THE STEP BY STEP CAMPAIGN: DAY 7

Reflections...

Working in Kenyatta National Hospital is one of those experiences that are one of a kind. I spent four years there during my postgraduate studies and I never got over the new stuff I saw every day. Conditions one may only see once in a lifetime, patients long neglected by family who end up making KNH there home for years, staff who have worked in KNH for so long that they can recall when the tower building did not exist...

It is also the place that you get to see patients with such heartbreaking stories, your heart shatters. I recall in my first year, I was on call in the acute gynaecology section of the accident and emergency department. It was a relatively calm night and at about 2.00am, I was headed out to find a hot cup of coffee to ward off the cold as I had no more patients waiting.

I met the nurse in our unit on the way and she asked me to see a patient who had just come in and was bleeding, before I went for my break. A young couple in their late twenties walked in and they both looked extremely worried. The lady could not talk. The man was in distress. He did not understand how making love to his wife could hurt her to cause bleeding. She was not in pain but had already changed pads twice within the past two hours. She knew she was not pregnant as her periods had ended two weeks prior.

I took the necessary history and explained tbe examination which included a speculum vaginal exam that most women dislike,  but I needed to visualize the cervix. I was devastated. At 28, she had at least stage two cervical cancer. The tumor sat there staring at me spitefully while bleeding without a care. Suffice it to say, it was a heartbreaking moment on a chilly night.

It was even more devastating, to meet her 7 months later in the wards, still trying to get a booking for surgery! I was totally distressed. She could not afford private care. KNH, overwhelmed by the sheer number of patients needing care, has the longest bookings I know of. Cancers will move to inoperable stages as patients desperately await their turn on the booking queues. The situation is worse for those awaiting radiotherapy.

Our bleak statistics aren't going to improve if we don't get up and do something about it.

I AM DEDICATED TO THE STEP BY STEP CAMPAIGN! It is my little bit of space in the world where I hope to do something about cancer.