Page 60 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 10

WHOLENESS

Tell us a little about yourself of our professors shared his story wall and they were thinking there
and what you do. about his journey with cancer. He were still remnants of cancer in the
My name is Angela and I am 47 had gotten treated using conven- body and then she ordered for a
years old. I work part-time in a tional means, but things weren’t battery of tests. Little did we know
non-profit organization called working for him and he talked about that these tests were so expensive
EduKenya where I do community the importance of research and and that’s before you even get to the
sustainability. how critical it was for his survival. drug. She told me to go think about
He went into deep research, he’s it and get the tests done so that we
You are on a natural health jour- a researcher by profession, to find know exactly what we are dealing
ney, can you tell us what you have out what the latest drugs to treat with and can stage and treat it from
been overcoming, what condi- his condition were and found some a point of knowledge.
tion? information about some drug
In 2017, I was diagnosed with breast coming out of Germany. He then I started doing some of the tests;
cancer - Stage 1, other doctors say told his doctors to treat him with it I had to spread them out, quite
it was Stage 2b - there was a bit of and at what dosage informing them frankly, because they were just too
confusion about what stage it was. about the case studies and numbers expensive. I had the surgery at the
The genesis of that was I felt a bit of people he had found were getting end of June, got the diagnosis third
of pain in my arm, radiating down well on it. That’s something else I week of July, I was still doing tests
to my breast and I couldn’t figure parked in the back of my mind - by October.
out what it was. One night I carried that it’s actually very important to
out a thorough assessment and I research and that there are other How much did you spend in
found a lump. There was a clinic healing strategies that you can use all from your surgery to the
nearby where we live and when I for treating cancer. tests?
went there they sent me for a scan. When I was diagnosed, the surgeon Surgery to some of the tests, by
The attendant said it was nothing – who was a family friend – was October, and this is just a rough
serious, probably just a fibroid, very good at trying to counsel us estimate, maybe about KES 300,000
but said that it was good to have it and tell us this was not a death – 400,000 thereabouts (approx.
removed. I did so and the procedure sentence. He would tell us, “You’re USD 3,000 – 4,000). You go for
went well and the lump was sent for probably in shock right now and a bone scan because they want to
testing. I had to wait three weeks; it you’re going to go through three or understand whether it has spread
came back positive for cancer. four phases: shock, denial, accep- to other parts of the body. A bone
tance and we move forward from scan at that point was about KES
There was the element of shock but there.” He had organized for us to 25,000 (USD 250). And then you
there it was something, sort of, that go and see an oncologist, which do an MRI for one part of the body
we were expecting in our family, we did. She looked at one scan that and then another part of the body,
because of our family history. Our I had done and recommended a there’s no MRI for the full body. At
mother had breast cancer, her sister course of treatment based on my that point we did not have a PET
before her and our uncle had also family history. She said I needed to scan in Kenya, so they had to use a
had leukemia. We are four sisters, do a double mastectomy to reduce combination of tools to be able to
one brother, and I think for the lon- the risks of it happening on the assess where you’re at. I was doing
gest time we were wondering who other side, followed by a round of all of that but we didn’t rush to
would get it, hoping it would skip chemotherapy and then a year on a go back to her because I wanted
our generation but there was always certain drug to treat the particular to think through what course of
a chance that somebody would get type of breast cancer I had. Before treatment to choose. In her office
it. then, we did not know that cancer I had asked what treatment cost
My sister, the year prior, had sent has different forms; mine was the was. One round of chemotherapy
me a video that talked about alter- second most aggressive type of is six sets, you do that and hopeful-
native healing strategies for cancer. breast cancer. ly you’re done, after that there is a
I had watched it, but sort of parked monthly pill that you take. The pill
it at the back of my mind because She said we were going back to the alone is KES 75,000 (USD 750) per
I wasn’t unwell. At that point I was table because the scan I had done month. I was like; Lord is this going
away, studying, and another thing had said there was still something to impoverish us, just the treatment
that caught my attention was one between the breast and the chest itself? This does not factor in the

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