I can’t even remember exactly when it all started. For years, I’ve always had colds; extreme ones. I’ve once had catarrh for up to four months at a stretch. Eventually, I was diagnosed with asthma, but the diagnosis was wrong. Then, there was pain: muscle pain, eye ache, headaches, and bone pain. I used to picture my condition as ‘fragile health’ until last year.
I’m the first daughter of my family. But I’m also the baby of the house because of my fragile health. Last year, I had a rough time with back-to-back activities, and eventually, I crashed. Headaches that used to last two to three hours lasted five hours or all through the night. I had more frequent crises. One time, I was rushed to the school clinic (Jaja) in the middle of the night. They said it was heart disease or meningitis; I got a whole lot of diagnoses, except for what was actually wrong with me.
My mum took me home. I had another crisis at home, and I was taken to the hospital in the middle of it. But by the time I saw the doctor, it was gone. The only thing the doctor got was my explanation, and there’s no way I could describe brain bleeding, extreme migraine, and eye stress. Eventually, I did a brain scan, and I was diagnosed with Pituitary Apoplexy, a condition whereby the pituitary bleeds into the brain.
It usually presents itself through extreme migraines. And once this episode starts, there’s no stopping. It lasts a minimum of four hours and usually leaves me very, very weak. It is a very very crazy experience because I won’t be able to do anything until it’s over. This condition is usually common in older women who have given birth or used birth control pills and other things that could disrupt the hormone panel. But I was diagnosed at 19. The experience made my mum and me medical nerds. We read so many articles till we connected the dots that doctors didn’t fill.
I chose UI because of my health issues, as it is close to home. I am the class rep and that gives me some control over my classes. My lecturers are very accommodating. Due to the peculiarity of my health, I can’t function in the morning. So, my lecturers help me adjust classes and exams such that I don’t have 7 am classes or 8 am exams. I have had to drop an elective course because the class is held at 7 am. I’m also lucky to have good friends; everybody around me knows about my health and knows how to help me.
I think one big flaw with the University of Ibadan is that they don’t really prioritise health issues. Regardless of your condition, the system doesn’t stop for you. I always say that the exceptions I’ve gotten are because I sought them myself. I have developed a good relationship with my lecturers. There’s no backup if you miss classes. There was a time in my class when more than four students were sick. We had to plead with the lecturer to postpone the scheduled test and he did. But it is not always like that.
There are hostel provisions for people who have health issues like me to stay on the ground floor. But I didn’t like that the floor is an announcement that one is sick. Although there are still limitations. For example, there is no running water, so I pay to have my water fetched. I don’t touch sports. But when I went to Badagry French Village as part of my French programme, we were required to do sports. I did it and I had a really low blood pressure after a few days of training.
Occasionally, my classmates make jokes about me. I’m small in stature, I’m very sick, and I get tired easily. So, sometimes, they make comments about how I shouldn’t do certain things or how no one will carry me. But I don’t see those things as stigmatisation. As a debater, my health tends to affect my ability to perform, but I’m glad that the members of the literary and debating society are understanding. They don’t push me beyond my limits and understand when I can’t. There is always the fear of having head spasms (when my head jerks uncontrollably) amidst delivery. But I can’t continue to let the fear stop me. So, I do it and leave the rest to God.
I get pissed when people suddenly show up when someone has a broken leg or needs a kidney transplant, then everyone starts forcing care, pitying them and offering opinions on how they could have lived better. When we do medical registration and tick our respective conditions, it is so that the university can put us into consideration. While I understand that classes cannot be moved, it shouldn’t be a case of not wanting to sacrifice 20 people for one person, because when something happens, the 20 people end up running around for the one person.
Like it is outside the country, we need to have a band that indicates what is wrong with a patient. This is not to demand that the world stop at their feet, but to grant them accessibility and also emergency aid when need be.
This is a university where the future becomes part of us, but academics are prioritised over health issues. If these values are not ingrained in us here, we won’t carry them forward. And everyone will still be quiet about their health. It shouldn’t be that way. You’re just sick; you didn’t kill anybody.
As narrated by: Praise Adeji (Ibadan, Nigeria).
This snippet is published as part of the series, Beyond What You See.
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