i have a story to share with some of you that may be of interest...

A few weeks ago I met a particular woman. It is not neccessary to give a place where I met this woman,as the end result of this meeting is more important. We got to talking about things. She was complaining about this and that and how very busy they are and just out of the blue mentioned that she had to go to the hospital the following monday to have her left breast removed. Well, as you can imagine, prior to this we were just talking about pretty mundane stuff so naturally I was kind of shocked that a total stranger would just divulge this painful fact. Whilst still in shock I somehow managed to respond and I wished her all the best with the operation.

At that moment, she asked if I wanted to feel the lump on her breast. I'm sorry to say I didn't even know how to respond! I just stood there I'm sure with a startled look on my face. Bear in mind I have heard of breast cancer as long as I can remember but I have never been close to someone that had it or even known anyone that had it for that matter. Well she insisted that I touch the lump in her breast and know what it felt like. I touched the lump. It was hard, rock hard. It was in the entire upper portion of her left breast. I felt so afraid. She then insisted I see the lump and lifted her top up to show me. This lump had completely grown over that particular breast. There was no discoloration or bruising or anything like that. To me, it looked like theoretically, like someone had inserted a small apple under her skin. It was huge and I felt instantly so much sorrow for her. She on the other hand had such a positive outlook on the fact that she was going to have it removed the beginning of the following week and that everything would be fine. It was uncanny.I agreed with her of course and again wished her the best.(still in shock mind you)...

I asked her how long she had known about this. She then became very passionate in insisting that if I even suspected I felt a lump and was'nt sure, to not give it the benefit of the doubt but to go to the doctor immediately and have it checked out!. She said when she first felt the lump, that it felt like a peanut under her skin. She also said that she didn't do anything about it for a year. Probably to scared to....

One year later when we meet, that once little lump weighs 1.36killograms or 3 pounds!

We met again after she came back from the doctor and I asked her how it went(she wore a big sweater top and you can't tell by looking if there was a difference in appearance).

She said the doctors said the lump was already too big and that she was starting chemotherapy the very next day. Again I said a quite prayer for her and wished her all the best.

I don't know if I'll hear from her again, but I will never forget this experience for the rest of my life. I had been in the habit of doing my own breast exam prior to meeting this lady and want to stress to those of you out there that arn't in this habit to pick this good habit of self examination up. You can get the information on how to self examine from any doctors office to the library. I wanted to share my story with you all, because this experience has left a profound effect on my own life. I consider my encounter with this women, a blessing. I will continue to pray for her recovery and want those of you out there to take issues like this more personally and absolutely do your self examinations. We have nothing to lose and everthing to gain by doing breast self examinations on a regular basis.

Just thought I would share my story with you.

God bless you all,

Sipanda

It is indeed important to have regular breast examinations and be on alert for possible warning signs of not only breast cancer but other forms of cancer that affect women.

In PNG in contrast to Western societies breast cancer is not the commonest cancer but cancer of the cervix.

For women who are educated and have access to a doctor or gynaecologist a regular pap smear which is just a scraping from the cervix (therefore non painful)to look for warning changes in cells is advisable. It is very much curable if picked up at pap smear stage.

Any abnormalities in periods in terms of blood losses should warrant an examination.


For males in PNG the commonest cancer is liver cancer(second after cervical cancer in women). Again mothers have the most important role in helping prevent this for your children in their later life by ensuring that they get all their hepatitis B vaccinations.

Hepatitis B vaccines are not routine in countries outside PNG so you may need to request your doctor to add this to your childrens list of vaccinations if you are overseas.

I commend the creation of this site dedicated to PNG women.

Thank you for the good info, I was browsing through here and came upon it. Very important info and I will take it to heart.

Have a great month!

Meri Sepik.

Hey Doc,

Got a question for you. It may sound stupid but I'm curious.... Do you think the high cases of cervical cancer for women and liver cancer for men has anything to do with our high use of kumbung(lime)? and chewing buai? Is lime probably toxic to some degree... or not?

Please advise...