Our overseas experience as ICO fellows

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Our overseas experience as ICO fellows

• Dr Jai Kelkar
• DNB, DOMS, FCPS
• Consultant Paediatric Ophthalmologist,
• Pune.

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• 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!!!

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• 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.

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• www.icoph.org

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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

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• 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!!

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• 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

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• 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

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

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• 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)

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• 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!!)

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• 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

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• 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!!)

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• 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)

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• 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

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

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• 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.

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Smile was the only language they could understand
!!
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• 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

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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)

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

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• 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

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• 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???

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• 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.

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• 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!!)

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• 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!!

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• 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

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• 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!!