Hi everyone! This post is going to be a mix of yesterday and today and since I finally have my notebook back from Dr. Victoria's office, I also may post some of the things I learned/experienced on Friday! And the name of this post comes first from it being my 22nd post, and second from the fact that they say "triple one" or "double five" to describe numbers here! So this is post number doublet two!
I forgot to mention on Friday that each of the babies that in born in Janet receives a cushioned baby wrap that sort of acts like a bed (and it can also be held). It is so precious when they have been all cleaned off and get put into their bed wraps! On a totally different note, I also learned the Tamil word for earrings on Friday: jimiki! When I told Dr. Victoria I had learned the word, she followed up by asking me if I wore such large earrings at home! My answer, of course, was no since I barely even wear earrings at home! But everyone wears them everyday here so I feel like I have to as well.
Yesterday rounds at the clinic were very interesting, but also very sad. First, I found out that there was a case of chicken pox. Most of us know that it is much better to get chicken pox as a child because it can be very hard to handle as an adult and there are fewer risks if you get it as a child. Well, when a pregnant mother has chicken pox, it can either be an okay thing or a bad thing; in the case that I saw, it was bad. If the mother is able to carry the child for ten days after contracting chicken pox, the children is exposed and will be born immune. If the child is born before the ten days is over, he or she cannot be anywhere near the mother and thus, cannot be breast-fed. He or she must get the Varicella Zoster Immunoglobin vaccine in order to quickly create immunity so the family can be reunited. Unfortunately, the little boy in this case had been born only five days after contraction of the virus. The mother is in ICU and the baby is in the NICU. Dr. Victoria had tried to stop the labor pains and contractions with some medications to slow the birthing process, but the attempts failed and the little boy was born early anyways. Hopefully he will get the immunoglobin soon and he will be reunited with his mommy!
Two other cases I saw during rounds were a woman with a very swollen lower body (edema) and a woman who had "bad obstetric history." The woman with edema was pregnant with twins and was due on August 3rd. However, she was so swollen from her feet to her thighs that she could barely even move. In order to make sure the babies are healthy enough, they are trying to wait until at least next Monday to deliver - so hang in there, little ones! The woman with bad obstetric history was the saddest case that I saw all day. She had a heart problem which they believed to be causing the termination of her pregnancies. Her first pregnancy she carried full-term, delivered a live baby, and then it died. Her second pregnancy was a full-term still birth. And her third and fourth pregnancies both resulted in spontaneous abortions at 5 months despite cervical tightening. While we were in her room, she was crying and asking if they could just do something to end her life. Basically, she had decided that if she couldn't have children, there was no point in living. It was extremely hard to watch and I can only hope that Dr. Victoria will work the magic that she always does and will help this woman to have children of her own.
I mentioned a couple posts ago how they are able to reduce the number of fetuses via ultrasound. Well, I met a woman on Monday morning who had a ten year old son, but since had not been able to conceive. After a while on fertility drugs, she finally conceived... Sextuplets! Because it is extremely hard to safely maintain a sextuplet pregnancy, it was again reduced to twins. This morning I found out that the same mother had gone into labor on Monday afternoon and I missed the birth of the twins!
I forgot to mention on Friday that each of the babies that in born in Janet receives a cushioned baby wrap that sort of acts like a bed (and it can also be held). It is so precious when they have been all cleaned off and get put into their bed wraps! On a totally different note, I also learned the Tamil word for earrings on Friday: jimiki! When I told Dr. Victoria I had learned the word, she followed up by asking me if I wore such large earrings at home! My answer, of course, was no since I barely even wear earrings at home! But everyone wears them everyday here so I feel like I have to as well.
Yesterday rounds at the clinic were very interesting, but also very sad. First, I found out that there was a case of chicken pox. Most of us know that it is much better to get chicken pox as a child because it can be very hard to handle as an adult and there are fewer risks if you get it as a child. Well, when a pregnant mother has chicken pox, it can either be an okay thing or a bad thing; in the case that I saw, it was bad. If the mother is able to carry the child for ten days after contracting chicken pox, the children is exposed and will be born immune. If the child is born before the ten days is over, he or she cannot be anywhere near the mother and thus, cannot be breast-fed. He or she must get the Varicella Zoster Immunoglobin vaccine in order to quickly create immunity so the family can be reunited. Unfortunately, the little boy in this case had been born only five days after contraction of the virus. The mother is in ICU and the baby is in the NICU. Dr. Victoria had tried to stop the labor pains and contractions with some medications to slow the birthing process, but the attempts failed and the little boy was born early anyways. Hopefully he will get the immunoglobin soon and he will be reunited with his mommy!
Two other cases I saw during rounds were a woman with a very swollen lower body (edema) and a woman who had "bad obstetric history." The woman with edema was pregnant with twins and was due on August 3rd. However, she was so swollen from her feet to her thighs that she could barely even move. In order to make sure the babies are healthy enough, they are trying to wait until at least next Monday to deliver - so hang in there, little ones! The woman with bad obstetric history was the saddest case that I saw all day. She had a heart problem which they believed to be causing the termination of her pregnancies. Her first pregnancy she carried full-term, delivered a live baby, and then it died. Her second pregnancy was a full-term still birth. And her third and fourth pregnancies both resulted in spontaneous abortions at 5 months despite cervical tightening. While we were in her room, she was crying and asking if they could just do something to end her life. Basically, she had decided that if she couldn't have children, there was no point in living. It was extremely hard to watch and I can only hope that Dr. Victoria will work the magic that she always does and will help this woman to have children of her own.
