Namaste and Happy Diwali to all my friends who celebrated the holiday yesterday! Diwali is the festival of lights and one of the biggest holidays of the year in India. India and its culture have become a big part of my life over the last several years. I want to share my connection and admiration of the culture. But first, let’s talk about what’s happening in South Dakota.
Svikki MD
The first half of the week was filled with plenty of patients with COVID symptoms. Here are some not so great stats… {in a pandemic, you don’t want to be the one with the highest numbers. You try to be more like scoring in golf.}
- Forbes listed South Dakota as one of the ten riskiest states to visit right now.
- South Dakota is reporting 154.5 new cases per 100,000 people on a weekly basis. {any state with more than 25 new cases per 100,000 is considered at a tipping point….we are way past that}
- The 58.8% positivity rate is the highest in the country.
Needless to say, I was happy to receive a call Wednesday morning asking if I’d be interested in attending a 2.5 day course in Rapid City.
Stabilize and transport,…stat!
The course was Comprehensive Advanced Life Support (CALS). As a healthcare worker, you have to take a lot of life support classes depending on what department you work in: Basic Life Support, Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Advanced Trauma Life Support, Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics, Neonatal Resuscitation Program… to name a few. CALS is a program designed for health care providers in rural emergency care settings. It covers the relevant portions of the above-listed courses to review with doctors, mid-levels, nurses, and EMS workers that work in rural places that don’t have all the fancy stuff the bigger places have. Your objective is to stabilize, treat life-threatening issues, and transport them out to a higher level of care.
Although I technically had the highest degree in my group (2 nurse practitioners, 2 registered nurses, and 1 EMS worker), I was definitely the least experienced and trained when it came to rural emergency care. While they ran down the list of medications needed for rapid intubation of a patient or knew how to place a pelvic binder like it was no big deal, I had a lot of catching up to do. Since I received the call Wednesday morning and the first portion of class was that evening, I didn’t exactly have time to prepare.
I learned A LOT in those 2.5 days. My favorite part was definitely learning how to place a chest tube and perform a cricothyrotomy. Although the hours were very long and the travel back and forth to Rapid City was a bit much, it was so totally worth my time. I wasn’t able to just get a hotel in Rapid because I still had to stop by the hospital daily to see my acute care patients. The whole experience was a nice break from Covid clinic. We followed very strict physical distancing guidelines and wore mask and face shield at all times. With a 58.8% positivity rate,… I trust no one.
Namaste India
Let’s take a COVID break.
India has always intrigued me with its culture, its food, its clothing, and its language. I always wanted to visit but it always seemed so foreign, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to navigate it. Lucky for me, while living in Miami, a friend of mine asked me to dinner one night. One of the attendees of this dinner was a business guy in town for a few days.
We got to chatting about all sorts of things. He is from India and I told him about my fascination with the country and my desire to visit one day. I was given the gracious offer to reach out to him when I decided to go visit and he would help me organize it. He is extremely busy with businesses all over the world, so I figured it was just a friendly gesture but that he wouldn’t possibly find the time to help me when it came time. I was very wrong in my assumption.
India, here I come!
Before starting residency, I took all the money I earned in Miami and traveled the world. I reached out to my new friend with my plans of visiting India. He asked me for a time frame, a budget, and an approximate area of the country I would like to visit. This information was forwarded to his travel agency of choice and they created an entire 3-week itinerary for me! I didn’t have to plan a thing. From the moment I landed until the moment I left, I was in great hands and was showed so much. It was some of the best weeks of my life.
My travels took me mainly through Rajasthan, the land of the kings. I started in Mumbai. One of the first things I insisted on doing was going shopping for Indian clothing. I wanted to show the people of India how much I appreciated being there and wanted to be a part of the local life.
Unsuccessfully trying to blend in
Shopping in India is quite fun. You get served chai, get to look through an abundance of fabric, and try on the most beautiful garments. After having chosen a few, my tour guide and I were off to explore the city. We were often stopped by locals to take pictures with me. A tall blonde sort of sticks out in the crowd.
