Hospital Visit

Valentina Vasilovna Chernova is the director of the Good Shepherd Children’s Center, and one of the people responsible for the formation of the Good Shepherd organization. A while back she was diagnosed with cancer of the liver and thyroid with inconclusive test results as to whether it was malignant or not. A few weeks ago she went to a hospital in Zaporozhye, which is supposedly one of the best cancer treatment facilities in Eastern Ukraine. She had surgery two weeks ago today, and then began the recovery process.

The day after the basketball tournament I traveled to Zaporozhye for the annual MCC Economic Development conference. I brought pictures from the tournament as well as notes from almost all the kids and workers at the Good Shepherd center. I was excited to see her, but a bit nervous as to what I would see. The whole situation—no one really knowing whether the cancer was malignant or not or what the prognosis is and therefore assuming the worst—made me rather uncomfortable. It had all seemed very reminiscent of Solzhenitsyn’s The Cancer Ward and I feared that the hospital conditions would also seem eerily familiar.

We went to visit her on Thursday night in her room, which she shared with five other women, all of which I assumed had some form of cancer. They all appeared to be at different stages in the process. Some were rather cheerful and optimistic while others were quite grave. All were willing to participate in Valentina’s conversations with her visitors.

Being the selfish person that I am, I began to feel sorry for myself during this, the most difficult 30 minutes of my time in Ukraine up till now. While Wednesday had been a good day for her—with her being able to get up and walk to the washroom and clean up—Thursday had been difficult—she lacked the strength to get up and her fever had returned. It was really hard to see her like that, the optimistic woman who I constantly hear in my mind, reminding me: “Of course there are many difficulties in dealing with the kids, but we will not get discouraged.” Here she was saying: “I know everything is going to turn out well,” but her eyes and voice were lacking that reassuring quality that they always seemed to have.

Yesterday I was told that Valentina will be coming back to Makeevka on Friday, and I was so excited. Maybe her stay in “the cancer ward” will not be as indefinite as my reading of Solzhenitsyn had led me to believe. I know that I am excited to see her outside the confines of such a depressing place.

P.S. Sorry to those of you who haven’t read Solzhenitsyn. To find out what hospitals are like in this part of the world, read The Cancer Ward.

Dave