“Can it ever end? will it ever be completely over?” These were the questions I seemed to be asking myself the entire week. Why? A new development has suddenly occurred without warning.

Do you all recall sometime last year in a previous post where I mentioned that I twisted my right knee and how that knee was placed in a cast? Well, it turns out presently that the knee has been swelling intermittently. Initially when it began, I underwent a venous doppler scan of my right limb and nothing was seen. However, a recent doppler scan shows fluid retention in the knee has been the reason for the continuous swelling. To say the truth, I’m a lot fagged out by these continuous health issues. Can I at least have some peace and quiet? Haba! (as the Hausa’s will say). I don’t mean to sound ungrateful but I really have gone through a whole lot.

I must admit that certainly it has been the hand of God that has actually kept me alive to date. Sometimes I feel like it’s an unending journey. On many occasions when I hear that a warrior has passed on especially at a very youthful age I’m filled with so much grief just knowing that another life has been snatched away. I guess this is the reason why many individuals tend to deem warriors as weaklings, thinking that even if they have anything to offer there’s a huge probability they may not make it. It’s more worse when that warrior has chosen to give up their ability to fight.

So back to my knee, I was informed that there was fluid retention in the patella region and a sample was take to determine if there was any infection. I was also scheduled to see an Orthopedic. Here I was again back at the hospital. Just when I thought I had a been given a break and my health seemed to be bouncing back. The appointment with the Orthopedic wasn’t so different from what I had become accustomed to, “these things happen frequently in Sickle Cell Anaemia. I’ll give you some pain relievers. You’ll need to wait it out and see. Come back after a week to reassess the state of the knee and to determine if further medications like steroids should be reintroduced”. The first part of this statement was the feedback I had become so accustomed to. I know many of you warriors can identify with me on this.

The sad fact sometimes about this kind of feedback is also when proper attention is denied you especially at the emergency ward. It seems like they’ve become so used to seeing your face at the clinic that the tendency is to have a laid back attitude when attending to you. Sometimes you’ll have to demand for their attention. Can this be the reason why so many warriors actually give up? Due to negligence and improper care.

I know an experience I once had years ago at a particular hospital. I was having a bone crisis and I believe that the attending nurses had become so used to my intermittent cries that every time I woke up and began to weep because the medication had dissipated from my system. They would look at me and say, “just bear it, it will soon stop”. Seriously! Sometimes, when I called for the doctor because the pain I was experiencing was so excruciating, my pleas would fall on deaf ears. “He’s attending to patients, he will be here soon. Just bear it”.

Sickle Cell Anaemia is a disease I do not wish on anyone. Sometimes, I wonder if the tables should turn around for minute or more, would it actually change the perspective of some these health workers? In fact, it didn’t take me long to decide that this particular hospital above needed to be changed.

Don’t get me wrong, the feedback from the Orthopedic isn’t my issue here, rather I’m trying to infer if the frequency of such feedbacks especially from health workers to a warrior in crises could actually indicate negligence and their inability to properly determine the underlying issue. At the most what can the warrior do especially in a state of pain than to accept whatever care is being given.

The only feasible solution for now is for there to be more awareness about Sickle Cell Disease and for the warrior or caregiver to speak up and demand attention.

So right now, I’ve been given a knee brace to stop my knee from wobbling. As I wait out the one week period, all I hope and pray for is the best. After all, at the end of the day, It is God who heals and all the health workers can do is to care.