Cervical cancer: Don’t be in the comfort zone
THROUGHOUT her life, Busisiwe Moyo Mawudzi had always strived to live a clean and healthy life.
An avowed teetotaller, she had maintained a healthy diet, abstained from sexual promiscuity and stayed away from smoking cigarettes.
It was on account of her healthy lifestyle that she never thought it possible that she could develop cervical cancer.
Busisiwe lived her life gleefully under a false sense of security.
All this was to change some time in December 2016 after she had gone for one of her routine physical medical examinations.
Earlier that year, Busisiwe began experiencing disorienting bouts of fatigue, backaches and intense pain that would radiate throughout the pelvis area up to her hips.
“I would get to the office and after two hours of working, I would feel extreme exhaustion.
“I also noted that my menstrual flow had become heavy.”
The 48-year-old development consultant,
pastor, marriage counsellor, and mother of four boys never suspected she had cervical cancer.
Busisiwe had been screened for cervical cancer in 2014 and the result came back negative.
Since she was HIV negative, her next examination was due after three years.
“I brushed aside the symptoms and blamed my old bed for the back aches as well as the fatigue.
“I also blamed my hormones and family planning method for the heavy menstrual flow.”
The pain, however, took a turn for the worse in December 2016.
The general pain now came along with a fever.
Busisiwe had contracted a uterus infection.
She visited Mbuya Dorcas Hospital and consulted a general practitioner, who prescribed antibiotics for the pain and fever.
However, as she was about to leave the hospital, a good Samaritan introduced her to the resident gynaecologist.
The specialist doctor insisted that she undergo a physical examination as a precautionary measure.
“He was a male doctor. We started having some small talk, just to lighten the atmosphere and break the tension,” Busisiwe said.
Suddenly, a loud silence enveloped the examination room.
The doctor’s facial expression betrayed his abject despair.
She knew immediately that the doctor was about to deliver some devastating news.
“He told me that he suspected that I had developed cervical cancer.
“My mind froze immediately and I was trembling.
“I could see the white sheet covering me shaking.
“I could not comprehend what I had just heard.”
The doctor recommended several other confirmatory tests, which were then scheduled for the first months of 2017.
Sadly, the tests confirmed that Busisiwe had stage one cervical cancer.
She immediately started chemotherapy and radiation therapy treatment regimens.
Busisiwe went through six cycles of chemotherapy which ran concurrently with the radiation therapy, which she completed in July 2017.
To her and her family’s relief the treatment worked.
She was declared cancer-free later that year and now only has bi-annual reviews.
Her experience with the illness, she said, helped her realise that most women do not have adequate information about cervical cancer.
Along with other cancer patients and survivors, they have founded a support group named Hope for Cervical Cancer
Support Group.
“When I was diagnosed I did not have much information about cervical cancer, all I knew was the number of women who had died of cancer,” Busisiwe explained.
“My family was very supportive during the treatment periods, but I never really interacted with other survivors during that time.
“The group has 20 cervical cancer survivors and patients and was founded in 2021.”
As the country joins the rest of the world in commemorating cervical cancer this month, Busisiwe urged all women to be screened for cervical cancer regularly.
“I never thought I would be diagnosed with cancer. Like most women, I was in the comfort zone,” she added.
“A common mistake that we make as women, is that we think that as long as I do not tick the boxes on the risk factors list, then I am safe.
“However, I always say as along as one has a uterus and is sexually active, you are not 100 percent safe.
“One needs to be regularly screened and it is nothing to be ashamed of.”