FACE TO FACE WITH SURGERIES BUT STILL GROWING STRONG: My OWN STORY

I don’t know how many surgeries and what kind you have experienced in your life. For me, it has been six surgeries over a period of 76 years.

My parents, the late Charles Afunaduula Ovuma Ngobi Isabirye and the late Stephanie Esteri Kyabwe Nawamwena Naigaga Wabiseatyo told me that my First surgery was on my right leg. They said a wound developed on my right leg during my growth and development in an incubator in 1949. I was born premature on 27th July 1949 and needed special care in an incubator. They did not tell me how exactly the wound developed, but doctors needed to erase it. According to the story, the white doctors at Jinja Hospital cut a piece of flesh from my left buttock and grafted it where the wound was. I was three months old. I still feel the location where the flesh was removed, but cannot recognize anymore where the grafting was made.

My Second Surgery was on my left eye to remove an outgrowth that was extending over my iris and interfering with vision. This surgery took place in November 1980 at Nairobi, Hospital in Kenya. I had just joined Chiromo Campus of Nairobi University for a Masters degree in Zoology (The Biology of Conservation). I was 31 years old.

My Third Surgery was in March 1983 at Voi Hospital in Kenya. I was 34 years old. A huge cockroach had somehow entered my left ear while I was asleep in a house in Tsavo National Park (East), Kenya. When I came to my senses, I felt something squeezing itself deeper and deeper into my ear canal. I was worried about it destroying my eardrum. While in a lot of pain, I told my wife Jane to check and tell me what it was, and she established it was a cockroach. When she tried to pull it out, it went farther into the ear canal. The real pain came at around 6 am when the cockroach was dying its “death” strokes caused a lot of vibrations in the ear canal, and I fell down with relief when it had no more life. When the Sun had risen and we were sure there were no dangerous animals around, we walked to the residence of the Park’s research warden, I remember as Kingoina – a Kisii. He drove us to Voi Hospital so that the doctors could take action. We established the hospital had never received such a case. One doctor told me it was an easy case, which would be solved in what he called the small theatre. When he tried to get the creature out of my ear, he failed. He said he was sorry I would have to go to the Main Theatre. And that is where I ended up. I found 12 doctors waiting to receive me on the hospital bed in the Main Theatre. They were all curious. I was injected with something that sent me into unconsciousness. By the time I came back to my senses, I was sharing a bed with a patient with a huge wound on his leg. And the doctors were there to show me the creature from my ear, which they had placed by my head. From that time, I hated cockroaches. I check everywhere before I sleep. If I see one, I look for the eggs and destroy them with hot water.

My Third Surgery was at Mulago Hospital in 2000. I was 51 years old. The issue was haemorrhoids in my anal canal. Dr Awori, the surgeon, decided that I would have to undergo surgery, but warned that sometimes they come back after surgery. I don’t want to tell you the pain I went through days after the surgery.

Indeed, as Dr Awori warned, there was a resurgence of haemorrhoids in 2012. I was 63 years old. A doctor at Kampala International Hospital, Dr Rachkara, carried out my Fourth  Surgery. The haemorrhoids resurfaced in 2016, but I resolved not to go for surgery again. Instead, I consulted Dr Waiswa Zziwa, who works with Chinese Medicines. I have never had the problem again.

My Fifth Surgery was in February 2021 at Mengo Hospital’s Eye Clinic. I was 72 years old.  Cataracts were removed from my eyes to restore my declining vision. It was Dr Dan Bwonya who carried out the feat using laser technology.

My Sixth Surgery was on 10th September 2925 at Uro-Care Hospital in Nansana. I was nearly two months beyond 76 years of age. Very early, Dr Steven Watya, the proprietor of the hospital, warned me I might have to undergo surgery on my prostate. And yes, on 10th September 2025, Dr Rajab Idris, one of the resident urologists at the hospital, using laser technology, operated on my prostate. I am recuperating.

I am writing an article titled “My Prostate Journey from Nawaka to Uro-Care Hospital. In the article, I record my experiences in a professionally upright private hospital, what I learned, relearned and unlearned about Uganda’s health care system regarding the prostate problem and how the environmental dimensions of healthcare are underplayed by the Government (central and local) and NEMA.

For God and My Country.