good news.

I gave my first good news today to a woman with her first pregnancy. She walked in and handed me a positive pregnancy test stick, asking me to interpret it for her. I told her it was positive, after which her eyes misted over. It was a moment to remember. I then gave her advice on folic acid tablets and proper nutrition and wrote an order for her first trimester scan. It was really something I was happy to be part of. After that I had several small children with coughs and colds, and then we travelled further towards mahabalipuram to a small anganwadi where we measured weights and head circumferences. The weighing apparatus was rudimentary at best, with a spring balance suspended from a ceiling beam, tied to a small rucksack converted into a hammock. The children varied from being well behaved to feeling terrorized by 6 doctors looming over them with measuring tapes.

The area is interesting, alternating between beautiful hotels and resorts and tech parks, with interspersed huts and tiny buildings like the ones we work in. I'm glad to have this brief experience with medicine as it is being practiced in the peripheries.