Day 11

Kalyani went out of her way to find me tamarind out of season after I told her that I was a big fan of the fruit. So sweet of her! I tried to take an artsy picture of her posing with it. 

Patient who came in to get his ulcers cleaned. The grey area is all dead skin that will be scrubbed away after letting it soak in water for a while. He is a railroad builder and had a lot of ulcers on his hands and feet as a result. Dr. Begam and the nurse told him he needed to soak and clean his ulcers daily, but he lamented that he didn't have the physical ability to gather a bucket with water and clean his cuts for himself, let alone enough food to eat. He asked if he could stay at the Damien clinic to have his wounds cleaned, but the beds at Damien are always filled by pre and post op patients. They both told him he could hopefully find a place to stay and be treated at a catholic church's care center for the poor, but they were very troubled even thinking about him managing to get there with his bandaged hands and feet. They thought about accommodating him next to the kitchen, but then realized they couldn't have an ulcer patient near food. Super sad to witness. 

This was so crazy to see. This lady is a pre-op patient who had a really thick piercing on the ball of her  big-toe. The caretaker cleaned it by stringing a thick piece of alcohol-covered gauze through it. I really questioned the strength of my stomach watching him clean it. 

 

This is her other foot. She must have it amputated. It's completely crippled and infected. Kalyani told me that the patient refuses to have it removed, but that she'll eventually have to submit to the doctors requests. The patient's sister is also a leprosy patient here. She is very animated for an old woman and started yelling at Kalyani for watching the caretaker clean the wound. She said "Why does Kalyani always come to watch? Why is my sister's foot so special? Everybody has this problem, don't they? Why does she always come here and watch my sister!?" The patient tried to appease her sister and told her that Kalyani only came to watch because I, "the doctor," was there to watch, but her sister didn't care and continued berating Kalyani loud enough for all of the in-patients to hear. Kalyani told me that her sister has been very emotional about the whole amputation news. Kalyani also told me she wants to go home because the smell of the rotting flesh in her foot is too stomach-turning for her to handle. 

Kalyani then showed me her lunch for the day. I always thought I ate a lot of rice but the portions of rice that the patients here eat is remarkable. I eat about half this amount. 

The breakfast club told me that the leprosy-painful-reaction patient's son is 13 and stays at the hospital with his dad because he gets free meals at Damien and there is not enough money for him to eat food at home. He wrestles and plays around with some of the club members when he's not tending to his dad, which is basically never. 

Went home and peeped in on some of the classrooms. 

Everytime I pass by one everyone gets quiet and stares. Then I say "HI!!!" and they all start giggling and in unison respond back, "HI!!!!!!!!"

The one covering his face is a super shy one and his friends tried to get me to take a picture of him. They're all so giggly. Hopefully I get to teach English to some of the them pretty soon.