeing that process.  There was also a funeral going on while we were there.  They honor the death by walking around the village playing drums and other musical instruments and lighting firecrackers.  It was very loud and the streets were full of trash from the firecrackers.  I also visited a program where women from the villages work making hand crafts.  It was nice to talk with them and I also bought some crafts to contribute to their cause!

This week I’ve been in acute PMR and last week is my final rotation in cardiac thoracic.  I’m looking forward to the next week and a half, I’ll be traveling to Kerala, coming back to finish my rotation, then going to Bangalore with 2 students from CMC to celebrate India’s independence day, and then going to Chenni to fly home!  It will be very busy but I’m trying to enjoy every movement and expereince all that I can!

Thanks again for your support and continue to pray for health and safety as I travel and that my presentation goes well!

Vanakkam

This is hello in Tamil.  Here in Vellore the primary language is Tamil, but with being at CMC I am learning words in Hindi and other languages.  For the majority of the time the therapists do not speak in Tamil to the patients because they come from all over India and from other countries.  This past week I was able to work with and develop a good relationship with a patient from Nigeria.  It amazes me that the staff at CMC know 2-3 languages in order to communicate with the patients and they all know English.  Every subject at the school is taught in English and the staff communicate in English too.

So now that you’ve had a language lesson I’ll tell you what I’ve been up to!  So this past week I was in the rehab institute and I was able to split my time between all different departments: physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and social work.  I also observed in the gait lab, the only successfuly working one in India and I spent time in their spinal cord regeneration lab where they do stem cell research on spinal cord injured rats.  I enjoyed being in each department and learning about the roles of each of these health care professionals here in India.  It’s interesting observing what they do and how the roles are similar and different to the U.S. due to the culture difference.  For example each month a member of each department goes out into a rural village where there are patients who have had TBIs or SCIs and they meet together to make sure people are connected in the community, to motivate them, and to encourage them to seek vocational opportunites.  Here in India there is minimal monetary support for individuals that have disabilities so it is crucial that the patients and their families receive information and education about vocational rehabilitation and that they are encouraged to pursue a career.  In the SCI department I watched a motivational video about a previous patient that had a spinal cord injury who recovered well enough to walk with crutches and he returned to working in his farm.  It was amazing to see the conditions he learned how to maneuver through (tall grass, uneven ground, rocks, sand, etc.) and how he still performed his work as a farmer.

On Wednesday I went and did home visits with a social worker and physician into the slums and poorer areas of Vellore.  This was also an amazing experience!  I was able to see and go into the homes of these people who were very poor.  Most lived in one room huts with 5-10 people.  The majority only make 80-100 Rupees a day (~$1.60-2.00) and that is to feed everyone in their household.  They only get water once every 10-14 days and this may be less because it hasn’t rained here in a long time (pray for rain in Vellore!!)  Many of these patients had health difficulties and family conflicts due to the added stress of the illness/disability and financial circumstances.  All of the families were so nice and invited me into their homes.  One family had a business of making copper pots so they took the time and showed us how they made them, it was interesting seeing the tools that they used and the process of making the pots.

To see the complete opposite, I went to Bangalore this weekend a larger more modernized city of India with 9 other international students.  I had my first train ride going to the city.  We mostly spent the time shopping and eating American/”westernized” food.  We went to a couple fast food restaurants, KFC and McDonalds, and did some shopping in the large malls.  They also had several Indian stores and restaurants that we visited.  The temperature was the best part, it was much cooler ecspecially at night, I finally wore long sleeves for the first time I’ve been here!

This week I’m back at CMC main hospital in the general medicine and surgical wards.  The therapist at this department wants me to do a more hands-on treatment with patients, which will be good so I can continue to develop my phyiscal therapy skills.  I also might be visiting another CMC satellite hospital to do more visits into the rural villages around Vellore.

Hope all is going well and I’ll continue to keep you updated!  Only three more weeks, time is going by so quickly!

Poyittu varukiren (Goodbye)

Life in India

Last week I enjoyed my rotation in the inpatient orthopedics department.  The majority of patients I saw were recovering from a total hip or total knee replacement surgeries.  I also saw a couple patients recovering from tuberculosis that left them paralyzed and I also observed a total hip replacement surgery.  The therapists challenged me very much last week, asking me questions about various diagnoses and specific treatment interventions.  I’ve started carrying a little notebook around with me so I can write down everything that I’m observing and learning during my stay here.

