Sisters and Doctors Part 1

Hospital Visits

My post today will be my experience with the healthcare system here in India. Its going to be a two parter, or more, who knows?

To begin with, a little backstory. I have Dupuytren's contracture, a disease that creates thick bands in you hands, making your fingers contract. I had surgery on my right hand to fix this issue, which it did, kinda. In the left hand it has also developed. In the below pictures you can see the pinky and index are both being pulled towards the palm.

    Since it's getting worse, I would do some investigation here, can I get surgery, cost, etc. After some search (Dupuytren's is not common here) I was able to find a doctor. Dr. Bandari. I set up an appointment at Apollo hospital.

The hospital itself is very modern, both inside and outside. Very busy. After a short maze, I was able to find his office. It was in the orthopedist section.

Apollo hospital (front entrance)

Dr Banduri was very good. He spoke English as many, if not all, doctors do in India. He asked a lot of questions, examined both hands thoroughly. He was more attentive than the doctor I had in the US that looked at my other hand. I had had surgery on my right pinky several years ago. It is still bent slightly but better than it was. 

Dr. Banduri suggested surgery. So I made an appointment. The next steps were to get blood tests and ultra sounds, and determine what the price would be. Honestly, this is what intrigued the most. Uninsured, the procedure, depending on what website you look at, ranges from 3900 - 9800. But it is hard to say, really. The surrounding costs also need to be counted, the blood tests, ultrasound, pain meds, etc.

This is the end of part 1, of what might be a 3 part series. Stay turned for the next part, getting the tests done and sticker shock.

Work

Work has been going well lately. It is a lot of hurry up and wait. Get assigned something, get it done, wait for something else. I am still working with Nest.js. Typescript is a nice language, not very different really from JS, just with typing.

The project I have been working on is wrapping up, this means we've switched to an Agile strategy of development. This means a lot more emails, testing, hot fixes. I am still, though, writing endpoints. I might switch to a different team , one that is working with AWS. I am interested in this.