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By Lucy Morancha
“Cancer is just a word it should not scare anybody,” starts Katheke Mbithi. The smile on her face and the confidence she says these words with, makes one doubt that she has battled with cancer for the last seven years. The 43-year-old mother of two says she felt a lump on her breast when she was five and a half months pregnant with her second daughter.
“The lump was not painful at all, so I ignored it, but my husband expressed concern and advised me to see the doctor,” said Katheke in a recent interview.
Being an expectant mother, she regularly went for her ante-natal care visits in a Nairobi-based hospital, where she had a personal gynaecologist. The gynaecologist, after examining the lump, suggested further testing.
“I forgot about the lump and the on-going tests in three days and moved on with my work, it really was not alarming to me,” she said.
Devastating news
When she went for the results, the look on her doctor’s face did not need any further explanations.
“I burst into sobs and floods of tears for more than 45 minutes with the doctor watching me, and letting me cry it out of my systems,” Katheke said with a distant look, which seemed to bring the memories back.
When the doctor spoke, he bore news that she completely denied: “Madam the lump has 90 per cent chances of malignancy!” he said looking Katheke straight in the eye. Being a trained registered nurse, Katheke knew only too well what that meant. All was not well. The news was so shattering that she wondered why the doctor did not even prepare her in terms of counselling. “ Telling someone they have high chances of cancer is not as easy as inviting someone for coffee!” chuckled Katheke knowing that all this is now behind her back.
Meanwhile, they had contacted her husband, who would meet them at the clinic. Without any explanations, the doctor drew a picture of a breast on a piece of paper and was just about to start showing them how the breast would be cut when Katheke said “no”. She held her husband hands and exclaimed, “Honey, let’s get out of here!” She, however, told the doctor that she would contact him”should there be need.” They went home in silence.
As the pregnancy got bigger, the lump was also getting bigger due to hormonal changes. That is when she decided to do the operation. The surgeon had suggested that the unborn baby would be removed before term and be put in an incubator while Katheke underwent the surgery, which she categorically refused.
Baby, then the D-day
Katheke persevered the trauma of waiting for the unknown until her baby was born. She was only two days old, when her mother’s samples were taken for a biopsy. Fortunately, it was the month of October, and cancer awareness campaigns in write-ups were all over. She compared different hospitals and settled for Kijabe Hospital. Finally, the day for her surgery came after much anticipation, prayer and crying she gathered her family and looked at them for what she thought was the last time. She consoled herself that she would still have her life and family after all was done. When she came to after the operation, though fully bandaged, she knew she had lost her breast. Now that her baby was not breast-feeding her first thought went to her husband. If he would accept her without one breast.
Chemotherapy
Going through chemotherapy was a nightmare. Katheke says that the sheer thought of the chemotherapy sends cold chills down her spine. The insurance withdrew her policy claiming that they do not cover terminal illnesses. Friends and relatives came in to support her and she was able to complete her six months chemotherapy sessions.
Positive side
“I made a decision, which made me feel lighter and I started reading any material that would enlighten me more on cancer,” she says.
Katheke started talking to small groups of people and seven years down the line, she became a cancer advocate and the honorary secretary of Kenya Cancer Association.
She travels to different places educating people on dieting and having a positive attitude should they be diagnosed with cancer. Though, as Katheke says, there are days of crying, life has all the good things and one negative thing cannot steal her joy. She lives a happy life but her happiness is fulfilled more when she reaches out to one person diagnosed with cancer.
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