This weekend I stayed in Vellore to relax and catch up on sleep!  Saturday night I went to a wedding reception for a brother of one of the physiotherapists I work with.  It was a Christian wedding so it was more westernized than Hindu weddings (so I’ve heard).  It included some of the same traditions of a wedding in the U.S. such as a unity candle, a short message about marriage by the minister, stories about the bride and groom, a picture slide show, and they cut the cake.  Other parts were also very different; we went downstairs to eat dinner and the room was full of rows of tables, but there wasn’t enough room for everyone to sit down so you had to wait for someone to finish and then take their seat.  They served dinner on banana leaves, which consisted of different varieties of rice and ice cream.  No utensils were offered so I got to continue practicing eating with my right hand only.  It was alot of fun and I went with some other international students and CMC students so we had a good time together.  I also got to wear my fancy Indian outfit and put Jasmine flowers in my hair, so it was nice having a chance to dress up for once!  On Sunday I went to a local church service with some CMC students.  The worship service was very good and the message was also challenging.  It’s such a great experience worshiping God with people from a different culture; it reminds me that wherever I am God is still the same and he loves all people no matter where they are from.  I also went to the pool Sunday afternoon to cool off, it was so relaxing and refreashing!

This week I will be doing a rotation at the rehabilitation institute; here they see patients primarily with traumatic brain injuries or spinal cord injuries.  I’m looking forward to this rotation because I really enjoy inpatient rehabilitation.  I will also be spending a day going out into the slums and poor villages of Vellore doing home visits.

I thought I’d end this post with a few things about Indian culture I experience every day: (in no specific order)

1. very busy, hectic traffic and they drive on the other side of the road

2. autos, bikes, motorbikes, buses honking constantly

3. dosas - rice flour fried and they add different ingredients to it like egg

4. freash pineapple juice (very yummy!)

5. streets full of people, trash, and random animals running around - dogs, cats, cows, donkeys, goats, and occassionaly monkeys

6. every work day from 10-10:30am I get to take a coffee/tea break, of course I always choose the chai tea (also very yummy!)

7. crowded buses - people keep coming into the bus until it is completely packed, people even ride hanging out of the door

 8. random electricity and water shortages 

9. meeting nice people that are always interested in where I come from and if they speak English they like to have a conversation

10. for saintation purposes at the hospital in specific rooms and stores you take off your sandels before you enter

Always something new to experience every day in India, but I’m enjoying it!  I’m so thankful to have this opportunity and I appreciate your prayers very much!

I can’t believe it’s my fourth week already!!

Time here flys by so quickly!  Sorry I have not posted anything in awhile, I get home and before I know it, its time for bed.  Everything is still going very well. For my second week I was posted in the gymnasium physiotherapy departement, which is similar to an outpatient PT clinic in the U.S.  They treat orthopedic, neurologic, and pediatric patients.  Some patients are only seen for one day, others are seen for a couple days up to a couple weeks.  I was able to more hands-on treatment with the patients, but it was still difficult because the PTs are very busy and here they treat up to 200 patients a day!  It is still hard for me to adjust to how quickly they see patients.  The physiotherapist’s assessment skills are very good, not as thorough, but they try to be efficient and give the patients the best couple exercises that are possible for them to complete independently.  I was able to work with a couple patients and discuss treatment interventions with the physiotherapists.  I have seen a variety of diagnoses and complications that are not common in the U.S.  That’s one thing I love about CMC, you can see any type of patients, it is a wide variety!  

Last week I was posted in the physiotherapy inpatient neurology department.  This was my first experience in the hospital wards.  CMC is very big and it is confusing to navigate between the different wards.  It was interesting observing the interaction of the nurses, doctors, and other hospital staff and how they provide care to the patients.  For example, everyone wears sandels, the nurses wear white saris, the floors are cement, wooden hospital beds, a lot of paper documentation, less sanitation, visitors sitting or sleeping on the floors along the hallways, etc.  There are so many different experiences that I have each day it is hard to write them all down.  I was able to collaborate with the phyisotherapists while treating patients and I developed a good relationship with one of the patients, that he invited me to have tea with him so I enjoyed talking with him.  I enjoyed neurology because we saw patients for about the same time as we do in acute care in the U.S. and I was able to work with a couple of the same patients throughout the week.  I also was able to observe a muscle biopsy procedure and go to the diabetes clinic.  Diabetes is a major concern here, it occurs in 1 out of 5 people!  At the diabetes clinic the patients visit several different health care professionals for screening and education; we taught them exercises to do and general exercise prescription.  The staff that I worked with were very friendly so I was able to learn more about Indian culture, their education, clinical experiences, and general health care.

