A young doctor working in the oncology department at Livingstone Hospital, recently stepped completely out of her comfort zone and decided to shave off her hair in order to do more for her patients by trying to walk in their shoes herself.
Dr Melissa Pietersen, registrar in oncology, said that as a doctor, although she treats her patients as best she can, it always feels like she’s not doing enough and she really just wants to go the extra mile.
“I’ve taken part in shavathons before but then I’ve always just sprayed my hair because I didn’t have the guts to cut it.
“There are so many people that we know that are receiving chemotherapy, whether it’s family, friends, colleagues or even patients that we get attached to.
“This is just a small sacrifice for me to do this for them.
“This is about the patients,” Pietersen said.
She explained that working in oncology, you get to tell patients that they will be losing their hair due to chemotherapy so often, that it almost becomes robotic.
“It’s actually a big thing to lose your hair. It forms part of your identity as a woman and we need to acknowledge that losing your hair is huge. By shaving off my hair, I can now relate to my patients differently. This is like me trying to walk a day in their shoes.
“I am now able to tell them from my own experience that you can do this without having any hair. You can redefine yourself.
“Even as I’m sitting here with my hair gone and I look at my patients, it still doesn’t feel like enough. They miss their hair and know what it feels like to lose that part of yourself. We try to do things for our patients and we call our work here our every day 67 minutes,” she said.
Apart from making this sacrifice for her patients, this is also a very personal matter for Pietersen as her family has a very strong history of cancer.
She explained that most of her aunts had cancer and that her grandmother passed away from cancer.
“My mom’s aunt was also recently diagnosed with cancer and I have one aunt in remission. This also motivated me to shave my hair.
“I actually wanted to do it sooner but the opportunity never presented itself. This week I just knew that I had to get it over and done with,” she explained.
When asked how she felt after her hair was shaved off, Pietersen answered: “A little nervous. I’m a little bit out of my shell. I also have the tendency to knock my head against things so I actually had no idea what it would look like underneath the hair,” she said with a laugh.
Head of department, Dr Adelaide de Freitas, said that what Pietersen had done was a good thing because it was good for the patients to see that their doctors try to understand them on all levels.
“We try to accommodate our patients as much as possible. We treat adult cancer patients here with chemo and radiation and also have a lot of palliative care.
“This facility serves the whole western region of the Eastern Cape, which is quite huge.
“We are walking this journey with the all our patients from beginning to end,” she said.
Marius de Vries, from the Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) branch in Nelson Mandela Bay and his colleague, Nadine Wagner, spearheaded Pietersen’s mini shavathon. Taking their hair clipper all the way to the hospital, Wagner shaved Pietersen’s head whilst De Vries spoke about the hope that oncologists bring to cancer patients.
“I have a special soft spot for oncologists. Being an oncologist takes a special kind of doctor. They’re giving hope, something that means so much to a cancer patient,” he said.
He also encouraged people to get cancer screenings done as often as possible.
“At CANSA, we check what we can do to detect cancer as early as possible. We need to get the word out that people should know what signs to look out for and they have to do the screenings,” De Vries emphasised.
“CANSA focuses on education, support and research and what many people may not know is that we have a wig bank, where you can choose a wig to wear. We also have various types of medical equipment and a care centre where out of town patients can stay overnight. We also transport the patients where they need to be.
“CANSA is turning 91 years old today and we are happy to always help as many cancer patients as possible.”
He added that CANSA will be hosting a big shavathon at Livingstone Hospital on September 1 this year.
“We are encouraging people to take part in this shavathon, where they can choose to either spray their hair or shave it off.”
