Today was our first mobile neurology clinic to the Mbulumbulu region of the Upper Rift. I’ve now been coming to this area for at least three years so patients are familiar with us and we are seeing many follow up patients from earlier visits. William (our outreach coordinator for these clinics as well as the neurology clinics at FAME and responsible for making everything work and having patients for us) spoke with me today about the possibility of expanding our mobile clinics to other villages on the other side of Karatu. Seems we’ve attracted some attention here.

Doug and Diana evaluating an elderly Iraqw woman and her son

Danielle and Dr. Isaac evaluating an epilepsy patient

Our first two days are scheduled in Kambi ya Simba (lion camp) which is the closer of the two villages and about 45 minutes away. We split into two groups with Doug and I working together with Diana as our translator and Danielle working with Dr. Isaac to mainly see the epilepsy cases. We were swamped, but had a steady group of patients and were able to finish up by around 4:30 pm. The best case of the day was probably non-neurologic and was a six month little child who ended up having ambiguous genitalia. Doug was able to examine “her” and determine that she will need to be seen at KCMC (Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center) and have a very thorough evaluation including genetics to determine her actual gender. Doug had never seen a case of ambiguous genitalia before let alone make the diagnosis so that was a huge thrill for him.

Assessing an elderly Iraqw woman’s gait

Kelly (Women’s Health), Diana, Doug and Me

Our lunch break in the Land Rover

Home after a long day, sunset on the veranda and dinner. Such is life here in Tanzania. Tomorrow we will most likely be up at Kambi ya Simba again.

Lala salama,

Mike