6 weeks out

Depature is now 6 weeks away! Between prepping for the trip, clinical duties, and residency applications this blog has been a bit neglected. Time to fix that!

As a 4th year medical student I'm presently on my elective time. Which means I'm chasing back and forth across Canada doing electives at different sites in (primarily) cardiac surgery.

The final four weeks of elective (Nov 23 - Dec 20) I've opted to do in Kathmandu Nepal at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital. Thus this blog. Here I hope to learn about the healthcare system in a non-Western setting and hope to apply those lessons to future volunteer / outreach work as a physician.

Why Nepal? It's pretty? It's there? Both good reasons. But really it's because my anatomy professor had taught there previously and she graciously  put me in touch with a former student Dr. SA. Dr. SA is Nepal trained, Toronto fellowship trained critical care physician who is now trying to bring ICUs to Nepal. His organization, the Nepal Critical Care Development Foundation, strives to establish a true Intensive Care Unit in Nepal where the sickest patients can be cared for in a multi-disciplinary team. See Dr. SA's article on the need for ICUs in Nepal. Also check out their Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/nccdf/timeline or website: www.nccdfnepal.org

To support NCCDF I am also collecting both money and equipment to bring on my trip. They are presently in the process of setting up online donations. For now, if you would like to donate please contact me to arrange it and I will bring the donations with me.

So where am I on prepping for the trip?

Nepal visa? check

Flights? check. After much searching found out I can do Toronto-Istanbul-Kathmandu with Turkish Airlines. All other options went through Europe-India and on. Fine if minimal baggage. I'm hoping to bring a suitcase of food and a second of supplies!

Accommodation: check. Thanks to NCCDF.

So what's left?

Well as I'll be swinging through India for a friends traditional wedding on the way back, need an Indian visa. And then Turkish visa for 4 days in Istanbul on the return. But more on those later.

Food allergies and travel

Done clerkship!

Now for the sobering task of cardiac surgery electives and preparing for Nepal.

One looming threat for Nepal is I have numerous food allergies. Food I can eat is typically referred to as "Neil-safe". Friends often joke "I haven't managed to kill you yet!". I also joke. At a recent prayer meeting, I asked for prayer that "I not die in Nepal" as a succinct way of conveying my trepidation of feeding myself in a country where I do not speak the language and know only a handful of people from emails. (more on that later).

This article describes a physician holding his 13 year old daughter has she passed from anaphylactic shock. Despite her spitting out the food, multiple Epipens, antihistamine, and his medical training, he was unable to save her. A sobering reminder my own mortality, despite medical training. If you have and Epipen or know someone who does, please carry it and know how and when to use it!

For Nepal, I had been thinking I might bring a suitcase filled of food as a "just in case". That maybe is rapidly becoming a reality. Photos to come as my suitcase(s) of food develop!

Beginnings

Hello world.

As a former robotics engineer, how could I not start my blog with that quintessential CS opening. Now to business...

Welcome to Follow the Heart(s), a blog of travel, medicine, and technology. I'm presently in my senior year of medicine and entering electives with the aim of cardiac surgery.

This blog is mainly to document my final elective in Kathmandu, Nepal but may evolve if I become an enthusiastic blogger.

So, with travel and heart surgeries ahead, follow the heart(s)!

Quick Update

The World Health Assembly started yesterday and so far it has been incredible. I heard the Director General of the WHO speak yesterday, along with various ministers of health (Canada, US, China, to name a few) - today I watched Ban Ki Moon address the WHA as well as a smaller session for WHO staff. I almost shook his hand too...but not quite.

In other news my laptop is experiencing some extreme difficulties so until I find a Windows XP cd and try reinstalling my operating system, I won't have much internet access at home. I'll post my WHA pictures once everything is up and running again!

Le Saleve

Today I rejoined the cycling club from yesterday for a real ride - 72 km around (and partially up) the mountain Le Salève. Apparently there were about 80 riders - everyone was allowed to go at their own pace and start anytime between 8:30 and 10am. I started at 8:30 am (we actually got underway closer to 9), and went with two ladies and a man who I met yesterday. The first 35 km was basically uphill (not very steep though) - but we slowly made our way around the mountain. You can see our route here - it doesn't show all of it at once (I still don't know why) but if you scroll you will see all of the pieces. http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&start=1&num=200&msa=0&msid=116979252322631580965.00046a1c0fabd81bf92d4&ll=46.156886,6.198177&spn=0.092986,0.207367&z=13

From the top we had a nice view of Geneva - if you look hard you can see the Jet d'Eau! At the halfway point they fed us snacks and drinks as well. Along the way there were checkpoints where you stamp your "passport" - and then when you get to the end you show your stamps and you get a certificate =)



You can see the guy in our riding group at the checkpoint - the "brevet controle".



We rode at a fairly relaxed pace, which was nice because I've never gone up a mountain before (even if this mountain is considered more of a hill compared to the other mountains in Switzerland). All in all we covered about 600 m of vertical distance. You can see the terrain profile in the last picture. It's just a picture of my phone - I don't know how to display this information on a real computer yet!

We finished around 2:30 and along with my certificate they gave me a pair of socks as well (or I could have chosen a water bottle or a fanny pack). The route was marked as well - they had placed signs all along the route at 6am this morning. A pretty good service, considering I paid 30 CHF to join their club and 15 CHF for today's ride. The next ride is on Saturday, and I don't have to pay for it because we will all go as a group (ie no signs, or snacks, or certificates, or socks!). But the following week is another go-at-your-own pace ride. Thanks to the relaxed pace, I'm not totally dead now! But I have to sleep early because I'm going to be at work at 7:40 tomorrow. The World Health Assembly doesn't technically start until 10am, but my supervisor has to be there for 8, and she offered to take me and show me around, as long as I don't mind the early start. I'm sure it will be well worth it! The Director General of the WHO speaks at 2pm I believe, and I hope to be able to see it in person, but if not everything is webcast on the WHO intranet. Everything you ever wanted to know about the WHA and more can be found here: http://apps.who.int/gb/e/e_wha62.html