The Sunday Mail
Fatima Bulla-Musakwa
CHIEDZA Gadzirayi spent months surfing the internet trying to diagnose a medical condition that had troubled her for some time.
For years, she had suffered punishing episodes of constipation.
Because she did not relish going to the doctor for an examination, she turned to the internet for answers.
On the internet, she found “solutions” to her long standing ailment — dietary advice for people who had constipation.
However, her condition continued to deteriorate to the extent of bleeding, but she remained unyielding and stuck to open source health advice found online.
She found consolation from the self-diagnosis she did through Google, which concluded that she had haemorrhoids or piles.
“I was going through a lot of pain and at some point in 2017, I literally drugged myself with painkillers,” she told The Sunday Mail.
“I would take painkillers every single day just because the pain was unbearable.
“I could not relieve myself properly, but still I did not go to consult a doctor.
“The pain was so intense that I would literally take over-the-counter painkillers every 10 to 15 minutes just to relieve myself.
“This was until one night in 2019.”
On that night, she bled profusely and could not pass stool.
“The pain and continuous bleeding convinced me to go to see a doctor,” she said.
The doctor advised her to go through a biopsy and a colonoscopy to ascertain the cause of her illness.
A few days after the biopsy had been conducted, Ms Gadzirayi’s doctor called her in for the results.
To her horror, she was told she had colon cancer.
“I had a tough time, I became numb,” she said.
“I was asking the question why me, why now, why colorectal cancer?”
She had been diagnosed with Stage 3B colon cancer, meaning the cancer had grown into the wall of the colon or rectum.
She immediately went back to the internet in search of more answers.
“I found out that this type of
cancer is more common in white men.
“And here I was aged 32. So I asked God: ‘You could have given me breast or cervical cancer’ — the cancers that are common in women.”
Her oncologist advised her to commence radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
She could not muster the courage to break the bad news to her family, so she asked her best friend and church priest to break the news.
Soon she was on treatment.
“It was quite difficult. I was losing weight, I had nausea and all the side effects that come with the treatment.”
During treatment, she said, she went through a lot of depression.
“Cancer treatment has a lot of side effects, so you can have diarrhoea as a side effect and for that diarrhoea, you will require medication.
“Maybe you can have episodes of vomiting and you will need anti-nausea tablets.
“When you get a headache, you also need medication to treat the headache, so it’s like a cocktail,” Ms Gadzirayi said.
But getting on treatment was no easy feat.
Cancer treatment in Zimbabwe costs an arm and a leg.
Her misfortune turned for the worst after she was advised by her medical aid that she needed to wait for two years before qualifying for cover.
But her friends from high school, university and church used crowdfunding platform GoFundMe to raise the money for treatment.
“Cancer treatment costs thousands of US dollars mainly because of the type of specialised equipment used in Zimbabwe and the medication is also imported.
“My treatment was also expensive because I was being treated by a private institution.”
After several rounds of treatment, Ms Gadzirayi is now in remission.
The cancerous tumour has shrunk and she is now visiting the doctor at three-month intervals.
She said if the cancer remains in remission for the next five years, she will be declared cancer-free.
As Zimbabwe observes breast cancer month, Ms Gadzirayi warned against self-examination.
“I am one of those who got diagnosed late and this can be fatal,” she said.
“So when we talk about early detection of breast cancer, you can do self-examination by using your fingers to feel carefully for any lumps, then go for screening or whatever needs to be done.”
She encouraged a lifestyle of regular physical exercise and living on a healthy diet.
“Let’s normalise eating our own home-cooked meals; let’s not get used to eating fast and processed food.
“Normalise drinking water, eat vegetables and fruits.
“I now do boxing every day and take morning walks.
“Do not drink fizzy drinks because cancer cells feed on sugar,” she advised.