I also was invited to go to a bible study last week.  One of the physicans of CMC has it at his house each week.  It was so nice seeing someone’s home here, meeting more staff at CMC, and being able to pray and worship together.  I also have been able to visit a couple different cities close to Vellore for vacation on the weekends. I have traveled with a couple of other international students and we’ve had many new experiences together.  I have seen wild monkeys, ate lunch on a banana leaf, traveled for one hour standing on a bus crowded with people, been on the coast of the Bay of Bengal, and have enjoyed shopping at several stores.  I’m also getting better at eating with only my right hand, but I still have a tendancy to use my left or just use a fork or spoon.

I’m really enjoying my time here and I’m learning so much!  This has definately been a wonderful adventure and I’m looking forward to what comes in the next four weeks.  I have been invited to a wedding this week, so that should be another great cultural experience.  This week I’m posted in the orthopedics inpatient department, the majority of patients are recovering from total joint replacements or spinal surgeries.  I have already seen two tuberculosis patients today, so I’m sure it will be an interesting week.  I’m also trying to get posted in some different departments to go out into the community to work with patients.

I’ll continue to keep  you updated!

 Marcy

First week

Well, this has been a very interesting first week.  I have almost recovered from all the traveling and jet lag, except that I’m still fighting a cold I got last Wednesday.  I am getting used to the food and spices and I’m starting to find meals that I like.

This past week I worked in the electrotherapy department where they see up to 150 patients a day!  The staff were very busy so I found it difficult to treat patients by myself because they were never in the room constantly so I didn’t have anyone to translate if I was working with a patient.  I found that the best method was for me to shadow a therapist while they were working with a patient, ask questions, and assist them with the treatment.  On many occassions they would ask me what we do in the U.S. so I found myself teaching and offering new ideas to the PT.  I also was able to talk to some of the patients that did speak English to learn about thier families, home life, etc. and in return shared about myself too.  I enjoyed this very much because I was able to learn more about the Indian culture.  I have also been able to work with a couple of Indian students in the PT school here and have developed good realtionships with them also.  One of them lives in a hostel across the road from me so I’ll be able to meet her oustide of working in the department.

Besides meeting people from India I also have met and developed friendships with other international students working at CMC Vellore.  I have met students from England, Germany, Holland “the real one”, Canada, and America!  I spend most of my free time with them; we have gone shopping, we eat most meals together, and some of them live in my same hostel. Most of them travel on the weekends so I’m hoping to travel with them to a couple destinations.

 I am enjoying this experience so far, despite the heat and lack of air conditioning.  Everyone is very friendly and I’m adjusting to Indian culture.  This weekend I had my first experience shopping and bargaining for clothes and I’m not as scared riding in the autorickshaws (traffic here is crazy!)  The amount of people and poverty is still overwhelming and something new happens every day so I’m continuing to adjust.  This week I’m in the gymnasium PT department, where I’ll be working with patients who have orthopedic and/or neurologic diagnoses.  I’m looking forward to working here because they see patients for a longer length of time so I’ll be able to do more with the patients.  I also was suprised to learn today that of one of the girls from Germany has her birthday tomorrow too, so we’ll be going out together to celebrate! 

Thanks again for your prayers, continue to pray for my health and that I continue to develop good relationships with the people here.  I’ll continue to keep you updated and I’ll try to post some pictures this week!

Marcy

I arrived!

I finally arrived at Vellore CMC today!  My flights went okay, except for the flight cancellation in Chicago so I arrived a day late, but I’m glad to finally be here and sleep in a bed tonight!  Everything is going very well, I’ve already met several people from different countries and have enjoyed their friendship as I’m adjusting to a very different culture.

I met with my supervisor today and we developed a plan for me to work in differnt physical therapy departments each week.  I’m very excited about this because I will be able to work with different people and patients each week, see a variety of diagnoses, and treatment techniques in all the PT departments.

Today has also been a day to experience and adjust to some culture shock.  The amount of poverty and people are overwhelming considering this is a small town in India.  When I went to the physical medicine rehabilitation department I was amazed to see all the people in the waiting room, I’ve never seen that many before.  Traffic is also very hectic and communication with people outside of the medical staff is difficult.  I already got lost today, but I’m learning my way around and trying to adjust to my surroundings.  I’m thankful for the people here that have helped me and I’m sure I’ll continue to learn my way around tomorrow.

This is definately going to be a challenging and great experience!  I’m excited to start working tomorrow in the electrophysiotherapy departement; there I will be doing different techniques to help patients with pain relief.

I’ll continue to keep you updated and thanks again for all your prayers and support!

Hello world!

Well this is my last day home in Michigan.  Today I am packing up and going to Chicago to visit family.  My flight leaves tomorrow night so this will probably be my last update until I arrive in India.  So far everything is coming together well and I’m getting very excited about my trip!  I would appreciate your prayers for safety and good health as I travel.  I’m looking forward to sharing with you my experiences in India!