Bad sides OF 2023

BAD SIDES OF 2023 (SCD AWARENESS)

2023 started with exams as usual, this time around it was 10 exams, and we did not have any space in between each course, Monday to Friday we had exams, each week, it was one crazy beginning, surprisingly enough I wasn't sick, I didn't fall sick, the only challenged I faced was walking up and down, I already discussed in the bad sides of 2022 about how crises digested into AVN of the femur, January and early February was full of exams and well leg cramps, I was very favoured to not have crises throughout the exam, when I say crises I mean major ones, having minor crises is a casual thing, you could bath with very cold water or very hot water and come out with a subtle but manageable crises 

 

 

By February, we were done with the exams, and we were instructed to go home because of the election break. Just like in January, I had no crises.

 

March was part break, part resumption. During the holiday, I started working on a project to keep myself busy; it was a program I was working on. When we resumed, I had to take a break and implement the academic tournament I had planned during the holiday.

 

April came, and it was the first extremely busy month of the year. For the 400-second semester, we were to do posting only. I was first posted to the school’s hospital, so things were still easier for me because I needed to be around the school. It was student week, the academic tournament, and a couple of other things. My academic tournament started, and it was a steal! The second day of the academic tournament, I had a minor crisis; it delayed me a bit from attending the event, but when I finally got a hold of myself, I attended. After the academic tournament, there was going to be student week, which had the academic tournament finals in the middle of it.

Close to the end of the student week, I got into a situation where I had to make a huge decision.

And then, on the day of the dinner, I was made the next students’ president. I've never wanted such before, but how it led to this is something I can't disclose. I was rounding up from the school’s hospital so I could go and complete my posting in UCH.

March-April was in the school; May-June was to happen in UCH.

 

May started with a lot of questions, and with progressing leg pain, I had to resume carrying the walking aid. The leg pain wasn't getting any better, and it really stressed my posting journey in UCH. I had situations where I was in excruciating leg pain but had to thug it out because I would rather hide it than hear sorry or answer questions from inquisitive people.

Note (5 months, no major crises) The last time I had a crisis was last year, on December 1. It was the last major crisis until then.

 

June was the month I confirmed that I would be having surgery on my leg. I knew I was going to do surgery, but I wasn't sure. I went home a couple times this month, felt sick, depressed, etc.; it was getting really mentally draining this period. I knew I had a lot in front of me—academics and school in general. I knew doing the surgery would mean I would resume late. This period, I wasn't talking to anyone anymore, just my sisters. The inauguration of my becoming the next student president was this month; it became my full responsibility right from then, even though the school was already vacating. all that, coupled with thoughts of my upcoming surgery, posting at UCH, and the aftermath of the surgery.

 

 

July was a sad month for 400l medical laboratory science and a sad one personally for me, we lost a coursemate and a friend, after I was made students' president, Austa and I talked about a few things we would want to do together once the session begins, I didn't know it was going to be our last conversation, in getting the news of her demise I felt really numb, this was close to the last days of our posting and a week before we would be going home for the holiday, Austa was one of the smartest people I knew, despite being everywhere her modelling career took her to, she still maintained a good result, back in 200l, Austa would cover a whole semester under days and do extremely well, loosing her right before the finals was a sad experience, all I could remember and think of was why she didn't say anything regarding what was happening, May her soul rest in peace 🙏🏾

 

 

August was supposed to be the holiday period for me, but I spent most of it in the hospital. I needed to do a lot of tests prior to the surgery, so I was frequently in the hospital. The only thing that could distract me from the whole thought of what the nearest future had in store for me was programming. I am a medical student, but I deal with a lot of tech.

I continued with the CGPA calculator. I was programming while also exploiting cybersecurity. I was able to complete the calculator before August, but I finalized it in August. I kept trying different pentesting tools on the hospital’s security. I remember hijacking CCTV footage right from my laptop with countless tools. I was opportune to lay my hands on a bunch of private Kali Linux tools, because of how much I wanted to distract myself. The surgery was slated for September 5, 2023. I have this habit of not letting anyone in on what I am going through until I have gone through it, especially when it has to do with my health. I offended a lot of people by keeping them in the dark. I had a lot going on. I had issues with my Dawn, and that wasn't okay. I needed to fix it. Gladly, I was able to

Please note that it has been 8 months since I had a major crisis.

 

September

This month began with admission into the male trauma ward; it was the first admission in a year. The last time I was admitted was in March 2022. This time around, I wasn't sick; I was just admitted because I had surgery coming up, and there were a lot of things that needed to be done before the day.

The day of the surgery came, and initially I was fully prepared, mentally and all-wise. When I got into the theater, I was still ready for the surgery. I wore the theater gown and slippers. It was not until I got on the theater table that I knew and thought to myself, “This is going to be a long process. Are you ready?” It was a hip replacement surgery—a very major orthopedic surgery that could last hours.

