Mending

If someone were to ask me to name the most difficult part about living in India, I would have an easy answer: the illness.

Oddly enough, back home I am generally in perfect condition.  My immune system keeps me on my feet three hundred sixty-five days out of the year.  I once completed a triathlon the day before I discovered I had the swine flu.  Even in India, over the winter, I managed to get used to the dirty air and the new bugs in the environment with a minimum of trouble.

Then the thermometer went up to ninety, ninety-five, one hundred, and the bacteria doubled with every degree.  Now all bets are off.

It's an eye-opening experience to step into a hospital in a developing country.  When I was there, I learned two things: it's possible to be in and out in forty minutes, and it will cost you maybe twenty dollars total (including prescriptions).  To give you some context, a trip to the ER in Boston takes a minimum of four hours (although I once spent twelve just sitting in the waiting room) and you'll need to subsequently pay an arm, a leg, and your first-born child.

Afterwards, though, it's difficult to feel sorry for yourself.  Obviously, many people were there who felt much sicker than me.  Many people were there who, despite the low prices, found medical care payments a burden.  Most of all, I noticed who were not there.  With over 14 million people in Delhi, I wondered how there were so few other patients.  Surely it's not because everyone is so healthy.  One listen to the crowd noises outside my window at night tells you that's not true.  Something tells me that even with these low barriers, providing medical care to so many must be near impossible.  That probably explains the large numbers of "eye camps" or "heart camps" in the Delhi area--essentially, places for the needy to receive a free checkup.  It's like a lot of benefits promised to the poor: a good start, but is it ever going to be enough?

I have one sister who wants to be a nurse and one sister who wants to help sick children cope during hospital visits.  I think it's one of the most important aspects of my job that I create materials to help future doctors and nurses learn.  Witnessing the sick people inside the hospital--and the sick people outside the hospital--I am thankful for people who do truly good work for the benefit of others.  It's hard to ignore, however, how much more work still has to be done.

As for me, I'm concentrating on healing as quickly as possible, and God willing will be back on my feet soon enough.  It just might mean no more eating food that isn't boiling hot.  Sadly, this may mean--gasp!--no more laddoo from Aggarwal Sweets.  That's a tragedy.  Still, if that's the worst I've got, I'm luckier than I think.