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The Valley of Flowers
Tuesday Mayank came up to visit us in Mussoorie to see how we were doing and what were are plans for the weekend. It was then I would ask that we should go to the Valley of Flowers that weekend. From what I read in my travel guide it was supposed to be a beautiful valley in the Himalayan mountains. However, my guide didn't say anything about landslides, long waits, shrewd cab drivers, Punjabi pilgrimages, long horse rides in the rain, or expensive clothes just to stay warm. Four of us left 4:00 am Friday morning panning on getting back Monday afternoon after seeing the Valley of Flowers; little did we know this trip wasn't as simple as we planned.
To get to the Valley of flowers involves a long 200 km bus ride from Dehradun to Joshimath, 20 km jeep ride to Govind Ghat, a 14 km horse ride up 1200 m hill side to Ghangaria, and finally a 7-8 km hike to the Valley. Our plan was to get to Joshimath by the first day and meet a friend of Mayanks who would get us settled with accommodations and arrange a jeep to Govind Ghat. On day 2 we wanted to get all the way to Ghangaria which meant us leaving early in the morning because the 14 km hike was supposed to take 5-6 hours. The next day we would finally see the Valley. After we spent some time there we were going to get back to Joshimath the same day. And on Monday morning leave back for Dehradun. This was the plan.
Mussoorie
We were up 3:30 am to get down to our jeep back to Dehradun from Mussorie. I liked Mussorie. We stayed in Landour Community Hospital, a Christian hospital that was renovated to a pretty modern feeling hospital. We stayed in patient rooms on the third floor and spent time with a couple of the doctors; pediatrician, internal medicine, general and orthopedic surgery were my choices over the four days we were there. I got to see some pretty cool procedures and got to talk to a lot of the doctors about their faith. I think I connected the best with Dr. Elizabeth which was a bit of a surprise to me because Clint had seen her the day prior and said that he just sat there the entire time. I was a little reluctant to go see her but because I had made up my mind and said that I should go I did. It ended very differently with her and she gave me some good ideas about being faithful and being a follower of Christ at the same time. The time I've spent in India I have heard some good advice from a lot of doctors of what they think is required for the job. Dr. Elizabeth told me balance was necessary for a good doctor. A doctor must be very balanced in their life and in their work. This was more a relief than anything because I do consider my self a more balanced person; not necessarily an extreme in most cases.
I also enjoyed some of the procedures that I saw. Some were a little more graphic than others so I'll spare you from hearing about them [plus I do not feel like describing them here] but two that stand out are a little girl with a cut on her chin and an older women who's ankle was infected because she got pierced by a stick. The little girl was funny to watch. She had fallen and created a gash in her chin that need four stitches. It wasn't a terrible cut as it wasn't bleeding but the concern was that it would leave a terrible scar if it was sutured. This girl gave the most terrible fuss about those stitches. She cried and cried. At the age of 6 or 7 she was terribly afraid of the
injection that she was not going to receive. I am guessing her mother might have told her that she might have to get one to prevent infection but that wasn't the case. Despite the numerous times the Dr. Samuel [general surgeon] told her that she would not get an injection, it still took 4 people to hold her down sometimes. She wept and wept and I found it actually kind of amusing. That was because back in the doctor's office, she was very quiet and wouldn't talk to anyone. She was being so stubborn and I could tell that she didn't want to admit that she had overreacted for something that didn't really hurt that much; but she was stubborn. After teasing her a little and her mother jokingly threatening to leave her there until she said good by we got her to smile much to her dislike. And with a smile as she left she said goodbye and thank you to us as the door closed.
The other procedure that I got to see was the incision of a blister that had clearly become infected on the back of a woman's ankle. The fear was that this infection was because part of the stick might still be inside and as the infection grew it could weaken the Achilles tendon so it would rupture. So using some anesthesia we put the woman under and went to work. Now, most of my clinical experience has been just sitting on the sidelines watching but for this special occasion I was asked to assist Dr. Matthew by holding down the patient and putting more anesthetic when told. It was pretty crazy experience. The patient was obviously unresponsive but her eyes were still open which was to be honest a little shocking. Still yet when Rob [a medical student] actually made an incision, her whole body went erect as if she was reacting to the pain. However, a little more anesthetic later and we were able to make the incision and remove the remainder of the splinter. It was a very good size piece about one and a half inches in length. Quite amazing that you can have something that size in your heel and not really know. Then again here ankle was swollen pretty heavily. The whole experience gave me some new things to stomach and an idea of what doctors more or less do. To be honest nothing I saw seemed very much too distant in the future and seemed quite accomplishable. Several times over my work in undergrad has given me reassurance that medicine was something that is possible and if I worked hard enough I could do these things.
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