Friday, February 10, 2012
Another great day at Dhulikhel hospital. We had an awesome teaching session with one of the hospital’s cardiologists. One of his patients was there, a 44 yo woman with documented rheumatic heart disease (this is a complication of untreated streptococcal infections- like strep throat causing vegetations on valves leading to heart failure, etc) and he taught us about this condition by having us ask questions about her presenting signs/symptoms, examine her and then watch as he performed an echocardiogram! It was so cool to see the valvular dysfunction that this condition had caused first hand. This is an extremely rare disease to see manifested in the United States because we treat strep throat (even when we don’t have 100% proof that an infection exists). In a developing nation like Nepal, patient education and access to healthcare (among many others) are some issues contributing to nation’s population acquiring this very preventable disease.
We took a day trek to the beautiful Namobuddha, a destination that is about 3 hours away by foot. Legend has it that years ago at the current site of this stupa, a Buddhist discovered a starving tigress that couldn’t feed her cubs and so he sacrificed himself and was thus transported to a higher realm of existence. The hike was great...intense for me considering I have not hiked longer than 2-3 hours at once (we left at 9am and got back at 5:30pm!). I loved every minute...this was no lazy Saturday! We trekked the mountainside, passing several quaint villages with baby goats, chickens, cows and people greeting us along the way. After 3.5 hours, reached Namobhudda- with prayer flags painting the sky, small prayer areas filled with hundreds of candles (I got to light one!) and beautiful painted pillars describing the experience the Buddhist had as he sacrificed himself and reached Nirvana. We got to see another beautiful monastery too and got to listen to monks playing instruments and singing chants in Tibetan- very cool. It was a wonderful Saturday and our buns and thighs are aching- totally worth it! Loving Nepal, day by day. Talk to you soon, xoxo.
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