Three years ago, with an increased interest in our global neurology program by our residents and an enlarging resident program, the number of resident slots per year was increased from 8 to 16, with two groups of four residents each coming for three weeks twice a year. With this new format, it required a switchover weekend in the middle of each of my six-week trips here. For the first year of this new schedule, I drove the departing residents to the airport, a 3+ hour drive on Saturday, then stayed in Arusha that night (an hour drive), then back to the airport for the next group’s 7:30 am arrival, and back to Karatu on Sunday afternoon. This was an incredibly exhausting weekend schedule for me, and one that was probably not sustainable going forward.
Thankfully, Jill’s wisdom prevailed, and she quickly convinced me that the residents, being “grown ass adults,” were sufficiently capable of making it to the airport as well as to FAME on their own by simply setting up shuttles for them. It was suddenly like a whole new world for me, and though I still stress just a wee bit when the residents are in transit, it has not been enough to drag me back to the old schedule of schlepping on this weekend. And, I haven’t felt guilty for it.
Joe and Jack would be departing on Saturday morning between 9 and 10, then overnighting at the Airport Planet Lodge as their flights weren’t until the following day, and Leah Loerinc would be arriving tomorrow (Sunday) by noontime. This meant that I had almost the entire weekend to relax, as did Natalie and Patrick, hanging out at the house. I had a bunch of work from home to get done, as did Natalie, and Patrick occupied himself with busy work as well. The Raynes House is incredibly comfortable, and though I almost managed to remain in my gym shorts and T-shirt for the entire day, it was still very successful in which we were all able to finish our projects. Late in the afternoon, we did have to put on our work clothes as we were called to the medical ward to see the patient who was found to have a brain tumor, though it required only a brief visit, and as soon as I arrived back home, I was back in my gym shorts and T-shirt as quickly as was humanly possible.
Natalie ended up having to go back to the ED later to see a young child we had seen earlier for seizures and had placed her valproate at that time. The child was having continuing seizures, which wasn’t very surprising once it was made clear that she wasn’t being given the correct dose of medication. She had been on 100 mg bid (twice daily) and still having seizures before seeing us, and the plan had been to increase her to 200 mg bid after her visit. What Natalie discovered was that the family had only been giving the child 200 mg once daily, and not twice daily, which certainly explained why there had been no improvement after our visit. The family was again instructed on how we wanted them to give the medication and seemed to have a better understanding after the second go around.
Natalie made flourless banana pancakes on the stovetop for our breakfast the following morning as we had extra bananas on the verge of turning to mush, and they were very, very delicious, especially with the “exotic safari jam” on top or peanut butter – we’ll definitely be ordering honey with our next shopping list.
I had heard from Leah earlier this morning that she had gotten through immigration and customs at the airport and was on her way to FAME with Vitalis who had picked her up at the airport. They arrived to Karatu around noontime, which was perfect as we were planning to eat lunch on campus, and then later had dinner plans at the Omega View Hotel, as well as a dip in their pool. We hadn’t been to the Omega View yet, but it is a rather new hotel in town and someone I had known from the past is now their manager. He had invited us to come over for dinner and a swim, though really didn’t know what to expect. It was a nice relaxing time at the pool, and as is the case for most pools here in Karatu, it was unheated and quite refreshing. After a short swim and lounging at the pool, we all headed up to dinner in their dining room on the top floor (5th) with amazing views of Karatu that I haven’t seen before. Their buffet dinner was delicious and very reasonably priced. We had also been shown two of their rooms which were very clean and large. For anyone needing a place to lodge for a short time, it was very nice, indeed.
Given Leah’s jet lag, we were all amazed that she was still awake through dinner. We arrived home, though, and she promptly hit the sack which was totally understandable after the several days journey to get here. We would be back in clinic at FAME for the entire week, and LJ would be arriving on Saturday morning in time to accompany us for our Ngorongoro Crater trip this coming Sunday.
