A little less overwhelmed

Today was the second day of work. It was a lot less overwhelming, luckily. I went in at 8 am to the labour room and then was in the OPD (outpatient clinic) for the rest of the day.

The morning started out with a precipitous delivery. I saw people heading to the delivery room (there is one "sterile" room off the labour room where the vaginal deliveries occur) All I could see coming out of the vagina were these little beads on a string and it took me a few moments to register that those were toes of a foot. I guess they do breech deliveries here. And then the baby came out and it was really tiny, so I realized this was a preterm delivery. And then I remembered I was in India. They brought the baby to a resuscitation room and I saw them intubating the tiny thing and trying to set up an incubator. I have no idea what happened to that baby after they wheeled it away.

Things to note about Indian hospitals
1. Everyone working in the hospital wears flip flops.
2. When watching a resident do an arterial line in the ER, Ale saw no alcohol swab used as the resident attempted repeatably on the wrist to find the artery. The resident got a little blood, but not enough, so she squirted the excess blood on the floor and tried again (without a swab.)
3. Flip flops are worn in the Operating Theaters. You take off your shoes before entering and then put on a pair of "OT" flip-flops that god knows how many people have put on their feet.
4. When seeing patients in clinic, each doctor has a set clinic room. They call the patients to come in when it is their turn.
5. Epocrates, uptodate, and iphones are not used to diagnose and treat patients. 

Clinic goes much quicker in India. And procedures get scheduled quicker, too. One patient we saw had gotten an ultrasound earlier in the week showing a fibroid uterus. She came to clinic with the results and the doctor sent her to the outpatient medicine clinic (the same day) to get cleared where she would then be admitted to the Gyn service for a hysterectomy (maybe tomorrow).

In other news, Ale and I have eaten dosas (pancake filled indian goodness) many times in the past 3 days. We found a little restaurant across the street and we have been eating Leer Dosa, Onion dosa, rava onion dosa, rava onion masala dosa, paper masala dosa (and the list goes on) since Wednesday AM. We have branched out a little bit by getting pea paluv, naan, and some other things, but we really like our dosas.

Also, I have officially gotten a cold from the pollution in Bangalore. I started using my nose spray because I had such retched postnasal drip and a sore throat and it has improved a tiny bit.