Day of rest?

When you last read of our intrepid travelers, they were hurling (pretty much) down a twisted ribbon of Ugandan highway enveloped by inky darkness and suffering from the knowledge that the brakes on their vehicle seemed to be failing. But that was before they ran out of gas and the battery died.

Oh, whatever, TIA (yes, it means, THIS IS AFRICA). Joseph (remember him from Saturday?) our driver/guide/translator/diplomatic envoy to rural Ugandan orphanage mommies, just kept on managing as if this was all business as usual for Uganda (which, I suppose it is). Round about 11 PM when I needed to get out of the van so they could jump the battery (the battery being housed somehow under my seat in the van and needing to be connected with another battery that had been brought by motorcycle from another car) Joseph turned to me and said, "my son has something on his neck. Can you and Dr Troy look at it?" What the heck was I supposed to say but, "Of course!"

Sooooooo, Sunday, my day of rest, I got myself up for an early run, quick trip to grocery store and breafast then waited with Dr. Troy and Dr. Helen Taylor (a newly arrived pediatric neonatologist from Columbia University) for Joseph to arrive with his wife and seven month old son, Benjamin.







Benjamin had a crusted lesion overlying a swelling on his otherwise incredibly adorable neck.












Dr. Troy and Dr. Helen's differential diagnosis, based on the physical exam and clinical history of an enlarging lesion, lateral to the midline of the neck of an infant, was that this was either a branchial cleft or thyroglossal duct cyst that had become infected. They wanted to aspirate it and have a pathologist (that would be me) make smears for cytology and microbiology staining and review. So that's what you do on your day off here.


















I think that I have figured out how to take pictures through a microcope here for the blog so more about the diagnosis later.

By the way, Benjamin's daddy, Joseph, arranges safaris as well. His email is

Balix2002@yahoo.com

Go ahead and tell him that I sent you.

I did find time to go to the Uganda National Museum.






How much one might enjoy this museum might depend on what one's expectations might have been prior to entering. Suffice it to say that it is conveniently located and only costs about US$1.00 (unless you want to take photographs in which case you are charged extra; please note absence of museum photo's on this blog page).

My evening's amusement consists of a Free Cultural Performance. Which may or may not be cancelled due to rain. Photo's will likely follow, but I will leave you with one of my current favorite US cast-off t-shirt sightings:






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Location:Mugalo Hospital and Guest House, Kampala, Uganda