Everyday I zoom into my ‘garage’ on my bike and park it there. Its nothing spectacular. My Kinetic Honda just lines up with a few other macho bikes in the common shed/garage in front of the apartment. A total of 6 of us use up the space efficiently with a kids bike thrown in usually! The floor is as messy as it can be. The shed does not have a door so it gets very dusty and has a lot of leaves and cobwebs around. Luckily the bikes are in pretty good shake – so theres not much oil on the floor and it does not have the oil-leak smell on it! But I wonder how I can ever clean…

This kid came to OPD today with a history of cough and breathing difficulty for a couple of weeks. He wasnt responding to treatment being given somewhere else. I examined him and found hardly any air entry on his left lung. I took an Xray and that is what you see here! The left lung was overinflated as there seemed to be something half blocking it – air was getting in and not getting out! I had to send him off to Vellore after speaking to Dr. Jacob and Sophie. I called up afterwards and found that they did a bronchoscopy and removed a stone lodged in his left bronchus! Eeks!! Wonder how it got there!! Anyway, I was very…

It happened suddenly – a call from the ER staff at 10.30 PM saying there was a sick child in the ER. Within seconds I was there and the story unfolded. A 1 year old was happy and giggly and had started playing with a small box about 3 cm wide. And suddenly in a flash he thrust it inside his mouth. He was bought choking and hardly breathing with the father desperately having his finger in the mouth to prevent it going into his throat. I quickyly made an attempt, did the thrusts and back blow, used a laryngoscope to intubate and secure the airway. In the meantime the surgeon and anaesthetist had rushed in and the box was…

Home needed two things for the night –1. Idli maavu (for dinner and breakfast)2. Tomatoes (for lunch tomorrow)We decided to scoot to a shop 10 minutes away and get our supplies. It was drizzling a ‘little’ and we felt it was OK. 30 seconds after we roared off on the bike the drizzle was a steady rain and it was getting worse. We literally rode into a shop just across the road where Becky jumped in to check for the idli maavu and I drove on to a small vegetable shop further down the road. The veg shop unfortunately did not have good tomatoes and I rode back to see Becky standing at the other shop entrance – empty handed;…

Life is certainly unpredictable. Last night we had a child who fell into a large bucket of water and almost drowned in it! She came in hardly breathing and with seizures. We did what was necessary. She was ventilated for 12 hours and after 24 hours there she was – so cute. She went back home after 2 days fully normal. You can watch a short clip on youtubeNever ever leave your child in places where accidents can happen. And remember – this life is uncertain. Are you prepared to face death? This girl was lucky enough to survive the accident…. thats her second chance at living.

I love making tea. Today Becky was held up at work and I came home a few minutes before her. So I decided to make some tea for both of us. Simple task! Pour in the water and the milk and the tea leaves and some sugar and it was lying there on low heat on the stove. Then I got the phonecall – it took me 2 minutes to complete it. And yes… those 2 precious minutes was all it took to forget about the tea simmering on the stove. Soon the house was filled with the aroma of burnt tea and I hurriedly switched off the stove and attempted to clean the mess. The countertop and stove were…

Oh! The joy of mixing and matching and ending up with something awesome…. and the joy of sharing it with someone you love! I was hit by a brainwave after lunch and whipped together dessert from whatever we had at home. Heres the menu:1. Slice bananas brought from the local streetside market into cute looking cups.2. Take the few pieces of cherry still lying in the fridge and throw them in.3. Scour the kitchen cupboard, locate resins a few cashew and some walnuts and literally chip them in4. Top up with honey stolen from Motherin-Laws house in Kodaikanal.5. Place them strategically on the table, take a picture as proof of the effort.6. Offer it to someone you love with a…

On friday Praburam said he wanted to be on duty this weekend which left Becky and me with nothing to do over the weekend. So we decided to surprise her parents with a trip home to Kodaikanal. We spent Friday night hunting around for a cordless phone which we finally got just as the last shop was closing!! We hurried through Saturdays OPD and soon we were on a frightfully slow bus to Dindigul where we barely caught the connecting bus to Kodaikanal!! Soon we were climbing the winding roads and felt the wind start to chill!! As we took a taxi home I made a hurried phone to Athai with a story about my friend who wanted to drop…

As a responsible paediatrician, I strongly discourage parents from bottle-feeding their children. The single most important reason for this is the issue of hygiene/cleanliness. Bottles cant be safely sterilised and lots of dirt and bacteria accumulate on the rubber tip however hard you try. This translates into a higher risk of diarrhea in the children, hospital admissions and rarely severe risk to life. Every month we admit dozens of bottle fed infants with diarrhea and dozens more are treated as outpatients. Patient education works, but some people are just arrogant, stupid or think they will escape. This patient takes the cake though – a very innovative method to bottle-feed their baby. See the pic for details!!I’ve never seen THAT before…

Beckys parents were visiting us for a few days and it was amazing to have them around pampering us with food and stuff. I was on call, but that did not hamper the excitement except for the few times I had to scamper off for C-section calls and emergencies. 30th June was our 1 month wedding anniversary (if there is such a thing) and we all decided to go to an exhibition on the outskirts of Trichy. I was a little worried as I was on call and we prayed that I wouldnt have to rush back.And wow! Did we have fun @ the exchibition. The stalls were crowded and there was some great good. We especially enjoyed the lime…