Well Guys, I don't know where the last few months have gone at all! The best things in life always go so quickly I guess, but it's all over now.. And I have had an amazing time! I would recommend all of it to anyone..
- Going to a third world country to experience their healthcare system
- Using Work the World as a company, they are truly amazing, they sort everything for you and the staff in the Dar house were the best and nicest people I think I have ever met, they really did go above and beyond! I can't speak highly enough of them!
- Tanzania as a country is awesome, even if you're just travelling there is so much to see and to do, you could easily spend a month and more just going around as it is a huge country
If you ever get the chance to do any of the above, just do it! You never know what you might find, who you will meet and what's in store for you. I thought I had a pretty good idea of what to expect, but at the end of the day I didn't really and I had some of the best experiences of my life and meet some of the lovliest people I think I ever will.
Thanks to everyone who has been following me, I hope it hasn't been too much of a bore and I've managed to keep you all a little interested in my goings on. If you do want to know anything more or have any questions then drop me a line and I'll be happy to help.. Whether its about the hospital, Work the World, Tanzania (or Kenya) or anything related!
Cheers everyone! :)
Kwaheri!
Whilst in the department the staff gave me statistical information for between 2006 - 2012 about the country and different regions and the variation between the different regions is vastly different, let alone compared with the UK.
Cervical Cancer is the most common cancer (as already known), with 955 cases being treated in '06 rising to 1896 in '12. Patients treated for Prostate cancer in '06 was just 51 and last year 101 were treated. The incidence of Kaposi's Sarcoma and other skin cancers is quite different, Kaposi patients treated last year were 789 and for other skin cancers 147 were treated.
Breast Cancer - 667
Oesophagus - 573
Head and Neck - 386
Lymphoma - 295
Leukemia - 252
Bladder - 168
Eye - 131
(As of 2012)
These relate to the type of cancers I saw and the quanitites I saw them in too.
The number of these patients that came from Dar es Salaam was nearly 10,000, from other regions less than 1,000 were treated. This is as Dar holds the only radiotherapy centre, it is hard for most people to travel this distance; especially if they live in Arusha which is at the northern end of the country. The region of Manyara has the lowest number of patients being treated with cancer.
These statistics don't really have a baring on how many people with cancer there actually are in Tanzania, as most people probably ignore their illnesses anyway. A couple of the staff that I talked to were very keen on travelling around to the different regions and educating their people on their health and cancer. There are lots of things that the staff would love to do to help their people, like creating a charity for those patients they have to help them with travel, food, expenses, etc. - which is lovely, but they are finding it hard to start as they need to get sponsors first.
I saw a lot of pretty horific cases, but a few stuck out for me specifically that I don't think I will ever forget!
1. Anal Carcinoma
This case was one of the first I saw and I only saw it once - after this the patient was too ill to attend.
So in the UK anal cancer is assosicated with the older population (along with most others), however, the population in Tanzania is obviously a lot younger than ours so cancers develop at earlier ages. But I did not expect to see that this man was just 25 when I looked through his notes. He was so frail he did not have the energy or life to lift himself out of his wheelchair, let alone get on to the bed! His father had to lift him up onto the bed. It was so sad having to watch his father care for his ill son knowing that he hadn't got long left.
2. Brain Tumour
This case was pretty similar to above in the respect that this young boys father had to do everything for him as he had no life left in him - he couldn't open his eyes and had to be carried everywhere. This young boy was about 6 and had to be transferred from another hospital everyday to have his treatment. I'm not sure what type of tumour he had as it wasn't recorded in his notes, but his treatment was not nessercary as it was not helping the little boys condition at all - in the UK he wouldn't have been started on treatment.
3. Pituitary Tumour
I watched this lady from the beginning of her treatment to near enough the end as she started when I started my placement.
At the beginning she was so chatty and trying to teach me Swahili and always laughing, but she deteriated a lot and quickly! By the end of three weeks she could hardly put one foot infront of the other, let alone walk in a straight line! Her eyes were hardly open and speech slurred. What struck me was how little care she was given still in this condition! She could hardly get herself on the bed, yet the staff all just left her to it.
I was asked what we would do in the UK, when I said that the technique would be completely different to start with they didn't understand that using right and left laterals was treating too much brain and meaning that the side effects she was having were horrific! I said that if she was in this state, we would have stopped her treatment as we were doing more harm than good to her obviously.
After this day, she didn't return for treatment whilst I was there as she was too ill.
4. Xeroderma Pigmentosum
This was something I had never heard of before I saw this patient. It a genetic disorder than basically means that you're allergic to sun and any exposure to UV leads to skin cancer.
This little girl was just 7 and had skin lesions all over. In her notes it read how she had had lesions on her back when she was younger and a few on her chest. But from that point, she had progressed into a state that was beyond repair and her treatment was very palliative. She had deep lesions all over her scalp that were pusey and scabby, her nose was none exsistant and had been consumed by cancer along with her right eye which she could no longer see through. Her mouth and lips were filled with ulcerative lesions which made eating a struggle. And this little girl was terrified!
On the first day she was too scared to get on the bed and was crying her eyes out! The radiographers had little sympathy with her and it just sounded like they were shouting at her. I felt so sad for her. The next day she hid behind her mum up against the wall, then she saw me and came over and held my hand and then walked with me over to the bed (I don't think she'd ever seen a white person before). On her third day I took some stickers in with me to give to her and when her mum gave them to her, she was extatic! She was smiling with all her might and wouldn't stop playing with them!
The even sadder thing was that her mum still held out hope that she was going to be completely cured soon, but her case was so that even the radiotherapy she was having wouldn't have made too big an impact on her situation.
It's hard to convey just how sad these cases were, without being there I think. But I've done my best for you guys!
