When Domini Lazaro noticed a lump growing on her hand, she didn’t know what it was, but she knew enough to be concerned. She was far from medical care because she lived in a rural community called Kibohehe in the Kilomanjaro region of Tanzania. Even if she could get to a hospital with the necessary equipment to run the required tests, she couldn’t pay for it. She and her husband make very little money working seasonally doing manual labor on other people’s plantations. But she was still worried- what was this lump growing on her hand?
The lump grew, and she also developed a chronic UTI, adding to her physical and mental distress. She feared a terrible disease had taken hold. Eventually she came to a MEDLIFE mobile clinic, the only opportunity she had to see a doctor. She was put into follow-up care and taken to a hospital to get the tumor tested and the UTI treated. When the results came in, it was just lipoma, the most common benign form of soft-tissue tumor. Lipoma is a slow growing fatty lump situated between skin and muscle deposits. It does not lead to any serious medical complications, but MEDLIFE still had it removed.
Domini was given medicine for her UTI and discharged. She was very happy when the medicine caused the pain from the UTI to stop, because she said it had become more than she could bear. She was also given peace of mind. Domini and her husband can now rest easy and not worry that she has a serious health problem.