I was fortunate to have a tour guide in every city I went to. This gave me such a great opportunity to learn so much about every place we visited. My guide in Udaipur invited me to his house for a meal. I met his sister who ended up doing Mehndi on my hands. Her daughter was a firecracker and kept us all entertained. The mother and I still text each other sometimes with updates. I met so many great people along the way.
Crafts & Food
We stopped at so many absolutely beautiful temples. Many of which fed me delicious meals. The craftsmanship of these temples is mind-blowing and straight-up incomprehensible. I also witness craftmanship firsthand watching artisans make miniature art, block print fabric, and cutting jewels. And I didn’t just witness,… I bought a lot of things.
Being a vegetarian at the time (I try to be mostly vegan now), I can say that India has been the easiest place for me to travel in when it comes to food. Easier even than the USA. And the food is so fresh and so delicious!
I could talk about my India trip for days but I still have a really important connection to India to share. For more pics and info, check out my Instagram page. You’ll find plenty about India, you just have to scroll down the feed a bit.
Residency Girl Gang
One of my best friends is Indian. During our first year of residency, we were a trio with one of our other close friends, also from India. These ladies took me in and immersed me even more into the Indian culture. I finally learned how to understand dishes on an Indian restaurant menu. They introduced me to flavors I hadn’t previously known. I learned how to cook some basic dishes. We frequently grabbed Indian food from the local Indian restaurant, watched Bollywood movies, and escaped from residency life.
Indian weddings may be the best parties ever
One of my friends got married in India during residency. Unfortunately for me, it was during a month I was unable to take off of work. Otherwise, I would’ve flown out to be there. Lucky for me, she decided to have the reception many months later in Philadelphia. My best friend and I rehearsed for a month to be able to perform at the reception. We cleared the lecture room after hours, projected YouTube videos over the beamer and worked on creating our routine.
Prior to the reception, I went home with the bride to Toronto. Her family was welcoming and loving. We shopped for jewelry for my reception outfit. Needless to say, they also fed me really delicious food.
The reception was so fun! My feet hurt so bad and I don’t think I’ve ever danced so much. Our performance was well received.
Diwali
My first year of residency, one of the seniors had a Diwali celebration at her house. We all put on our finest outfits, ate delicious food and danced.
In my second year of residency, I attended the Diwali celebration at a nearby temple. I tried my best to keep up with the prayer by following along in the pamphlet. The only time I could catch up was when I recognized the word yoga. Again, I was fed really yummy food.
I’m not sure I did anything for Diwali my last year of residency. I have a feeling my roommate went home to celebrate during that time and I was on call.
This year, I lived vicariously through my friends and their posts and stories of celebrating. I’m hoping the world is a safer place next year and I can join the celebrations again.
An Indian wedding in a pandemic
My dream is still to attend a full-on Indian wedding. I’m talking about all five days of celebration! I thought I would have the chance when I was invited to my best friend’s sister’s wedding this year. But then, you know, Corona. Lucky for me, I made the cut as one of the 13 people who attended. I even embroidered a mask to match my new saree my best friend had brought me back from India.
The wedding festivities were condensed into a weekend with everyone present for everything (not usually the case). I left immediately after work and made it to the home 7.5 hours later for the Sangeet. We danced and sang with relatives via video conference from India. The weekend was lovely and the wedding beautifully intimate. I felt so honored to be a part of it. The mother of the bride gifted me with a gorgeous Indian dress before my departure. I can’t wait for the next occasion to wear it!
Excited for what the future holds
So like with so many things during the age of Covid, it’ll be a while before I attend another Indian celebration. I can’t wait for it to be possible again though. I look forward to the dancing, the singing, the outfits, the food, the family and friends. Most of my Indian friends are married, so currently I only have a few more opportunities to attend an Indian wedding (until their children get married that is). However, I look forward to participating in the many other celebrations this beautiful country celebrates with its many different religions, cultures, and languages. In the meantime, I’ll keep working on my Duolingo Hindi nightly.
mfg
