First day of Clinic

Life is good for me in Uganda so far. I saw patients in the "family clinic" yesterday, a new model for the pediatric infectious disease clinic where the whole family is seen together, as often all are positive so it makes sense. They are happy to have another Family Practicioner or "community practicioner" (new specialty in Uganda) to help in the Family clinic. The amount, severity and variety of disease is fairly alarming. Simple shingles is a full blown eruption across 5 dermatomes and is mentioned as an "oh by the way" type of problem. For the medical types reading this blog on my first day I saw all HIV pos patients but with: LIP - swollen parotids, interstitial pulm infiltrate, cough, etc; one child with caseating draining TB scrofula, hydrocephalus with a VP shunt; several cases of active TB and HIV, teen pregnancy HIV pos not on meds and both parents deceased; HSV - several cases; parotid enlargement - several cases; pneumonia, chronic bronchitits; sickle cell disease with HIV and active TB in a toddler and finally rickets and malnutrition. One day. What will I see today? Speaking of that I have to go to work. I walk to work, sweating like mad when I arrive from a 10 minute walk through the bustling streets of Kampala. The climate is actually quite lovely - warm mid-day and cool at night, much the same temperature as Santa Rosa. I am just a sweater. More blogging soon.....