Each day that you postpone writing an update makes it that much harder to write, because there is just that much more to describe.I'll do my best to get everything in:

In the two weeks since my official program ended, I've started working at a hospital where I've probably done and seen more than I had in the previous month combined.It's been both amazing and depressing.

The first week I was by myself, I basically just went to a hospital and told them I wanted to help out.Because someone at the hospital knew someone I knew, they said sure (I love how even in India you can use the brown connections).Anyways, the hospital is part-private/part-municipal, which has given me the unique opportunity to see patients from every walk of life.I've seen people who can't afford their malaria pills (which, cost about 20 cents a pill), and I've seen people have elective total knee replacements that cost 500,000 rupees.In addition to financial problems, there are many patients who just don't understand the severity of their condition because of a lack of education - one time, the attending physician had to explain to a villager that metastatic lung cancer is not something you could take Tylenol and antibiotics for.It's because of this same issue that patients keep coming in with recurrent infections: as soon as they feel better, they stop taking their medication; then, they find it odd that they have been "re-infected" by the same illness they had a few weeks ago.

In terms of the cool things I've seen, aside from the common hypertension, diabetes, tb and malaria, I saw a guy last week who had been run over by a rickshaw, and had a compound fracture of his tibia (btw - compound fracture = bone sticking out of skin AKA a bloody mess).We saw a patient who said he was having chest pains, and it turned out he had severe diabetes (fasting blood glucose of 513).I spent an afternoon with a dermatologist, and saw some pretty disgusting fungal infections (if you get a chance, look up hypertrophic lichen planus - it is gross).I also saw my first dying man when a middle-aged alcoholic came in with liver failure resulting in ascites (which is when fluid from your veins and arteries build up in your tissues because of lack of osmotic pressure); by the time he was brought into the hospital, he was in decompensatory shock, without a pulse and a bp of 40/0 (normal being 120/80).It was pretty tough when the doctors were trying to explain to the family that there was nothing that they would be able to do for the patient.

What was nice about this past week was that, in addition to becoming friends with a group of medical residents, was that my friend Serena visited for a few days en route to Chennai for work!We went to a bar called Shiro that it was so beautiful that it looked like it belonged somewhere on the Las Vegas strip, and not it Mumbai.There were waterfalls, candles, 30-foot statues of Buddha - cool doesn't begin to describe it. On another night we had drinks at a restaurant on the beach, which was equally impressive.We sat on couches in the sand, surrounded by palm trees and sand castles, drinking beers and bellinis (for the record, I stuck with the beer... even though Serena has a picture of me with an appletini).Also, I've read 4 books in the past two weeks because I've had a lot of free time - The Kite Runner, The Alchemist, The Zahir, and The Tipping Point (to those of you who haven't, read The Kite Runner - it was amazing).Life is not too shabby.

4 weeks to go before I'm back!This Friday I'm going to south India to visit Serena and check out the sites for a few days, so that'll be a good time.It is supposed to be absolutely beautiful, so expect pictures shortly.I hope you are all doing well, and are enjoying my long, intermittent updates.