A cancer diagnosis is a heavy burden for anyone but for Carol Dabie it came with many other woes that would likely break the strongest among us. From the horrific impact on her body caused by treatment to being a rolling stone in a foreign land as she sought to find a roof over her head while managing the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and dealing with the stigma around her diagnosis, Dabie has faced numerous challenges but has nonetheless persevered.
Her journey is far from over as she has never been cancer free since her November 2019 diagnosis but even as she continues to fight she wants to share the story of her journey with others as she says too many women are unable to fight the additional battles that come with their cancer diagnoses.
If her story can inspire just one to fight a little longer then it is worth telling, she believes.
January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month. In Guyana, it is a form of cancer that continues to be one of the leading cancers among women and has seen many lose their lives.
It is that cancer Dabie is fighting and she wants to continue publicly addressing the stigma surrounding this particular form of cancer. Dabie, who is months away from her fortieth birthday, was diagnosed with a rare form of cervical cancer, cervical clear-cell carcinoma, in late 2019 and for her the first reaction was shame as she knew of the stigma that is attached to the cancer. Many believe that a woman has to have been promiscuous to be diagnosed with cervical cancer.
In fact, Dabie was told by her doctor that had she been sexually active the cancer would have been detected at an earlier stage. A divorcee, Dabie said she wanted to protect herself by remaining celibate. But unfortunately “something was happening in my body that sex would have signaled,” she said with a laugh during an interview via Zoom from the United States, where she is still undergoing treatment.
Because she was not sexually active, she had to use a dilator to help her through the treatment. During certain treatments, the vaginal dilator can help prevent scar tissue from forming, increase blood flow to the area, and help break down any scar tissue that has formed. The tumor was not in her cervix but behind her uterus.
According to Mayo Clinic, cervical cancer is a type of cancer that occurs in the cells of the cervix — the lower part of the uterus that connects to the vagina. Various strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted infection, play a role in causing most cervical cancer.
But that was not the case for Dabie as it is believed the form of cervical cancer she was diagnosed with is hereditary. She is the last of six children and the only girl and she was just 11-years-old when her mother died as a result of cardiac arrest but for years she was exhibiting the signs and symptoms that Dabie later experienced. She was never diagnosed and passed away at just 48-years-old.
Thousands of women
Since speaking out Dabie said that she has received messages from thousands of women, some of whom suffer in silence because they are ashamed of their diagnosis. As a result, she has been putting on a brave face and remaining positive.
Even as she chronicles her journey on her Facebook page, she always attempts to put a positive spin to it.
“My life is being restored to some sort of normalcy and I am trying to promote that more to let them [other women] understand that it is just a phase. It is difficult and I have been through it all and more because I am facing it with a pandemic and away from my family…and there is a silver lining… I couldn’t see it then but I want to show them that your life can be restored to some kind of normalcy after the different type of treatments that is basically killing your body,” Dabie told this newspaper.
Dabie pointed out that many times the negative impact of the rigorous treatment on one’s body is not highlighted enough and she recalled that she longed to just give up and cut the treatment. She has not been undergoing chemotherapy since last March but according to how she puts it her body “has maxed out” and is “too toxic” for treatment and she is not sure when she will be able to resume that treatment.
The cancer has spread to her lymphatic system and so she has never been cancer free since she started treatment as every time she does a scan a new lymph node is detected. She is still undergoing radiation treatment.
Became ill
Dabie had been a media practitioner for many years and she has had stints at MBC Channel 93 and later at NCN, from where she resigned as the creative director in 2017, after which she did some work for ExxonMobil. It was while her catering service was booming that she became ill. She was looking to expand her business as she already had one assistant helping her in the kitchen and three delivery drivers.
But she started to experience extreme fatigue and she was tired most of the time. She lost weight and experienced painful vomiting.
There were also symptoms of what was thought to be a urinary tract infection (UTI) and she had stopped seeing her period for a few months. The latter, however, was a relief to Dabie as she recalled that previously she had seen her period for months at a time and usually had to see a doctor who most times prescribed contraceptives. She also had serious lower back pain.
As her illness progressed, Dabie visited the St Joseph Mercy Hospital, where she was treated for the symptoms until a doctor recommended she see an urologist. It was he who recommended that she visit the Guyana Cancer Institute for a CT scan. The scan revealed a mass but at that time it was not confirmed that it was cancerous. Her lefty kidney was already affected by the mass because of how the tumor rested and it could not have drained properly.
A biopsy was recommended and the samples were sent to Trinidad but it was while she waited for the results and got sicker with each passing day that her father decided to send her to the US as her frightened family needed answers. The period was reminiscent of what they experienced when her mother was ill even though Dabie is too young to remember.
Dabie bled during the flight to the US and had to be rushed to a hospital almost immediately after landing and it was there that she was later told she was stricken with stage three cancer which had already spread to the cervix and ovaries as well.
At that point Dabie said she was still hoping it was not cancer and she recalled the encouraging words of her father before she boarded the plane. Even after more than two years since her diagnosis he still has not used the word cancer when discussing the illness with her.
