The past 3 days we split our time between ART (antiretroviral therapy not making things as I would not be very successful at that, just check out my drawings Courtney posted on facebook) and CCL (central clinical laboratory). Both of these departments gave us the chance to really talk with the people who work in them and have some good conversations about India.
In ART we learned more about AIDS/HIV in India. The treatment is free from government funding for patients who come to the center and this center serves almost 3000 patients. They told us that the state we are in has one of the highest rates of HIV in India. We learned about the regimens that they use here and how they decide the treatment that the patients will get based on labs and side effects. They also sometimes have to adjust the treatments based on what medications the government has given them. The days we were there it wasn't super busy because it wasn't days where patients come to get there CD4 counts so instead only a few patients came. The interns that we talked to were really nice and we discussed things about India-such as religion, food, education, history, etc. We covered a wide range of topics and I learned quite a bit about India from them.
In the CCL we spent most of our time with the head of the lab. He really wanted us to ask him questions about India, the lab, and really anything else that we could think of. We ended up talking to him for quite some time and he told us what he felt were the major public health problems in India. He said that he thought the lack of health awareness was a major issue. People don't use primary health care (and there isn't enough primary care centers around) so when they finally go to the doctor it is too late and their disease has gotten to bad to actually treat. He also said that alcoholism, anemia, and infant mortality are also problems in India.
He was also just a really wise guy and fine to talk with. He gave us 3 keys to living a good life and they are:
In ART we learned more about AIDS/HIV in India. The treatment is free from government funding for patients who come to the center and this center serves almost 3000 patients. They told us that the state we are in has one of the highest rates of HIV in India. We learned about the regimens that they use here and how they decide the treatment that the patients will get based on labs and side effects. They also sometimes have to adjust the treatments based on what medications the government has given them. The days we were there it wasn't super busy because it wasn't days where patients come to get there CD4 counts so instead only a few patients came. The interns that we talked to were really nice and we discussed things about India-such as religion, food, education, history, etc. We covered a wide range of topics and I learned quite a bit about India from them.
In the CCL we spent most of our time with the head of the lab. He really wanted us to ask him questions about India, the lab, and really anything else that we could think of. We ended up talking to him for quite some time and he told us what he felt were the major public health problems in India. He said that he thought the lack of health awareness was a major issue. People don't use primary health care (and there isn't enough primary care centers around) so when they finally go to the doctor it is too late and their disease has gotten to bad to actually treat. He also said that alcoholism, anemia, and infant mortality are also problems in India.
He was also just a really wise guy and fine to talk with. He gave us 3 keys to living a good life and they are:
- Anger is a wasted emotion
- Always be humble
- Practice patience
I thought these were all some pretty solid things to live by. He told us that the earlier we start trying to live by these things the better our life will be because he didn't start trying to do these things until much later in life.
We also spent quite a bit of time talking about marriage. He told us about how in the cities and more urban areas people marry more for love now and that often these marriages don't last very long because the couples aren't willing to make it work. He told us that the majority of marriages here are some-what arranged where the couple has some say, but not always a lot. He said that he thought that these often worked out better because both people go into the relationship knowing that they will have to make some compromises. He also told us about the marriage practices of some of the tribal people that he had encountered that were pretty interesting. Really the whole conversation was really good and I enjoyed hearing his take on love, marriage, and families.
He also told us more about his time in the army and the places that he has lived and worked. Some of them were really remote. He told us the stories about waiting for helicopters to come get injured people and having to wait for the fog on the mountains to clear so it could land and take the patients away. He was just full of tons of information and I feel like I learned quite a bit about India through talking with him. I know he told us tons more that I can't remember right now, but it was a great time of learning.
We also learned some about how the lab works and how they do the tests. I made a slide with a blood sample and was not super successful at it. The technician told me I needed a little more practice. We also used some of the hematology machines and put samples in to be read. It was interesting to see how the lab works and what kinds of stuff that they do even if I didn't really understand it all.
I don't have any pictures from the lab or ART because I've been slacking at taking pictures when we are at our posts, but I do have a few pictures of Courtney's birthday celebration that I will share so enjoy.
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| Bangals at the market |
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| Waiting for pizza and fries at the london twist |
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