Monday June 22nd

Today we went to Sasoon Hospital and BJ Medical College where the well known Jonas Salk, creator of the injectable Polio vaccine, once spoke to hear a lecture on coronary artery disease. The lecture was fantastic.  It just so happens that a Doctor whoes name I had been given a few days before from a woman who owned a store I purchased something from was one of the three guest speakers. Funny how life works. His talk was great; all about non-surgical management of arterial disease. His brother is also a cardiologist and he spoke about non-surgical management of coronary artery disease. Then a surgeon followed them with a disscusion of the surgical management of coronary artery disease. 

After the lecture we all went to the Poona Club for lunch where Mrs. Dabak (my host) introduced me to Dr. J.S. Hiremath, the cardiologist I had been told about. He gave me his card and asked me to come to his office in Ruby Hall Clinic on Thursday so that I can observe. I am very excited about this because this is THE BEST hospital in Pune and I will be observing vascular surgery and open heart surgery. SO EXCITED!! He said if I liked it I could come back as many times as I want. Yay!

In other news I have 5 initial results from samples collected. Three of the five samples were positive for Coliform bacteria. I am getting concerned that I will not get 30 samples before I leave; it is difficult because I need someone that speaks Marathi to go with me and so I have to work around their schedule. 

I am going to post this b/c the power is about to cut. So I will post more in about 30 min.

Okay so I guess the power is not going to cut today. 

Tomorrow I am not sure what I am going to do it the morning. In the afternoon I am going to do surveys with Apoova and then we are going to the maids house to see their savings group and I will take pictures and do surveys and take water samples. Then Wednesday I will have to go to the lab in the morning and then I am not sure which hospital I will go to. Then Thursday we were supposed to go to the rural site and that would be a great place to get water samples, but I want to go to Ruby Hall Clinic. Mrs. Dabak said that we might go to the rural site Wednesday so we will see. 

I guess that is all for now. Michael comes to India July 3rd and I fly to meet him the 5th. I will be staying at the Osho Ashram on the 4th all day doing meditation and yoga. Can't believe how fast this trip has gone. I am tempted to stay for another 4 weeks on Selvie's second half of her trip which she cannot stay for. But of course I won't do that. Miss my animals and family too much. Notice the cat always comes first....

laters,

Kymberlee