A Race against Time

Time.

A principle governor of human affairs. A tough teacher. A healer. A gatekeeper of events succeeding one another from past through the present into the future. The Greeks defined time into two terms; chronos and kairos. Chronos defines time as a quantity measure that answers questions like how long? how frequent? how fast?, while kairos is a measure of the qualitative aspect of time, a unique moment that signify a monumental event, that could only happen at that time and not any other time.

Some people have mastered the art and the science of respecting time in such a way, that they are always at the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing. Often than not, human beings have downplayed this principle to just "luck". But to some find themselves in a conundrum of not understanding where time has gone, and yet they find themselves in a race against time. The latter can be attributed by failure to manage time effectively and efficiently or life issues such as a terminal illness or any natural factor that diverted their attention from normal routine to attending to the issue.

The interference of an illness in the time people have been given on this earth, is a fit that no one really prepares you for. The doctors might educate you on the journey, on what to expect, however the experience is one that will change a person and those around her or him forever. Because upon the receiving of the news, especially in the case of a terminal illness, time goes into a freeze mode, nothing else is important than being healthy or restoring your loved ones to full health. Life stops for the ill person and also for the loved ones taking care of him or her.

So here is the story of how my mom's race against time taught me important life lessons;

I must say I have dreaded penning this article for over a year just because of the pain of unearthing these memories.

My mom was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in 2018, and despite several medical treatments in the first two years, from 2019-2020, the cancer metastasized into different parts of her body including in the blood, in her brain, in her lymph nodes, lungs and even around her pelvic area, that attributed her to succumb to it, mid lat year.

One of the brightest women I have ever met, so vibrant and full of life, at that time just few years shy of her 50, she faced death. At that point, nothing else mattered, just mommy getting back to full health. This began a journey through which, we held her hand during numerous doctor appointments and surgeries, radiation sessions, chemo-therapies, countless weeks of immuno-therapy and even physiotherapy that brought her back from partial-paralysis. Name a treatment, I can guarantee you, the doctors tried it.

A tough lesson brought on us by time. The more I stared in her eyes, the more I could see the realization in them, of a woman who knew she barely had enough time left with her children. For our mom who loved us with so much zeal and would move mountains and hills to make sure we have the best, at that particular moment of time, I could not give her what she wanted and needed the most, TIME.

However excruciating, it was a journey I had to take. I have learnt to value time, and spend it on things and those who matter. I have had to learn to be more present in conversations, engaging and making sure to maximize and fully take in all moments I spend with my loved ones.

There is maturity that comes with this experience. When you observe and analyze a chemo-therapy or radiation round, you see how the treatment takes time to administer change. The time you have to wait for the doctors to ring you with the results of the round, conveying to you whether or not it was successful and if so, to what extent. And if not, you are taught an alternative solution that a panel of doctors have come up with (what It entails, the duration, the side effects etc).

I started learning how to manage the tension, the anxiety, the expectations, and started mastering how to deal with outcomes (whether positive or not). This was an essential skill to master, because as a caregiver, the patient takes cues from me. So my mind, body and spirit developed an a resilience system that is ready to face the facts and work towards adapting the next steps to guarantee successful results.

The biggest lesson of them all, has to be an insight into the field of healthcare. Despite my mom having passed last year, July of 2022, her illness exposed me to one of the best healthcare systems in the world, The Germany Healthcare System. All her treatments and surgeries were conducted at Klinikum Rechts Da Isar, and got to witness firsthand how state-of-the-art medical procedures and treatments can enhance the quality of life of a person, even in her final days. I want to thank the amazing team of doctors and nurses who attended to her from the first day she was admitted until her last treatment (I could mention all by names, but I did not ask for their consent for that, so the nice staff, especially the ones in Frauenklinik, thank you guys so much).

I must state this is not an advert or promo for the team at Rechts Da Isar, but as a caregiver, I asked a lot of tough questions during this period, wanted to understand every procedure and their its side effects as a doctor would, and they indulged me for hours, fed my curiosity and taught me how to navigate my role, so for that only, thank you.

I got to learn also about one of their largest health insurance fund, AOK Bayern, which were at the forefront of making sure all treatments, procedures and medicine were covered, and took off the heavy load from us.

This got me thinking of how privileged we were because we had access to advanced treatments, medicine and well-seasoned doctors and experts. A fit, that most people here back home do not have that advantage.

For our country that has over 60 years of independence, I believe it is high time we start investing heavily on building an advanced healthcare system. A system that will be embedded with an efficient ecosystem that consists of excellent healthcare workers conversant in current procedures and treatments, insurance funds with strong financial arms, pharmaceuticals that offer illness drugs at a low cost.

The government should be on the forefront in subsidizing these drugs, subsidizing health insurance programs and also lobbying big Pharma Coys with the likes of Pfizer, Sanofi etc to establish plants here in our country as part of their legislative proposal. This is based on the fact that the chemo-therapy and immune-therapy cycles are expensive, and having some of the drugs manufactured in the country, will slash their prices further down than what it is already at now.

These types of deals should also have conditions to ensure that most locals have access to employment opportunities and are trained by the experts, so as the knowledge, skill and expertise is imparted on us. However, this is not to be done without heavy regulation of these plants. This does not come from a place of rebuke, but rather from a person who has experienced loosing a loved one to cancer.

The burden of someone fighting for their life should not be add upon with worries and issues of how to pay for their treatments. What saddens the most, is when we lack these treatments in house, and people have to travel outside the country, a cost that some can afford and others can't.

Insurance companies should also evolve from putting more effort on just motor vehicle insurance to investing heavily on building sound insurance programs that are targeted towards ensuring an insured has access to the best treatments and at an affordable price. They should research how different public and private insurance funds of different countries (especially the ones with universal healthcare coverage) have achieved to make sure insured people, especially the ones who have terminal illnesses and are on their final days through their insurance have access to palliative care at little to no cost at all.

Healthcare workers are to be remunerated well. The work they do is not for the faint of hearts. If possible, more residency programs should be inducted. I have seen what the Muhimbili Emergency Department Residency Program has done, and I commend their efforts. More of these programs with countries rotations should be introduced so as our medical doctors can have access to the best on-ground experience from well-established and distinguished faculties in the world.

I can go on and on. But simply, a race against time is a reminder to use the time on this earth efficiently, because whether you have mastered the science of time or not, we are all in a nutshell, racing to accomplish all we have been called to do within the timeframe we have been given on this earth, at the same time having an ability to stop and smell the roses every now and then.

I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong, neither is bread to the wise nor riches to men of intelligence and understanding nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all - Ecclesiastes 9:11