I survived brain surgery - Balyama

Unless one looks closely, it is not easy to see the scar across Harriet Balyama’s head even with her short kempt hair. Still on medication, the soft spoken and welcoming Balyama, (49) a resident of Namugongo is one of the few survivors of brain tumour surgery.
The former accountant has been restrained from performing heavy duties, driving or being alone for long.

Her life
Balyama graduated from Makerere University in 1991 as a teacher and was recruited at Nabisunsa Girls’ School as a Chemistry and Mathematics teacher in 1992.
She left the school in 2002 to join Data Figure, an audit firm after completing her accounting course with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) while teaching at Nabisunsa.
Three years later, she worked for RTI international, a project that was dealing with HIV/Aids in Uganda. She then moved to Engender Health, a USAID-funded project that was dealing with fistula as finance and accounts manager.
In January 2008, she was engaged by Data Figure to work in Nigeria.

Symptoms emerge
While in Abuja, she developed severe headaches but she blamed it on the hot weather in the country and would take painkillers. She returned home in December 2008 and started a business dealing in hardware but in 2012, she was contracted again by Engender Health as finance and operations manager and consultant.
“While on the project in March 2014, the headaches became very bad. I went to see different doctors but they told me I was fine. I checked my blood pressure, the optician changed my glasses, I saw a dentist, and checked my ears too but I was not getting any relief,” she narrates.

“By December 2015, the pain had penetrated my spine and I could not sit upright or walk on my own. I would be bending all the time. Instead, I lay on my back. I felt a pressure behind my eyes and I was feeling intense pain. I would only be spoon- fed. My sister came to nurse me to ensure that I ate but the entire family was perplexed as they did not know what was wrong with me. I had sold some of the household property to buy the medicines that would temporarily relieve my headache.
Balyama’s sister Sarah Nakubo, says she had lost sense of time. “She could not distinguish day, evening or night. She would sleep the whole day and could not eat. She would be angry at us for no reason and her unexplained headache caused us to change the environment. We took her to stay at another sister’s home in Kajjansi.”

Proper diagnosis, surgery
While at Kajjansi, her sister’s friend, a doctor, came to check on her and noticed she had a problem with her head. He recommended an MRI brain test.
“In January 2016, I did the recommended test worth Shs700,000. My sister was told that I had a tumour in the brain but she was afraid of breaking the news to me so two days later, the doctor who did the test explained to me that the tumour on the right side of the brain was the size of my fist. This tumour must have been there for six years but I was just not doing the right tests for proper diagnosis so I did not know what was wrong with me,” explains Balyama.

The doctor referred me to Dr Joel Kiryabwire a doctor at IHK and Mulago hospital who said the operation is possible in Uganda and that the facilities at IHK would enable me undergo the surgery successfully because Mulago was undergoing renovation.
I was first given some drugs which the doctor said would reduce the size of the tumour.
While on the drugs, I was asked to do a detailed MRI test to check the location of the main veins to enable the operation. This cost Shs900,000.
My family stood with me when I had the operation on February 13, 2016 and my sisters took turns nursing me. I spent three weeks in hospital and was discharged with a wound on the skull,” recalls Balyama.

Post operation
“After six weeks, I developed a dry cough and I was re admitted at IHK. The doctor called them post- operation defects. I was found to have a clot in my left lung. I was hospitalised for two weeks and discharged because I felt better.
However, two days later, I could not breathe and my blood was clotting. I was put in the Intensive Care Unit at IHK for six days and discharged after two weeks.
I was maintained on blood thinners to help dissolve the clot in the lung. Until now, I am on drugs and I was told to refrain from heavy duties so I cannot be an accountant any more. I cannot drive and I must not be alone.

I am lucky I had saved with NSSF so I was able to cater for some of the expenses for the hospital bills. Since the time I was diagnosed, I have spent more than Shs60m and I believe this is a very big expense. Not many people can afford this. If they had a patient with a similar problem, the patient would probably die. Therefore, I want to start an organisation that supports survivors of brain injuries since the survival rate is very low and the expense for a mere test is very high.
Although constrained by expenses involved, people should be doing regular check-ups for the entire body because if I had done the check-up, I would have an early diagnosis to save money, time and the risky operation I went through,” Harriet Balyama