Day 17

Cute baby from across the street again. I die. 

This patient had MDR-TB, completed his 2 years of treatment, and was proclaimed as cured by all of the staff at Damien. While this should have called for celebration, the patient claimed to still have a brutal cough and seemed very psychologically distraught. Mr. ___ counseled him for twenty minutes trying to convince him that he was fine and just had irritated lungs. Mr. ____ finally had his colleagues  come and refer the patient to a lung specialist. 

This is a TB patient's mother who came in for her son, and ended up spontaneously getting treatment for leprosy. Funny how that works out. 

ZOMGBFF4L. The breakfast club was getting loony and laughing and talking in Telugu really fast, so I didn't really know what was going on. They just told me to take this picture. I think it's cute!

This guy is an in patient for ulcers on his feet. His wife is staying with him at the hospital and I spoke with her for a while. They have one son who is eighteen, and was born with really bad vision. He quickly became blind, and apparently tried to fix the problem with surgery in Chennai. The surgery was unsuccessful though. She said he sits at home. The son was supposed to come to the hospital but I think I left too early to get a chance to meet him. I'd like to talk to him at some point. 

Boyztown scrubbed out and enjoying comaraderie. 

This past patient came in to consult about LEP: the Life Enhancement Program. On a case by case basis, Damien provides goats, cows, sheep, or those store shack things to its patients to help them maintain a steady living with their disabilities. This patient was talking to Peter about buying a sheep who was arguably pregnant. I didn't know what the Telugu words for sheep or pregnant were until way after the conversation began so I sort of missed the whole LEP process.