Monday, June 24, 2013

Long Walks and Abscesses

Today has been a great day! We are all very sad that it is our final week in India, so we have decided to make it the best one yet. There are finally students on campus since classes started last week so the atmosphere is a lot more lively. It’s beginning to look a lot like the type of campus we’re used to. During our break today we walked around campus and town, venturing out further than normal. Due to my Appalachian t-shirt and extremely mix-matched outfit, we ran into a very nice couple from Houston. They said they grew up in Trichy and were here visiting family. They had a ton of questions to ask us, like was there any culture shock coming from the US to a place like Trichy. It seems that every time we meet someone new they wonder why we came to Trichy of all places. We all decided anytime we run into someone from the US we feel like we have this immediate connection, and I guess we kind of do.

The dentist office was poppin’ today. Dr. Gurucharan was cranking through a variety of patients today. Usually he does the exact same procedures every day, but today was a little different. A patient came in with a huge bandage on her face because she had an abscess draining through her jawbone. Not only did she have drainage from the outside, apparently the infection had gone through her muscle of mastication so she could not open her mouth. Dr. Gurucharan had to slowly pry her mouth open little by little with a small metal tool. He was able to get it about halfway open so she can eat. He said once the swelling from the infection goes down, he will open her mouth more and remove the impacted tooth causing the abscess.  Although this has been very painful for the patient, it is comforting to know that it all will be fixed and she will be back to normal before long.

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