Breakfast came bright and early at 0800 and was a welcome diversion to a nightmare I was having while sleeping. It was coffee the usual Indian style and, finally, my cheese sandwich! Only here they toast the bread by grilling it in a pan with butter then putting cold cheese on it that doesn’t melt and looks like white American cheese but has no flavor. I ate it anyway. I didn’t drink the coffee though; I’m just not in the mood for it right now.
I was finally discharged from the hospital, x-ray, medical records and all in hand. We went back to my host’s home where I took a very welcome bath and change of clothes and packed my luggage. I was taken to the farm of a Rotarian to catch up with the rest of the team and have lunch. The farm produces coconuts, cashews, mangos, rubber, and I’m not sure what else. I was too late for the tour but got to have some water, bread, rice, and green beans for lunch. I can’t have anything spicy for a week and it’s going to kill me because I am really getting into the Indian food again. That’s doctor’s orders…and I am a little scared to eat too much right now even though I feel much better. From what the doctor said when he discharged me, I was almost critical. I had no idea I was that sick! It happened so fast. He checked my records and confirmed I took 15-500 ml bottles IV of a combination of D5W, RL, and NSS and I know I also drank 3.5+ liters of water all over a 48 hour period. That totals up to 11 liters of fluids, not even counting the fluids in the several antibiotic drips I got which looked to be about 250ml. That’s a lot of fluids! I don’t know the conversions to cups, quarts, or gallons, but if you can think of 11 liters of soda…and no, I wasn’t urinating it all out either. I don’t think I ever stuck my tongue out at anyone so many times either. And every time I did, they hung another bottle.
We met our new hosts at the usual site, a restaurant/hotel, and had sandwiches for a snack (with real American cheese and the first lettuce I’ve seen since America) then we moved to our host homes. My host family is Sikh and I am so happy…they have not one, but TWO GERMAN SHEPHERDS!!!!!!!!!!! A female, Stephi, and a male, Pruzzo (?). both are very friendly and licked me all over and the female begged for a belly rub. Both are black and tan and about 2-3 years, I think. The male looks a lot like Shadow while the female has lighter tan and longer fur. They are both registered dogs and the one is the get of a state champion of some kind. They look well built, for work, not like the American-bred Shepherds. I love them!
I had a decent dinner of boiled vegetables, rice, chapatti, tomatoes, and dal. Not spicy, but filling. I was careful not to eat too much until everything settles down a bit.
After dinner I shared my photo albums. It ended up bringing up the topic of servants when he made the comment that we do all the work ourselves. Then my host wanted to know why we didn’t have servants and I explained that they would be very expensive. He wanted to know how much and I said that I really didn’t know but I guessed that they might start at $10-15 an hour (based on what a cleaning person, lawn mower, repair person, or other service person might get). He raised his eyebrows to indicate that was a lot of money and he could understand why we do our own work around the house. A servant here gets paid about Rs 1000 ($25.00) per month though the servants in some places can go for as much as Rs 6000 ($150.00). He then commented that our servants are usually black people, right? I then explained about the abolishment of slavery, the civil rights movement, equal rights of blacks and people of all origins, and I think he understood. One member of his family, who lives in Canada, was delivering pizza and unfortunately was a victim of an incident similar to NJ’s infamous pizza murder but he was left for dead and survived to prosecute his attackers who were blacks. I’m not sure how this played in with his thoughts on our servants being black but he did voice remembering about the civil rights movement in the ‘60s. I’ve had several people mention that the servants’ prices are going up and they are demanding more rights. The servant workers realize that the employers are dependant on them and they are taking advantage of this. There’s kind of like an unofficial Union-like thing going on too.
I wonder if I have some phlebitis going on in my wrists. I can feel the veins distinctly hard and tender along where the IV catheters were on the posterior wrists. It is painful to bend my wrists very far. Or is this normal? It is also slightly tender up the posterior of my arms where the veins run. All of the IV equipment here is latex. Maybe that has something to do with it? I had an interesting conversation about allergies with the Rotarian that took me to meet up with my team. He is an orthopedic doctor and we were talking about my hospital experience when I mentioned the disregard and confusion about my banana allergy and that they didn’t ask about any allergies or note that one on my chart. He said that allergies and anaphylaxis in India is almost unheard of. Penicillin and sulfa, yes. Peanuts, shellfish, eggs, milk, strawberries, soy, and all the others, no. When I told him about latex free equipment in hospitals, he was amazed. I don’t think he quite comprehended the magnitude of a latex allergy! Then of course we discussed the Hygiene Hypothesis, which he was familiar with and agreed with wholeheartedly. One theory I speculate may be why the hospital staff doesn’t develop a latex allergy is that they don’t have disposable gloves except for surgery, from what I’ve seen. Everything they did was with care not to touch what was to be kept clean and they are continuously washing their hands, but no gloves (except for the woman who made a face, laughed, and cleaned my bathroom!). It was a little disturbing to me to see no gloves, but no one is allergic to latex. If you think about it, most of the latex allergies in America probably coincide with the advent of the use of disposable gloves, not the equipment. I should check into that. Thank goodness for nitrile!
