GERD, Goats and Ganj: Medical Care in Himachal Pradesh

Volunteering in Himachal Pradesh, Take Two. The medical side of the month was an interesting challenge in it's own right. HHE has been in existence for many years and is a tightly run operation. There are designated sites - rural villages that are remote to get to and, therefore, have limited access to medical care. Our entourage, a caravan of 8 loaded white 4x4 vehicles which looked, unfortunately, a bit like the UN, rolled in, set up our mobile medical unit and went to work. We did see a lot of patients and I think, I hope, we helped some of them. We were a bit limited in diagnostic tools, but did our best. We treated lots of GERD (acid reflux) and osteoarthritis. For complicated problems we gave our recommendations and hoped that the patient would follow up with an Indian specialist. One neurologic patient even was given some money to ensure they did, fingers crossed. The medical students were amazing - smart and dedicated and, well, we all had to be flexible and creative. Gyn and rectal exams behind makeshift curtains, delivering nebulizer treatments to asthma patients with precarious electrical outlet connections, running instruments back and forth to each other. We saw patients in a variety of settings. One memorable site had a baby goat rolling around in the medical tent while we were seeing patients and, at the very same site, marijuana was growing wild everywhere including in the medical tents! I wish I had a photo of that scene - patient care in the midst of goats and ganj! The patients were quite diverse despite being in the same region. Besides patients from traditional Indian mountain villages, we treated monks at two different monasteries and spent 3 days seeing Muslim goat herders from Kashmir. At all of the sites we were close to breathtaking views of the Himalayas!