Support Raising & December Update…
We were blessed this year that my schedule worked out so that I was able to have Christmas day off - the first time in about two years. We celebrated together with our immediate family on Christmas and the kids had a great time enjoying time with some of our cousins and with Appachan and Ammachi. The kids of course were spoiled by the rest of the family and they were excited to receive the presents we had made for them which were books of pictures of their last year. We had noticed that the kids loved the books we had made for them in the past because whenever we have guests over they always want to bring out their books. They had lots of fun showing off their books to the rest of the family over Christmas. I've posted below the three books we made for them:
We are getting ready to drive up to visit Melissa's family in Nebraska on December 30th. We'll be there for several days as part of my week of vacation, celebrate Christmas with Melissa's family and rejoice at Melissa's grandparents 59th wedding anniversary! What a blessing and a testament to their love and commitment to one another.
We also wanted to give everyone a quick update about where we are in our support raising process for our upcoming trip to India (you can read more about our trip by clicking here: Medical Mission Trip to North India). We have received about 30% of the support we need to raise out of the $13,000 we need for our trip. It has been a slow and faith building process so far but we trust that God will provide the support we need to allow for us to go in a few more months. If you would like to partner with us as we prepare for this trip you can make a check out to "Crossroad Church" and write "India Medical Mission" in the memo line and send it to us and our church will send you back a tax deductible receipt. We are excited about our upcoming trip and pray that we would get a clearer sense of where God would have us serve long term in India and that it would be a time for us to continue to refine our vision of reaching India for Christ through medical missions.
I'll try to get back to my series of blogs on different themes in medicine hopefully in the next couple of days. We wish everyone a blessed New Year!
Perseverance
I am often amazed by how strong a person's will to live can be. Of course there are also many patients I have met over the years where I have wondered why they try to claw on to the last bits of their life when they are so ill. Often times that is a decision a family makes to somehow keep their loved one alive when they probably should allow their family member to pass away in peace. I'll focus on the issue of futility in my next post but this week I wanted to share some stories of patients who have truly amazed me by their desire to live even when the odds are stacked against them. I find it difficult to imagine how complex of a medical system many of my patients have to navigate to get care. I also have a hard time understanding the amount of suffering my patients have had to endure just to stay alive.
Loneliness
The emergency room is a very lonely place to be. It's an even lonelier place to die. It has been an interesting and sometimes sad look at people and what happens to them when they come to the ER. It is often times even more noticeable regarding who is not with them. I cannot begin to count the number of of people that come to the emergency department alone. They come to the ER because of a work accident, a gunshot wound, a car wreck, altered mental status or seizure and often come alone. What to me is even more depressing is how many come to the ER and die alone. To die in a place that is cold, sterile, with no one who knows you - it's a lonely place even for me.
Courage
What does it mean to be courageous? To me it invokes the stories of soldiers conquering distant lands, fighting for freedom, being self-sacrificial but I think I have been more deeply attuned to this quality as I have interacted with many patients as they deal with some of the most saddening and painful experiences of their lives.
I’ll be honest – most of the patients and the families I have cared for over the years in the hospital are not courageous. I’m not sure I’d be much different if confronted with the reality of death, of a lifetime of suffering, of losing someone dear to me. Most people come to the emergency room unexpectedly – they were not planning on being in the ER. Most of the patients that come in from a trauma or suddenly get sick come in pain, crying, asking for comfort – they are scared. So it is very noticeable to me when I encounter a patient or a family member that faces the problem head on – finding the courage to face their fate.
Medical Mission Trip to North India
First a couple of quick updates. We just attended the Global Health Missions Conference (GHMC) that gathers together every year during the 2nd week of November in Louisville, KY. It was a time of much needed spiritual encouragement and a time to meet with several organizations that we have been considering partnering with in order to facilitate our return back to India. The conference is the largest of its kind in the US with over three thousand medical professionals that have a heart to serve in medical missions here and overseas. The last speaker we heard yesterday, Dr. Carol Spears, was especially encouraging to hear about how God has worked in her life and through her sufferings to call her to a life of mission service in Kenya.
We also wanted to let all of you know that we have set into motion most of the things that need to happen for us to go to India in early 2011 to work at two missions hospitals that are part of the EHA network of hospitals.
The Dog Days of Summer
So the end of July and August has been unbearably hot in Texas. I believe we've had almost two weeks of greater than 100 degree weather! Our plants are wilting and so are our spirits as we try to stay indoors as much as possible. I finally had some time to work on some of the pictures from our big road trip to the west and northwest coast which I've uploaded along with this post. I think I've got a couple hundred more pictures to look through to get to the end of our trip and then I can start taking some new pictures!
Happy 4th of July Weekend
Its 12:30 at night and both Melissa and I have decided to be late night owls tonight and risk our sleep by staying up way too late since the kids will be up in 6-7 hours like clockwork. I'm officially now a 3rd year resident at Parkland and Karuna is now officially a 6 year old. Karuna had a great party about a week ago celebrating her 6th birthday with many of our friends and family. Per Karuna's choice we had pizza from a local pizza place called Oak Cliff Pizza and it was an instant hit.
Welcome to 2010…6 Months Late…
As you might have figured out from the lack of posts, the 2nd year of EM residency at UTSW is the hardest year and thus the multiple months away from the writing desk. But do not worry...I've been collecting up plenty of interesting stories over the past 7 months from my great patients and will have some good ones to share soon.
Finally an Update
No we have not disappeared to the ends of the earth or gone missing. It has been many months since we updated the blog mainly because of the demands of residency and taking care of three very active children but don't worry we're doing well...maybe I should rephrase that...surviving my second month of all night shifts in the ED.
A quick overview of the last few months:
- Vivek is now 9 months old, we cannot believe how interactive he has become
- Karuna and Luke started their second year of homeschooling and are loving every minute of it
- I finished one month of night shifts in the ER, a month of day shifts in the ER, a month in the ER at Baylor Dallas and am now on a second month of nights at Parkland/Childrens
- Melissa helped to start up a Side by Side chapter in Dallas three weeks ago and they are going through the book Sacred Marriage
- We harvested our crops from the past year incluiding 4 honey dew melons, lots of raspberries (they are still bearing for us) and strawberries, and ate our first pomegranate from our tree
- I traveled to Boston for a week to attend the annual American College of Emergency Medicine conference
- We traveled to Nebraska for a week to visit Melissa's family
Christine & Stan Mathew Wedding Pictures
Just wanted to post some pictures from my sister Christine's wedding at the end of June. I'm just finishing my two weeks on the neonatal resuscitation team after I finished two weeks in the burn ICU. Both have been good rotations but definitely some long hours in the ICU. I'm starting a month of nights back in the ER starting on Monday. Melissa is still sleep deprived as Vivek still wakes up 2-3 times a night to eat but we'll start solid food with him in a couple more weeks and so I'm hoping he will sleep a little more soundly.
