By mid-2017, Mrs. Dsane had returned to Ghana from the United States after birthing her third baby. She had a pre-labour Spontaneous Rupture of the Membranes (SRM) prior to delivery. When she started experiencing severe abdominal pains several weeks after returning to Ghana, her natural conclusion was that the discomfort was an after-effect of the SRM.
Some weeks prior to the abdominal pains, she had also experienced a recurrent sore throat which persisted even after taking medications prescribed from the staff clinic. The sore throat would heal after each dose of treatment and come back a few days later.
Her Gynaecologist requested an ultrasound to check the abdominal pain, but results showed no infection. Pain relievers were prescribed but the pain returned worse after three full weeks.
"I have reasons to believe that I was living with this thyroid disorder for many years before being diagnosed."
In 2002, after conceiving her first son, she was told she had become anaemic. She had also been battling with a severe case of ulcer and food allergies since secondary school. Interestingly, after being diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and put on treatment, her Haemoglobin level never dropped to anaemic levels again, nor did she have any ulcer episodes — suggesting her thyroid problems may have started much earlier.
She established the Thyroid Ghana Foundation following the battle with hyperthyroidism which took almost 8 months before she was properly diagnosed. She was working in one of the biggest hospitals in Ghana for over 16 years and had not heard anything called hyperthyroidism, let alone Graves' disease. Within those months, she had lost almost 25kg, and her joints became weak.
Overcoming Challenges
The biggest initial hurdles were getting affected persons to accept their condition, getting funds to support needy patients, and getting institutions involved in thyroid care to provide discounts. The foundation put in place programs including a WhatsApp support platform where affected persons can post thyroid-related issues for help from medical practitioners, and the thyroid patients forum.
In terms of institutional support, proposals were sent to organizations and affected persons now get discounts of 10-30% on investigations from 3 of the biggest laboratory and imaging organizations in Ghana. The foundation has collaborated with the University of Ghana Medical Centre since May 2021 to provide thyroid surgeries at a subsidized fee of one-third of the full cost.
For those unable to afford even the subsidized fee, the foundation visits their places of religious worship to raise funds. Pharmaceutical companies also donate drugs to be shared with affected persons.
"If you have good health, you have wealth. Let's not attribute every health challenge to some 'witches' and be ignorant about seeking medical interventions. Yes, it's great to pray but let's back our prayers with the needed action, for the bible says, 'faith without works, is dead' — James 4:17."