Infectious Disease

Wow, I am almost done with my rotation here at CMC. Yesterday was outpatient clinic and it was quite interesting. The doctor had studied in the U.S. and did a fellowship at MD Anderson in Houston. His English was great and it was interesting in how he practices medicine here compared to the other doctors here. He respects his patients very much and treats each one with dignity and will praise every patient that walks into his room. Although, it quickly became chaotic when he had 4 patients in his room at one time! He had one sitting in the room across his room and three other patients in his room. I was suppose to interview one, Codi another, and a medical student from CMC see the 4th patient. In addition, each patient brought along a close family/friend. I interviewed about 4 patients that only spoke Hindi and well...understood a couple of English words here and there. I realized after my first patient that the only way to succeed was to use one word sentences/questions. For example...pill (along with a hand motion imitating taking a pill), hurt (pointing to certain areas of the body), job, etc. Asking "do you take any medications, or does it hurt anywhere" will not get me anywhere! The only response I will receive is either a puzzled look on their faces or they start saying a bunch of stuff I completely don't understand. This epiphany only occurred after I had realized that they spoke to me the same way. For example when I step into a shop, they say "come" and that's it or "bye" and walk away. It's been a quite interesting experience.
Today during ward rounds, I saw gangrenous toes due to SLE, Raynaud's phenomenon at different stages, a great clinical example of rebound tenderness, and numerous cardiac murmurs. I've noticed that many of the patients have rheumatic heart diseases or have been treated with tuberculosis....I just hope I don't end up having positive PPD's once I leave India.