Friday is a widow and a mother of three. She arrived at the hospital with two months’ history of pelvic pain associated with difficulty in movement and loss of weight. She is in severe pain with right and left iliac masses of different measurements. Doctors completed scans/tests and she was diagnosed with ovarian masses. If not treated through curative laparotomy, Friday will not be able to do her work due to severe pain, and her pelvic masses may develop into carcinomas.
Friday is a small-scale farmer who grows beans and potatoes for home consumption. Her husband died in 2011 and left her with two children. One is now 15 years old and in primary school class six and another one who is 9 years old is in primary school class five. She later had another child who is 5 years old and in preschool.
Friday managed to construct a two-room semi-permanent house to shelter her family, and is on her own to raise her children. She gets their school fees through selling part of what she produces from farming, but cannot afford additional surgery charges.
Friday shared with us, “I had planned to stop my children from going to school because I cannot afford their school fees in my condition. Given the opportunity with the surgery, I look forward to resuming farming to be able to take care of my children.”
