Days 48, 49 & 50
(7/6-7/8)

The last couple of days have been a whirlwind of good-byes. It all started on Friday, my last day at the hospital. I spent the morning in OT and went out with a bang seeing some pretty cool procedures! The most exciting one was an umbilical hernia- basically this guy had a mass of tissue coming up from his abdominal wall, into and out of his belly button (you could see this big lump of tissue right where his belly button would be). The doctors went in laproscopically and basically just pulled the tissue out from his belly button into his abdominal cavity (which was filled with gas so they could easily work). It took a lot longer than expected, though, because the mass was so big that it wouldn’t fit through the laproscopic holes, so the doctor had to take it out in pieces. Finally, they put mesh over where the hernia was so it won’t come back- and took at least an hour longer than was expected.

After the surgery finished, it was time to say good-bye. I went around to the different units to say bye to the various doctors and nurses I’ve met. It was very bitter sweet; I’m glad it’s done but at the same time, I’ll miss seeing everyone everyday. And besides, how do you even say bye to people in all honesty you may never see again in your life? I mostly got a lot of “best wishes for your future,” so I guess that’s how. The nurses are who I spent the majority of my time with, and I’m going to miss their personality and questions and tours around the units (not to mention the IRC team and everything they did)- so if you guys ever read this, thanks for a great six weeks!

Yesterday (Saturday) was spent running a ton of errands: to the phone store to fix a slight problem, mailing postcards, sending a box of clothes/souvenirs home (Sam), and to the bookstore because we’ve all run out of things to read, which could be bad during 24 hours of travel! That evening we had a final get-together/thank-you party for everyone we’ve worked with the past month and a half. It was actually really nice to talk to everyone and thank them one last time (although once again, there were more good-byes, including Laura's friend who I really enjoyed talking to; she's going into public health and doing an internship here dealing with maternal/fetal health). I also wore a sari (borrowed from Laura), which was awesome!

Today was full of more good-byes. Yoshi left early this morning, as did the Rajasthan group. I’m leaving tonight, and more people are leaving tomorrow as well. It’s exciting to be heading out for a week (or two) of travel, but also weird leaving Bangalore-our home for the last two months- and everyone we’ve spent so much time with. But I’m definitely looking forward to the next week and seeing other areas of India!

Me, Navee, Maddy