“So when it was confirmed that it was cancer and cervical cancer…I kind of sank. Because one not because I was sick but because of the stigma attached to cervical cancer. Because being in Guyana and everything, people talk about cervical cancer [and] having multiple sex partners and all those things. I was like, ‘How could I get affected with cervical cancer?’” Dabie said.
She recalled that she was married at a young age and never had a very active sexual life. She remembers being questioned about her sexual life and her partners by an acquaintance, who pointed out that one of her sexual partners had to have given her the HPV virus.
“I was like it begins…I am thinking here comes all the negative things about cervical cancer. I was just sitting there and I am listening and I am just so embarrassed and I wanted to sink,” Dabie said.
She also shared that around that time as well she deactivated all her social media accounts as she “did not want to face the world anymore”.
“I was more concerned about what people thought about this cancer than thinking about me and actually being affected with cancer,” she said.
It took her a few weeks before she shared what was happening on social media and even at first when asked the type of cancer she was diagnosed she went into the long explanation of how it may be transmitted instead of just saying cervical cancer.
“And even with all that I have been through with the treatment and the pandemic and not being with your family, cancer was still not the main problem. That was like the easiest part to deal with,” Dabie said.
Her first major surgery was on Old Year’s Day of 2019 and it was eight hours long as she could not have started chemotherapy and radiation without the surgery. The mass could not have been removed but the active lymph nodes were removed and it was discovered that they had spread to different parts of her body.
After grueling cycles of treatment, the mass shrunk but new lymph nodes have been appearing and she is presently awaiting the results of another biopsy.
‘In a better place’
Dabie said presently she is in a better place emotionally and mentally although she does “sink” sometimes.
“But I have been an emotional wreck since because [I am] not only fighting cancer. The pandemic came. There was a pause in treatment…,” Dabie said of the past two years as she battled the cancer.
With the delay in treatment, Dabie’s left kidney got infected and right after she was quarantined for a period she was hospitalised for over two months with no family or close person being at her side.
During the treatment for the kidney infection her body started to reject the medication and the doctor told her “we have to prepare for the worse”.
She called her father and brothers sobbing and informed them of what was happening and expressing the wish not to die in the US even as they continued to give her encouraging words.
“My biggest fear was not dying but dying there alone and not being able to see my family before it happened,” she recalled.
However, following treatment with a new cocktail of medication put together by a team of doctors the infected kidney was treated.
Dabie was cleared to be discharged but then came another blow—she had nowhere to stay as the family she was staying with was afraid that she might have taken the COVID-19 virus into their home. Dabie said she sank into a depression even as she was quick to note that the family had been very kind to her and the woman of the home had taken care of her when she was at her lowest. She said she understood the family’s need to protect themselves as they had suffered a death from the virus.
Some intervention saw her being allowed back into the home but for a short period. Another home was opened to her but after a month she also had to leave that home and it was by chance Dabie said she managed to pay one month’s rent in a subletting arrangement.
For that month, the three other tenants — two males and a female who were all Guyanese — assisted her even as she battled with the effects of the treatment on her weakened body. After a month, Dabie said she had no other money to pay the rent and her family at home was already financially exhausted.
She made a call to an acquaintance begging her to purchase a ticket for her to travel back to Guyana as she was ready to quit the treatment. But the individual provided a few months’ rent so she could continue the treatment. Dabie later moved to another home where the rent was cheaper and that family took care her as she continued the treatment.
Today, Dabie is living in her own apartment even as she continues treatment.
While she is not very religious Dabie believes there is a higher source above her as a way has always been created for her in her most difficult periods. “It is still a lot for me to deal with emotionally because over two years I am away from my family and friends and the life that I know. It is the first time I am in the US but I have to be grateful for all the opportunities…I have a great medical team and even when they know I don’t have finance they pull together and give me money so I can be able to book a Uber to go for treatment…,” she shared.
The medical team encourages her and has given her a reason to continue the treatment, which she described as worse than the symptoms she experienced having cancer. She has had several surgeries and became tired of the “poking and cutting” and wanted it all to end but the team encouraged her.
“I am entering my third year of treatment. I am still not cancer-free. I am living with cancer and I am just trying to make the best out of it,” she shared.
She hopes to hear the words “you are in remission” so she can return to Guyana but she has to make her health a priority and remain for treatment but she is lonely as she misses her family and friends even though she is grateful for the opportunities in the US and hopes that just maybe a cure is found.
Dabie is a part of Guyana Cancer Foundation survivors’ group. The foundation is located at 351 S East Street, North Cummingsburg between Lamaha and New Market streets, Georgetown and its founder Bibi Hassan can be contacted on 618-2085
If you are a woman and you have never done a pap test, please call the Cancer Institute of Guyana on 225-5701 or 225-5703 and make an appointment. You can also have a VIA done and this is free of cost at the VIA clinic, located in the compound of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation. There are also 14 VIA clinics located around Guyana and regional hospitals can be contacted for further information.