I mentioned a couple posts ago how they are able to reduce the number of fetuses via ultrasound. Well, I met a woman on Monday morning who had a ten year old son, but since had not been able to conceive. After a while on fertility drugs, she finally conceived... Sextuplets! Because it is extremely hard to safely maintain a sextuplet pregnancy, it was again reduced to twins. This morning I found out that the same mother had gone into labor on Monday afternoon and I missed the birth of the twins!
I've recently seen a lot of cases where mothers have wanted to continue having children despite already having "enough." For example, today two woman came in wanting to have more children because they specifically wanted a boy. One woman already have three girls, but wanted to keep trying. The other was a bit more extreme. She had already had two girls and had the family planning surgery. But now that she wants a boy, the family planning surgery has to be "undone." As Dr. Victoria explained to me, this surgery is not easy. They have to again open up the patient (she has already had two C-sections), release the Fallopian tubes from the previous ties, cut out the scar tissue, and reconstruct the tubes so they are able to properly function! We talked about how it is crazy how much families will go through just to have a boy. Boys definitely have a higher worth here in India and it honestly makes me very sad to think that the two or three little girls that the family has is not enough for them. Again, I know it is definitely a cultural difference, but I can only hope that one day the country will progress to think higher of its female citizens and understand their worth as well as the man's.
Today I learned some more about the girls who work in the office with Dr. Victoria! The three main ones that I know are Rahila, Vijaya, and Saranya. Their job title is OP-assistant, which I think means Outpatient assistant and most, if not all, of them have their B.Comm. B.Comm. here is a bachelor of commerce, not a bachelor of communications as you might think! Saranya was sick today, so I didn't get to talk to her. I found out that Vijaya has two young boys and that Rahila is soon to be married. She is 22 and is getting married on July 31st to a 26-year-old. I'm not sure if it is arranged or not, but I'm also not going to be the one to ask! I don't know if that sort of thing is a touchy subject here or not, especially to the bride-to-be.
One other interesting, yet unbelievable, thing I learned today was that 3D scans are almost routine now. This is interesting because the mothers are not allowed to know the sex of the baby, so they cannot see the actual scan. They are given a sheet and a CD of photos that are zoomed in to just show the body parts of interest (I.e., spine, upper and lower limbs, spine). The scans are important because they allow the doctor to see physical anomalies very well. Dr. Victoria told me that if there is a non-lethal anomaly, such as missing digits or cleft lip, she advises the mother to continue with the pregnancy. However, if the child has a "more serious" problem, such as a limb completely unformed, she will advise them to terminate the pregnancy. This was very interesting to me since I feel as though a missing limb is not a lethal diagnosis, but something a person is able to live with. I would be interested to know the opinion of a obstetrician in the US on this subject.
This evening I also went to the private veterinary clinic with Morgan because I just wanted the experience of it! Unfortunately I am terrible luck and I drove all the animals away! We did not see even one case! I was very sad about that, but it did learn to write my name in Tamil and that made my time there worth it! We were also told about a book called the Thiru Kural (or Tirukku a) which is a book of law that is cherished by many and gives rules for life, much like the Ten Commandments but giant. It is made up of 1,330 couplets meant to govern the lives of people for the best. The first couplet reads: "Agara muthala ezhuthellam adi, bagavan muthtre ulagu." Which basically means God created everything. Another one reads: "Kal thonra man thonra kalathe, mun thonriya mootha kudi." Which means before the sand and stone were discovered, there was Tamil. The book was originally written in Tamil and is now being translated to English due to its importance. I also learned that in Tamil there are three different "la" sounds. They all have different script letters (204 total letters) that depict the specific la that is being used. But to be honest, they all sounded the same to me!
On Monday I saw a uterine fibroid removal surgery. It was initially meant to be laparoscopic, so a specific general surgeon was brought in. But after going in with the camera they determined that the fibroids were too close to the Fallopian tubes and it was not worth the risk to do it laparoscopically. So everybody began shuffling around, things were being moved in and out of the operating theatre, and Maddie and I just tried to stay out of the way! Eventually everything was set and they began to open the woman up so they could do open surgery to remove the fibroids! It was very interesting to see the shift in type of surgery and the smooth way everyone was able to handle it. Tomorrow morning (bright and early at 6 am) we are going to see a kidney transplant! Or at least the harvesting of the kidney (for certain), which takes about three hours total. We are very excited and I will let you know how that goes!
Until tomorrow,
Marissa
P.S. Here are some photos that we took on the auto on the way to shopping the other day!
P.S. Here are some photos that we took on the auto on the way to shopping the other day!
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| The beautiful Catholic Cathedral across the street from where we shop |
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| Our Auto Selfie! |
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| Maddie decided to try out the typical picture-taking face here in India |
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