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Our overseas experience as ICO fellows

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I make my living on the training I got in Belgium... So every day began with Prof. Meire asking me what I have learnt in Belgium yet... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Our overseas experience as ICO fellows


1
Our overseas experience as ICO fellows
  • Dr Jai Kelkar
  • DNB, DOMS, FCPS
  • Consultant Paediatric Ophthalmologist,
  • Pune.

2
  • We both had finished our respective post
    graduation and fellowship in India.
  • We felt the need to widen our horizons and
    thinking. To learn how the world is going about
    in ophthalmology.
  • There were and still are world class fellowships
    in India, but
  • there were issues which could not be addressed by
    doing a fellowship here!!!

3
  • Because we had a 2 year old daughter and our
    parents are working, any fellowship I would
    choose essentially had to be with my daughter as
    I could not leave her behind with either of our
    parents.
  • WE came to know about ICO fellowships through
    friends and as we both had cleared the ICO
    examinations we felt we can give it a try.

4
  • www.icoph.org

5
  • The ICO website has everything, every query
    answered succinctly and clearly so that applying
    for the fellowship was very simple.
  • They had their set of requirements and now the
    only aim in my life was to fulfill them and get a
    place as ICO fellow
  • The main requirement was that ICO wanted
    assurance that training that is obtained during
    the fellowship will be utilized to the maximum by
    the candidate on returning to the home country

6
  • Well of course!!!
  • I make my living on the training I got in
    Belgium!!!
  • And its not only ophthalmology that I am talking
    about.
  • Our lives were to change forever as they were
    going to be touched by a set of very very kind
    and helpful people the Belgians.

7
  • And I would first like to mention the greatest
    man that I have ever met.
  • Prof. Jean J. Delaey
  • I had often heard that the great man is the one
    who makes every man feel small but the real
    great man is the one who makes every small man
    feel great
  • That is Prof. Delaey himself

8
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9
  • I am sure its not every day that you touch
    foreign shores for fellowship with a 2 year old
    completely exhausted and you dont speak their
    language and they dont speak yours and you
    still have to travel for 2 hours to get to the
    final destination
  • And..
  • The boss where you are going to be working for
    the next few months comes to fetch you at the
    airport with your photos for identification and
    manages your accommodation till you get a fixed
    place at the university, that too on a week
    endleaving family issues behind!!

10
  • And when such a thing happens you know you are in
    safe hands and choosing to apply to
  • Universitair zeikenhaus
  • 195, de pintelaan,
  • Gent, Belgium
  • Was the best decision in our life
  • And mind you it was not only Ophthalmology that
    we learnt here lots more was to follow

11
  • Excellent staying arrangements were made for us
    which was affordable in the fellowship money that
    we had received, and the hospital was very easily
    accessible by tram ( public transport was a
    pleasure!!)
  • The landlord was very kind and made all efforts
    to make us and our little one feel home

12
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13
  • I was assigned to work with Prof. Francoise Meire
    who was the head of the paediatric ophthalmology
    department.
  • She tackled all cases with variety of syndromes,
    genetic counselling and children with mental
    retardations and other physical handicaps.
  • Only problem with her was that.

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15
  • She liked to give me homework daily!!!

16
  • So every day began with Prof. Meire asking me
    what I have learnt in Belgium yet she would
    personally go through the paper work I had done.
  • ( the excellent library facilities with reference
    books and indexed journals left me with no option
    but to slog over the work she gave me!!) ( and
    there was internet available full time!! it was
    novelty then in 2004, broadband was not available
    in India)

17
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18
  • She had interesting friends too
  • Prof. Delleman who coined the Delleman syndrome
    was her teacher and now her best friend
  • (And she cooked a very delicious meal for us one
    day ll!!)

19
  • The orthoptics and strabismology was looked after
    by Prof. Putteman
  • Another
  • Master of the game!!!
  • Her squint clinics used to have all types of
    deviations from horizontal to vertical to
    craniosynostosis to paralytic squints to gaze
    palsies
  • She would identify and counsel and treat each
    case with patience and solid scientific
    background

20
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21
  • And the best part about her was that she never
    gave any homework!!!!
  • Apart from teaching me the nuances about
    strabismus she has also taught me to operate on
    the vertical muscles. Hands on
  • (I could not believe my luck too so I had
    someone click pictures!!)