I was finally discharged from the hospital, x-ray, medical records and all in hand. We went back to my host’s home where I took a very welcome bath and change of clothes and packed my luggage. I was taken to the farm of a Rotarian to catch up with the rest of the team and have lunch. The farm produces coconuts, cashews, mangos, rubber, and I’m not sure what else. I was too late for the tour but got to have some water, bread, rice, and green beans for lunch. I can’t have anything spicy for a week and it’s going to kill me because I am really getting into the Indian food again. That’s doctor’s orders…and I am a little scared to eat too much right now even though I feel much better. From what the doctor said when he discharged me, I was almost critical. I had no idea I was that sick! It happened so fast. He checked my records and confirmed I took 15-500 ml bottles IV of a combination of D5W, RL, and NSS and I know I also drank 3.5+ liters of water all over a 48 hour period. That totals up to 11 liters of fluids, not even counting the fluids in the several antibiotic drips I got which looked to be about 250ml. That’s a lot of fluids! I don’t know the conversions to cups, quarts, or gallons, but if you can think of 11 liters of soda…and no, I wasn’t urinating it all out either. I don’t think I ever stuck my tongue out at anyone so many times either. And every time I did, they hung another bottle.
We met our new hosts at the usual site, a restaurant/hotel, and had sandwiches for a snack (with real American cheese and the first lettuce I’ve seen since America) then we moved to our host homes. My host family is Sikh and I am so happy…they have not one, but TWO GERMAN SHEPHERDS!!!!!!!!!!! A female, Stephi, and a male, Pruzzo (?). both are very friendly and licked me all over and the female begged for a belly rub. Both are black and tan and about 2-3 years, I think. The male looks a lot like Shadow while the female has lighter tan and longer fur. They are both registered dogs and the one is the get of a state champion of some kind. They look well built, for work, not like the American-bred Shepherds. I love them!
I had a decent dinner of boiled vegetables, rice, chapatti, tomatoes, and dal. Not spicy, but filling. I was careful not to eat too much until everything settles down a bit.
After dinner I shared my photo albums. It ended up bringing up the topic of servants when he made the comment that we do all the work ourselves. Then my host wanted to know why we didn’t have servants and I explained that they would be very expensive. He wanted to know how much and I said that I really didn’t know but I guessed that they might start at $10-15 an hour (based on what a cleaning person, lawn mower, repair person, or other service person might get). He raised his eyebrows to indicate that was a lot of money and he could understand why we do our own work around the house. A servant here gets paid about Rs 1000 ($25.00) per month though the servants in some places can go for as much as Rs 6000 ($150.00). He then commented that our servants are usually black people, right? I then explained about the abolishment of slavery, the civil rights movement, equal rights of blacks and people of all origins, and I think he understood. One member of his family, who lives in Canada, was delivering pizza and unfortunately was a victim of an incident similar to NJ’s infamous pizza murder but he was left for dead and survived to prosecute his attackers who were blacks. I’m not sure how this played in with his thoughts on our servants being black but he did voice remembering about the civil rights movement in the ‘60s. I’ve had several people mention that the servants’ prices are going up and they are demanding more rights. The servant workers realize that the employers are dependant on them and they are taking advantage of this. There’s kind of like an unofficial Union-like thing going on too.
I wonder if I have some phlebitis going on in my wrists. I can feel the veins distinctly hard and tender along where the IV catheters were on the posterior wrists. It is painful to bend my wrists very far. Or is this normal? It is also slightly tender up the posterior of my arms where the veins run. All of the IV equipment here is latex. Maybe that has something to do with it? I had an interesting conversation about allergies with the Rotarian that took me to meet up with my team. He is an orthopedic doctor and we were talking about my hospital experience when I mentioned the disregard and confusion about my banana allergy and that they didn’t ask about any allergies or note that one on my chart. He said that allergies and anaphylaxis in India is almost unheard of. Penicillin and sulfa, yes. Peanuts, shellfish, eggs, milk, strawberries, soy, and all the others, no. When I told him about latex free equipment in hospitals, he was amazed. I don’t think he quite comprehended the magnitude of a latex allergy! Then of course we discussed the Hygiene Hypothesis, which he was familiar with and agreed with wholeheartedly. One theory I speculate may be why the hospital staff doesn’t develop a latex allergy is that they don’t have disposable gloves except for surgery, from what I’ve seen. Everything they did was with care not to touch what was to be kept clean and they are continuously washing their hands, but no gloves (except for the woman who made a face, laughed, and cleaned my bathroom!). It was a little disturbing to me to see no gloves, but no one is allergic to latex. If you think about it, most of the latex allergies in America probably coincide with the advent of the use of disposable gloves, not the equipment. I should check into that. Thank goodness for nitrile!
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