Can I just go home please? Nevermind!

Saturday

I absolutely love it here. It’s been so much fun so far in Hindi classes and our excursions into the town. The landscape is gorgeous and I’m so completely psyched to be here. We decided to go out to dinner to a very expensive (as in USA prices) restaurant and spent a late night there. The restaurant is also a hotel. It was originally the Kashmiri hunting palace and the current Kashmiri prince had it converted into the hotel and restaurant. It is called Taragarh and was absolutely gorgeous. We spent until about 2am drinking and enjoying each others company. About midnight it really started to rain hard. Just a note, marble stairs are slippery when wet. I managed to slip and fall on my injured arm and now the trip changes.

Sunday immediately after the fall through Thursday

I was in more pain than I’ve ever imagined. It took 3 hours to get to a doctor and get the initial pain treated. I absolutely hate  it here in India. So far, my experience following the initial visit after the fall has been awful. You have to bring your entire medical record each time you visit (which I kept forgetting). The doctors are extremely demanding and harsh and get annoyed quickly and they don’t believe in making co-decisions but in just ordering the patient around. At least he speaks English. That is a bonus. I visited each day this week continuously forgotten something new. Sunday we tried to get a CT since he wanted to double check for sure that I didn’t injure the surgery sites. The power went out so that didn’t happen and the doctor was angry at me. Then he decided to send me for an MRI, which was even more frustrating. The technician didn’t ask me to take off any of my clothes and then came back in, said I had metal in my shoulder and said they couldn’t take the MRI. This then led to a call to the doctor stating that and determining what to do next. Now, they said we’d do a CT scan. He then said I had to take the bra off because it has metal in it. Then there was no  metal discovered, hence I could have had the MRI done. Now the doctor I see here demands that I get ahold of my US doctor and ask if I had non-MRI compatible metal implanted in my shoulder or if it was merely the technician’s fault for the mistake. The doctor here believes I have a basic understanding so he is willing to listen but then he believes my observations and opinions don’t count for much concerning events. I’m continuously told what I need to do but it changes consistently and is completely unordered which makes it hard to follow through so now I’m seen as completely unorganized because I’m having a hard time figuring out what needs to be done or brought into the office and such. The system is unclean (I was given a shot Sunday night for pain and he just used a dry cotton swab to clean the area) and rushed and too slow at the same time. Orders are confusing and aren’t written down or explained at times or the explanations are confusing. He often turns to one of the program people and speaks hindi re-explaining orders or giving new ones which I didn’t know about.

Finally, after all this, my US doctor and I conversed and that led to a recommendation to an orthopaedic  doctor here who then ordered an X-ray and criticized the orders for the CT as unnecessary. I finally got a treatment plan of 3 weeks in a sling for a complete fracture to the neck of the humerus and three medications to take 2  times a day to help with the healing.

Besides the frustrations, there are many interesting things to note about the medical system. Regular, non-hospital, doctors are available for emergencies 24/7 and are easy to get in touch with directly and not through nurses and such. They also understand and approve of the usage of items the US doesn’t really discuss. For healing my shoulder injury from surgery I was prescribed glucoasamine and diacein tablets both of which are vitamin supplements in the USA and I had planned on taking when I got back to the USA. Also, for the fracture, the orthopaedic doctor stressed the importance of taking the prescribed calcium and vitamin D tablets he ordered in order to promote fast, and strong healing of the fractured bone. They understand the use of supplements as important enough to prescribe them to patients to promote better health.

The cost of healthcare here is very cheap as well. Between the CT Scan (2900 rs.), X-ray (150 rs.), the doctor visits (760 rs. + 300 rs. + 150 rs.), and medications (140 rs.)  I’ve paid under 100 USD for health care. This is so cheap compared to the US. It’s definitely been interesting and frustrating. For a while, the frustration made me want to come home to deal with my doctor and have my family, but I feel much better now. I suppose my wish to learn the system here came true in a way that was completely unwanted and unexpected.

On the brighter side, I now have clean clothes and two new salwaar kameez (the Indian outfits) and two new kurtas (shirts) to wear and one more set to be made at the tailors soon. I went on a language scavenger hunt in the market and really enjoyed speaking in Hindi and being able to converse. Life here is so different and amazing and frustrating and fun. I can’t wait for my internship to start and to heal up the rest of the way.

I’ll be in touch!!