22
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23
  • I still e mail both Prof. Meire and Prof.
    Putteman about some difficult cases and they
    never disappoint !! ( and have pulled me out of
    many a tights spots)

24
  • My husband, Dr Aditya started working in medical
    retina under Prof. Delaey Did FFA and OCT daily
    , saw innumerable patients with ARMD, diabetic
    retinopathy, some dystrophies and many such other
    retinal disorders

25
  • But, even Prof. Delaey was bitten by the
    homework bug..
  • With the result

26
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27
  • Prof. Delaey set up Dr. Aditya with Dr. Mori from
    Japan and both worked on the effect of PDT on
    ARMD
  • And the difficult part was not the ARMD or the
    PDT, but the translations on the case papers from
    Dutch/French (which was Greek to Dr. Aditya) into
    English for Aditya and into Japanese for Dr. Mori
    ( he did not speak English and Aditya did not
    speak Japanese)
  • I hope u all get the drift.

28
Smile was the only language they could understand
!!
29
  • Ultimately, when both had lost enough hair on
    their heads that the nurse in the FFA room
    decided to help both foreigners
  • With the effect that, both along with Prof.
    Delaey have published an article in the Bull.soc.
    Journal based on their results!!!
  • Photodynamic therapy with verteporfin in Belgian
    patients with subfoveal choroidal
    neovascularization secondary to age-related
    macular degeneration.
  • Mori R, Kelkar A, De Laey JJ.
  • Bull Soc Belge Ophtalmol. 2006(299)57-64

30
  • Prof. Delaey also arranged for Dr. Aditya to
    visit another city in Belgium (Leuvan) for fixed
    days to observe vitreoretinal surgeries under the
    able guidance of Dr. Peter Stalmans

31
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32
  • There used to be weekly clinical meetings wherein
    the entire department of ophthalmology along with
    the fellows and the trainee doctors would present
    and discuss interesting cases which were tackled
    during the week.
  • We too had taken along a few of our cases seen
    here in India and discussions on them proved to
    be fruitful.

33
  • Remember, we had also taken along with us our two
    year old daughter Saniya.
  • She was wonderfully accommodated at a day care
    center very near to the hospital with the most
    wonderful staff and child minders I have ever
    seen(again thanks to Prof. Delaey)
  • It was difficult for her to adjust though, as she
    was just learning to talk, that too in our mother
    tongue, Marathi and she did not understand a word
    of English.
  • It is only through tireless efforts of the child
    minders there that made life easier for Saniya at
    the day care.

34
  • There were dark days when we felt we were not
    getting sufficient work saniya had her blues
    when she refused to go to the day care leaving
    us to wonder
  • how tyrant we are!!
  • And funds always were short
  • ( one euro was 55 rupees in 2004)

35
  • So we decided to take things as they come one at
    a time
  • goal driven

36
  • After working so hard we kept wondering that
    inspite of being in the worlds most beautiful
    part europeare we just going to be working???
  • But, we kept telling each other that
  • Nothing lasts forever

37
  • Also no one seems to be working after 5pm and
    weekends are off!!!
  • Thats was again a huge thing for us who gets
    weekends off in India and who can stop working on
    any given day after the stroke of 5pm???

38
  • So we took this opportunity to bond together as
    family
  • We shopped for groceries together, went to parks
    to sit by the lake and feed the ducks, went
    jogging by the river in ghent, made friends with
    a few Indians there whom we met on the tram.

39
  • The only problem that we found in Belgium was
    that of FOOD
  • We subsisted on Belgian waffles and ice cream (
    they are heavenly!! And baby food was good too,
    but only our baby ate that)
  • But, my husband took to cooking and unbelievably
    did a good job of it!! ( he has not even boiled
    water since we returned!!)

40
  • Visit to a few places in Europe was the need of
    the hour
  • We had to see Paris and the Eiffel tower, the
    Louvre museum, travel by Thalys, go to Portugal
    for some nostalgia about Goa and visit Barcelona
    for Antonio Gaudis monuments
  • And we did all that!!

41
  • 3 months just flew by and time came to bid
    everyone farewell
  • But hold one we had not received our diplomas
    yet
  • Prof Delaey did the honors on our last weekly
    clinical meeting in the library

42
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43
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44
  • To sum up what we learnt in Belgium
  • Essentials of Paediatric Ophthalmolgy and Medical
    Retina
  • Doctor patient relationship and bonding..
  • Surviving in Europe on minimum means!!
  • Food in Belgium is not meant for Indians, but
    waffles are excellent.
  • Treat your guests as God ( athiti devo bhavo)
  • Came closer to each other as family
  • Europe is indeed beautiful but missing sare jaha
    se achahindosta hamara!!
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