Karigiri

There were 8 of us who decided to hire a van for the 40 minute drive out to Karigiri (the leprosy hospital started by Paul Brand). The drive out there, was like all of out other drives in Tamil Nadu, just gorgeous. I mean once you get beyond the endless trash on the road, the stray mutts everywhere, and the never ending stream of random smells that seem to merge together. The hospital itself is built on acres and acres of lush land. I really think you could jsut throw seeds into the ground here and a plant would grow without any nurturing, it is just that rich. We were all excited to go to leprosy clinic and we had heard so much about the prosthetics and PT at the hospital. We were greeted and made to sign in (something we seem to do often in vellore, everyone wants out passport and visa numbers, it is beginning to freak me out), then taken on a 1 hour tour of the grounds. The hospital itself looks much like CHAD, with scores of patients just sitting in the central courtyard, surrounded by examination rooms. We also got to see where they make "special sandals", from rubber with micropores in them. Apparently this helps provide extra cushioning. We also got some great teaching on the care of a diabetic foot...dealing with thickened nails, treating/preventing ulcer formation, and using a pumice stone to remove dry skin. Oh, and their pumice stones, are real stones cut in half. They seem much better than the grocery store variety in the US. We also took a look at the labs where they study drug treatment on M. Leprae on the footpads of mice. They made us take our shoes off while we were in the lab, which I have to say is a bit concerning. Why would we want to step on leprosy infested flooring with bare feet? Gross.

I was a little disappointed, once again, that we basically had a 5 hour tour. I would have loved to actually be in clinic and learn from the doctors. So my advice would be to really have this arranged with the Karigiri hospital to find out when the leprosy clinic is held, otherwise you might just bee in Diabetic foot clinic for the day. As if we don't see this enough in San Antonio. Also I would not go with more than 3 people.

I head off with Colin and Nicolette for the next week to Kerala for some amazing sights and relaxation. I absolutely can't wait. So hopefully I'll get some pictures up soon...