If there was a collective noun for people healed from goitres,
it would have to be a chatter. Imagine having a huge growth on your
neck that effected your breathing, your speech, and the way people
treated you. Now imagine the growth disappearing within hours, with
little evidence remaining that it was ever there. Here is Lalao’s story.
Lalao’s and her husband struggle to make ends meet. Five of their six
children live in with them in one-room in Madagascar’s capital city.
Lalao’s husband travels to work on a rice farm, and Lalao helped support
their family by working in a small local eatery.
Their financial challenges increased 13 years ago when Lalao noticed a
lump in her neck. As time passed, the growth increased in size. Despite
the scarf she wore to cover her throat, the café owner dismissed her
appearance would disturb his customers. “That left me in a difficult
situation,” she shares.
The ever-cheerful Lalao set her hands to work at whatever came her
way; washing clothes by hand, toiling in the fields – earning less than
one dollar a day. Exertion made it difficult for her to breathe.
As the swelling at the front of Lalao’s neck grew, so did her
anxiety. Sometimes she awoke during the night choking and gasping for
breath. “It affected my breathing, in the beginning that was
frightening!” she recalls. “If I lay flat my breathing was blocked. I
had to make sure my head was upright, and I woke two or three times
every night.”
A friend received a text message alert advertising that Mercy Ships
was screening patients for problems like hers, so Lalao went along. She
received both a diagnosis and a solution.
Mercy Ships could remove her goitre, but it requires pre-operative
monitoring of hormone and blood levels. So Lalao and half a dozen other
goitre patients would make the trip to the hospital ship on the coast
every month to have their check-ups. This made it impossible for Lalao
to hold down regular work. Reaching the goitre clinic involved six,
nine-hour return bus trips for Lalao, and the family’s finances were
stretched to a critical level. “I had to travel so many times, and it
costs a lot,” explains Lalao. “It was really difficult to lose my job
and the money. It was hard for my family to pay for my travel. I did any
work I could get just to help.” She even borrowed from her neighbours
who encouraged her to continue with her treatment.
When her surgical date finally came, Lalao sold the last four family
chickens and bought a bus ticket to take her once again to the Africa Mercy.
Lalao’s transformation was immediate and complete. Surgery was a gift
that removed the goitre which had plagued her for 13 years. “I feel
really free!” she declares. “ I don’t need that scarf (to hide my neck)
any more. I will give to my mother!”
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