Well, I’ve finally finished my internal medicine residency at New England Medical Center. WooHoo! I guess it’s time to be a real doctor now… I’m planning to spend the next year as a locum tenens physician. I’ll be travelling throughout the country, working for 1-2 months at a time. Hopefully, I will get a broad exposure to different types of primary care medicine, so that I can make an informed decision down the road. I’m still considering doing a medical informatics fellowship - maybe next year…

I’ve signed up with two agencies - CompHealth and VISTA.

In November 1998, I travelled to India to visit family and work in an Infectious Disease Clinic. I visited the Trivandrum Medical College and the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institue For Medical Sciences & Technology. The experience at the Trivandrum Medical College was a little disappointing, but I was very impressed by the Sree Chitra Institute. I got a personal tour of the hospital and operating rooms from Dr. Krishnamanohar (a close friend of my brother-in-law). The standards were equal to U.S. Hospitals and I learned a lot about physical diagnosis in a very short time.

I recently got a letter from my niece, Devi, which broke my heart…

Dear Vinu Mamman,

I visited your page and you didn’t put a picture of me. I am really mad at you because you didn’t give me a picture. Why didn’t you put a picture of me? If you don’t have a picture of me, I could send you one. Everybody else have a picture of them. If you have a picture you can put it on your computer.

Love,

Devi

(typed by Amma, as dictated by Devi - age 5)

So, Devi, I have a very special picture from our birthday party together in August. Here it is!

In March ‘98, after a grueling month in the ICU, I went on a cruise with my cousins and their parents. I’m currently seriously considering working as a cruise physician! We went to Freeport and Nassau. The weather and scenery were beautiful, but my most enjoyable moments were spent discussing old (and new) times with my cousins at 3:00 AM looking across the unending ocean.

It’s an experience I hope to repeat soon…