Part 1: The news
Bertha’s battle with breast cancer is a three part special report on the plight of a PNG woman having to contend with a dysfunctional health system and high costs of drugs in Papua New Guinea.
How does one handle the news of being diagnosed with cancer while being isolated for COVID-19? It was a lot to take in for then 41 year old Bertha Ngahan – who just two months earlier had no idea that cancer had quietly grown in her body.
Her story began in September 2021, when Bertha – a teacher at the Hargy International School, went to Port Moresby for a work trip. One morning, she woke up to her left arm feeling all numb – a sensation she couldn’t quite understand. She took Panadol and brushed the feeling aside, but a week later when she was back in Bialla, West New Britain, she couldn’t shake off the feeling.
“I felt this weight there… you could feel like there’s something there but I couldn’t figure out what it was. It just felt off.”
Eager to find out where the weight was coming from, Bertha began to examine herself starting from her back, to her shoulder, and arms. Her best bet was that all she needed was to identify where the feeling was coming from, have it massaged and she would be back to normal.
She examined her chest and eventually, her breasts – that was where she felt something foreign, and hard.
“It was underneath my breast…I could actually hold it. It was almost the size of a golfball…and I paused because I was like hang on this is something big…if its that big I should have felt it earlier or I should have known that there was something there…but all this time, I had no Idea that it was there.”
Bertha quickly called her colleague and was advised to see the doctor the next day.
The doctor examined her and advised that she would be referred to POM to do a mammogram and a biopsy.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, she was not able to travel to Port Moresby as soon as expected.
Biopsy results in isolation
At the end of October, she travelled to POM. Initially, only a biopsy was supposed to be conducted, however after a few scans, the doctor suggested to have the lump removed.
Bertha agreed, and the surgery to remove the lump was done. After staying a week at the hospital, she was discharged but was met with another unfortunate turn of events
“After I came out, I got COVID – that time it was that delta strain going around. My immune system was really low so it just hit me really bad.”
The three weeks spent in COVID-19 isolation became somewhat of a preparation period for Bertha, as she looked up any information she could find that would relate to her biopsy.
“I was just Googling and reading, anything and everything that I thought would help…because there really was no like, set guideline for you to follow and say okay, you know when you have this, you do this and what not.”
Bertha recalled being isolated on the 7th floor of Holiday Inn. Being a single mother of 6, her time spent away from her children and family was taking a toll on her. Except for the virtual conversations with loved ones, there was no one physically there with her when she received her biopsy results.
Her world came to a standstill when she looked at the results that had been sent to her. Although she prepared to accept whatever the result was, Bertha said it was a totally different feeling.
Bertha was diagnosed with Stage 2 invasive ductal carcinoma – a common type of breast cancer.
“It was like… someone just pressed the pause button and life was just…it was just unexplainable. With no words, I just forwarded the results to my boss. I didn’t even say anything. I didn’t explain anything to her. I just forwarded the results to her.”
“I saw that she saw the message…she called one of my colleagues to call me…so she calls me and then that was it…as soon as she started talking… I just started crying. I can’t remember what happened after… I just told her “please I just want to go home.”
Her travel was sorted, and Bertha flew home the next day.
The treatment
Bertha began her chemotherapy treatment for invasive ductal carcinoma with the first cycle in February 2022.
About three cycles into her treatment, the machine used to mix the chemotherapy drugs at the Port Moresby General Hospital broke down – forcing a halt to her and other cancer patients’ chemotherapy.
A mastectomy wasn’t an option Bertha wanted earlier in her journey.
“I thought… if it came to that, if I necessarily had to have it removed then I would do it.”
Because of the period of time spent without chemotherapy, the option was suggested and she agreed.
In May last year, she had the surgery done.
“I had a mastectomy on my left breast as part of my treatment plan to minimise the risk of the cancer returning because of my family history. I lost my dad and sister to cancer so it was something I had to seriously consider.”
After the surgery, Bertha continued with her chemotherapy cycles as the hospital started administering this again. The machine was not fixed, but they worked with other means of preparing the drugs for chemo.
One year on
About a year after her first biopsy was done, she took a second biopsy and the results showed that she was now stage 3.
The chemotherapy continued, and after her 6th cycle which was supposed to be her last , she was reviewed and told she had to do one last cycle. Her chemo finally ended in November after seven cycles. But this was only one part of her journey to the battle against cancer. In December, she had yet another surgery to have her ovaries removed. This is because the cancer she has is hormonal, meaning it feeds off hormones to grow and spread.
While Bertha is grateful to have completed chemotherapy, she shared concerns about the shortage of chemo drugs that other cancer patients have been facing, and the costs they have to incur especially with a shortage of chemo drugs.
