Paro, and a heart wrenching experience

This is a little longer between posts than I had hoped for. Both Eileen and I have been under the weather from either mild flu or a particularly nasty strain of cold virus. We are both recovering, and I have the energy to write a blog entry.

We went to Paro for the weekend. It is not terribly far from Thimphu, only about an hour's drive, but has a very high concentration of monasteries, the national museum, and of course, Tiger's Nest.

 We started our trip at the National Museum. The old museum had been damaged in the earthquake that occurred in September (2011) and was not habitable.

You can see part of the wall falling away on the left.

On the way up (we took one of the usual Bhutanese shortcuts--shorter as the crow flies, but calves of steel are needed for the climb) we saw a man making Bhutanese bricks. The soil is quite clay-ey and earth is rammed within a wooden frame until the earth block is suitable size.

The museum itself was in a bit of disrepair due to the earthquake. The collection was partly in the new building, partly in the old building-- we saw masks, and thangkas, and pictures of royalty. Short visit, but fun.

We then visited the Paro Dzong, which is  an interesting construction-- one half houses the provincial administration, and the other half has monks. The dzong is situated overlooking a river. Quite impressive on the outside, but really, there wasn't terribly much to see on the inside.

Some of the wall paintings we could see

Temple cat.  Taken with a zoom; he was way the heck up there, but also out of the way of the dogs...

We visited a couple of lakhangs, which are monasteries. These were quite interesting but we were not allowed to take pictures inside.

Kyichu Lakhang, one of the oldest in Bhutan

Dungtse Lakhang, famous for its chorten shape. Wall paintings were amazing.

We walked to but were not allowed in Drukyel Dzong, a dzong with  a commanding view of the valley. Previously badly injured by fire, it was made uninhabitable by the recent earthquake. The walk around it really let your imagination run with what this place must have looked like in its prime.

We stayed in a very nice hotel that night and went to Tiger's nest the next day. As I said last year, the climb is spectacular, the inside is spectacular, the view is spectacular.  Eileen expressed considerable concern about her ability to do the climb, but she did it handsomely.

On the way down, we stopped and ate at the Taktsang Cafeteria, which served really delicious vegetarian fare.

All in all, a fine trip.

Medically, several interesting developments.
One of our patients was placed in skeletal traction. The pin was put in place by an orthopedic technician and was not supervised by the orthopedist. He did a nice job. The ends of the pin are quite sharp, so they were protected with a couple of old injectable medicine bottles.

Two patients today were quite notable. One woman was admitted to ICU after a thoracotomy. She had hydatid cysts in her chest.  Her CT scan is pretty amazing.  It looks like she did not suffer anaphylaxis, and I am going to need to do a lot of reading on what to do from here in terms of additional care.

The final story has to do with an Indian laborer.  There are lots and lots of Indian laborers here. They do all the nasty stuff-- the hard labor, the dangerous jobs, the dirty jobs. They live in shanties at the worksites and try and send at least a little money home. They are the poorest of the poor. One of these poor fellows had a brick fall on his head while not wearing a safety helmet. He developed an acute subdural hematoma and needed to go to the operating room.  His fellow laborers and friends were very worried that he would not get care, because he would not receive care in India because he couldn't pay. We explained what was going on, and that he needed surgery. I was sitting at a desk. His two friends came around the desk, prostrated themselves, and held on to my legs while begging me to take care of him.  I was simultaneously horrified and touched-- horrified that anyone would kneel to me, and touched by their care for their friend.  He had his surgery, and appears to be doing a bit better. He has a long way to go. We'll see what happens.

I am not sure how much more touring I will do. My left leg is quite a bit weaker than I had hoped, and the hills are murderous. I do great on the flats, can walk endlessly, but there simply are no flats in Bhutan.  This will be to the benefit of the nurses and docs, as it will force me to plant myself in a chair and write a couple of lectures.  Hopefully, this weekend is National Day and I will attend that on Saturdayl