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Thursday July 10th 9:00 amDehra DunYesterday was really enjoyable.I had been feeling really bad the night before and went straight to bed with out any dinner at all.Any smell of food made me want to vomit so as soon as we got back from our last rotation I went straight to my room and got in bed.After 10 hours of sleep I woke up still in bad health.For breakfast was a toast sandwich with onions and potatoes and bananas.I tried to eat as many bananas as possible as the potatoes and onions were pretty spicy.Just nothing was feeling appetizing that morning or day.It was another scorcher today.I think it has a high of about 104 that day and water was my only relief from anything.I had woken up even worse than when I went to bed.Yesterday was plague by the depressing sore throat (as if I wasn't feeling bad enough).Already the day looks long and ominous.That was until we got to the homeopathic doctor, Dr. Nanka.Dr. Nanka has easily settled in as our favorite doctor of the day.So much that we tend to stay 30 mins or longer past our scheduled time.He just loves teaching students about homeopathy and his zeal for its 'magical cures' always keeps me engaged and attentive to what he talks about.He told us of a story of him curing a woman with Hepatitis C!For those of you who do not know there is little we (western medicine) can do for Hepatitis C as there is no vaccination or cure.This woman, however, was married to one of Dr. Nanda's friends and after years of being miserable with drug treatments (drug treatments for Hep C cause bad side effects like bleeding) she decided to try homeopathy.After 6 months of treatment she was completely asymptomatic and free of any sign of Hepatitis.This of course stunned doctors and debate on whether she was correctly diagnose or not is still uncertain.But what does it matter?If there is one thing that all kinds of doctors here share is that whether it is homeopathy, allopathy, ayurvedic, faith healing, or anything else, whatever the healing as long as the patient has relief it doesn't matter to them.Our cadiologist doesn't care if it's a miracle cure or routine antibiotics, if the patient is better than he is happy.One of the least favorite places for us to go is our mid-afternoon session with Dr. Prem Nath.Not because he is a bad man but because frankly, Reiki is a form of healing just out their.It's weird, I can barely get my head around faith healing despite my faith that prayer can have an impact on healing, but Reiki just seems out there.Reiki is a form of naturopathy where the healer uses energy to realign the patient's chakras or energy centers.It requires deep concentration, relaxation and breathing.This doctor has been doing Reiki for some time now and believes in it.Who am I to change that?Even our cardiologist has some background in Reiki and he believes that it has some potential to heal, if not actually than psychologically.He himself uses to power of touch to the forehead to his patients (the forehead is one of the 7 chakras in the human body) because he believes in the power of touch and giving energy/comfort to his patients.So now I can see the validity of Reiki.And Dr. Prem Nath notes its limitations of healing.Basically, everyone expresses the power allopathy has in clinical and emergency situations so no one here is saying to get rid of western medicine.Even Dr. Nanda told the three of us to do allopathy, get that degree because allopathic doctors have better clinical skill than any other form of medicine (he studied and learned a lot from MDs during his first years as a homeopath).Only after training in allopathy should we then consider homeopathy.I will end this massage about two things:we will not see Dr. Rick (our cardiologist) anymore so he gave us some great advice and we also got to eat pizza last night.Dr Rick was our 6tpm-8pm shift rotation and unfortunately that is the point where we all just about to pass out.It's very hard to stay in a comfortable position for long or stay awake.Last night was a particularly slow night as all his patients had been discharged from his ward and it was rainy so not many patients come in to see him.Dr. Rick lives nearby, is married, and has two sons.One of his sons, his eldest wants to follow his foot steps and is taking his entrance exams in Sydney, Australia to go to medical school there.That where he and his mother are right now.Dr. Rick's youngest is at boarding school and isn't sure what he wants to do.He says he might want to be a commercial airline pilot so that he can fly his Dad and family on vacations.Dr. Rick has immigration status in the US so has to travel to the US for one week once a year.Last year they went to Hawaii!Anyway part of the reason he is leaving is because he is meeting is wife and son in Delhi coming back from Sydney.Dr. Rick gave us very important advice.Apart from the advice above he gave us the ABCs of being a doctor that was taught to him.Availability, Behavior, and Competence.A doctor must be firstly available to his patients.He has to prove that he can be trusted and ready to be there for them when they need it.Secondly, a doctor must have good behavior.He must be kind, patient, and sincere with his patients, nurses, staff, and everyone in general.Only lastly is competence as importance.Obviously, competence is important.I mean look at Dr. Rick, he was the top graduate of his class in Medical school.He was an award winning television actor (for his community work but he was an actor) and owns his own practice.
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