Kabugho Margaret is still alive!! The little 11 year old girl with cancer, whom I sent to Mulago Hospital and despaired of ever seeing again. Two weeks ago you may recall that her family came to say they had spent all the money and she was dying, they needed more funds to get her back here. In spite of having separated the money into a “hospital” fund and a “return” fund and telling them that was IT . . . I of course caved in an handed over some more money. Then for the last two weeks I’ve had no news, I’ve been asking around, trying to find out what happened.
This morning there they were, sitting in my kitubbi, no longer in respiratory distress from her abdominal fluid, looking wastingly thin but otherwise comfortable and normal. The mass is much reduced in size. She is no longer in pain. It seems that when the father went back with the money for her return, they found that the long-awaited biopsy had been done and that chemotherapy was starting. She of course has no records but as far as I can piece together she had a course of three chemotherapeutic agents, and on a scrap of paper is written “Discharge. Return 9 July 07”.
So whoever is praying for this little girl, it is a miracle that she’s made it this far, and she’s got a long way to go, but I was so encouraged. Maybe she has a chance.
Half an hour before she came another family showed up, Kabugho Brenda, one of my spina bifida patients who has been getting intermittent care in Mbale since her birth four years ago. She is smiling, standing, actually trying to start taking steps. Her dad had just brought her to show me how well she was doing, a reminder that some families are functional and capable and caring and manage to thrive on very little in spite of their difficulties.
So my tale of two Kabughos this morning was one of encouragement, that even when common sense would say there is little or no hope these two girls and their families have held on.
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