Harrison's Textbook in Person!

Yesterday we went to the Golden Temple called Mahalakshmi. It is located on 100 acres of land at Sripuram, near Vellore, and is headed by the spiritual leader Sri Sakthi Amma. He is said to be the reincarination of three sisters, so his physical appearance is male yet his soul is female. The temple, covering 55,000 sq ft, has intricate carvings and sculptures in gold. Except for the star-shaped pathway, the entire structure is composed of gold and copper and has quotes from the Bible and the Quran displayed on either side. I read that it is worth 160 million USD, which is ridiculous considering all the poverty that surrounds it.
We went around sunset and it was an amazing sight. You walk up to the temple on the pathway for what seems like forever and finally when you get there it's a huge temple made out of pure gold and the crowds are endless. At the end we all got a red dot on our forehead which represents a third, inner eye that everyone receives after leaving the temple. It is a Hindu tradition to have three eyes, two for seeing the outside world and the third to focus inward towards God. Here's a picture of us with our third eye!
Yesterday I started medicine with Team II in the outpatient clinic. It was cool seeing some of the same diseases that people in the states have, like the average hypertension and diabetes. There wasn't anything too different or exciting and Dr. George was a good teacher.
Today though was a completely different story. Team II had what they call, "Grand Rounds," in which we round on all the Team II patients in the MICU and Ward C. It's about 50 patients total so it took a good 41/2 hours, but it was really cool and Dr. T. David is an awesome teacher.
Here is a list of some of the patients I saw....
1. 35yo F with pneumococcal meninigitis
2. 32yo F with Rickettsial infection, scrub typhus type with eschars on her abdomen
3. 27yo F with middle cerebral artery stroke with history of pre-eclampsia during here first pregnancy
4. 60yo M with organophosphate poisoning on a ventilator
5. 28yo F with another Rickettsial infection, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (one of the classic diseases we learn about to cause a rash on the palms and soles)


6. 23yo F with oleander flower poisoning causing complete heart block because of the cardiotoxicity of the substance in the seeds (supposedly there's a lot on campus so I'll be staying away from those!)
I can't even imagine a ward like the one I was on today. It was like each patient was from a different chapter in Harrison's textbook, except rather than reading it, I was learning about it in person! There were many more patients with classic medical problems, but the above were a few of the ones that I might not ever see again in my medical career. I am so excited that I was able to see only a sample of what the medical students from CMC see on a daily basis.