When I got on the table for the surgery, the anesthetist couldn't find veins to give me the normal drip, so he decided to use a central line catheter. When I heard him, i lost all the confidence I had gathered before surgery. A central line is like a drip,, but it will go through your chest. The normal definition is that a central line (or central venous catheter) is like an intravenous (IV) line. But it is much longer than a regular IV and goes all the way up to a vein near the heart or just inside the heart.

That was why I panicked. Before they would insert the central line, they would give a series of injections on the chest so they could numb the area enough to put and pass the central line deep inside and close to the heart.

The pain of the injection they wanted to use to numb the area was not an easy one; even when they passed the line, I could still feel it going deep inside me. By the time they were done, I had received four injections in my chest. I knew they weren't done with the preparations because I had read a lot about the surgery before that day. For the next part, I was asked to sit up in a seated flexion position

; it's like a Fowler anatomical position, but this time around I was really bent so my spine could easily be accessible.

The next thing they wanted to do was give anesthesia. It was a regional anesthesia, not a complete one, meaning I would be awake during the surgery but I would feel less pain from my abdomen down. My legs needed to be numb for the surgery.

So while I was bent, I was given 3 injections to numb my back (spine) so they could insert the epidural catheter for the actual regional anesthesia.

 

Receiving three injections in your spine is dangerous, and bending, breaking, or the wrong placement could lead to damage to the central nervous system.

 

So I needed to receive the three injections without moving, or I could risk a lot. Three spinal injections without moving are not beans.

 

After that, they inserted the longass tube inside my spine so they could administer the regional Anastasia

In minutes, I couldn't feel my legs anymore, and then it was time for the surgery to officially begin. I was able to watch most of it; all I thought of was running away from my body. It's very tiring to stay in a place for 6 hours and experience all forms of surgical torture. I hated that day, and I would never wish it on my worst enemy.

I have a very high drug tolerance, so during the surgery I was already receiving sensations on my legs, and I was warned prior to giving signals if I started to feel a little bit more. This happened twice during the surgery.

They used more regional Anatasia than they expected.

 

When the surgery was completed, I was exhausted and carried back to the ward.

I still had tubes attached to me—the spine and the chest. This was because for major surgeries, anything could happen and the need for anesthesia or blood would not be something they could start preparing for again; hence, the tubes needed to stay with me for a week, and being a sickle cell patient, crises are usually triggered a lot after surgeries.

 

I had the central line tube, the spine epidural catheter, and a drain.

The drain was attached to my leg from the incision and directed into a container that would receive any drain that would emit from the incision.

 

I did all of my daily activities with four tubes attached.

The usual discharge time for a hip replacement surgery was 3 months, meaning I was meant to be discharged on December 5, 2023.

 

I knew that I needed to resume sooner, so I forced myself to get better. I walked around with the crutches and gave the impression that I was getting better, so I would be discharged. My parents hated that I was in a hurry to resume, but i basically had no other option.

 

September 25, 2023, was when school resumed, and on the first day of resumption, the pressure to resume was there. It didn't feel right to be away from school.

 

Note that I was still covered with plasters; my surgical site was still covered.

 

Something happened in school, and I needed to be there. This forced me to sign DAMA (discharge against medical advice). I basically discharged myself from the trauma ward, male medical, and physio, all because I needed to be in school, the DAMA didnt go through because of certain cnditions that followed, i only had the option to leave the wards and continue treatment at home.

 

On September 30, all the tubes were removed from my body, but the dressing was still there, and the incision (the place they cut) was still stapled. Guess what? I resumed school like that

I was in the office or in class during the day and in the hostel changing dressings at night, until I started going to the clinic to change dressings.

 

 

October was still a period of healing for me, but it was mixed with so much stress: school stress, SAT president, as well as my surgical site stress.

 

During one of my walks around, my surgical site tore, and I got infected. I couldn't even tell anyone because, well, I was the one who forced myself to resume. It got so bad that the dressing period extended, and I still couldn't go home for a checkup. I was meant to go home every 5th of the month for a checkup, but I couldn't because I had matters I needed to tend to in school. I skipped going for a really important check-up in October because of that. Around this time, the post-surgery pain was really, really bad! I couldn't stay 12 hours without taking diclofenac sodium suppository, that is taking 2 of it in a day, and a pack of this drug had 10 and it was 9k.

I was basically spending 9,000 on drugs every five days because I needed to stay in school. Don't judge me; I was doing what felt better for my conscience because I wouldn't be able to bear or face it. In a month, I used five packs of that drug. Usually, that drug is used for severe sickle cell crises, but you'd only need 3 or 4 of it before you would take it again for a long time because it is an NSAID. Here, I was taking 34 in a month; that was outrageous! when the drug started losing effectiveness.

 

 

November I had to go for the monthly checkup. I wasn't just advised; I was warned not to ever take any more of the drug.

But then November was a crucial month for me as a student president; we had three events that month, and being absent would not be advisable.

I still took the drug—a pack of it more—before I decided to stop.

I stopped the day of the freshmen's party. I had a crisis that day, and after setting up the stage, I couldn't be there for the party (I stayed close by in my car, trying to maintain the pain so it wouldn't escalate). I stayed till the event ended, and thankfully I was accompanied by my friends and Dawn till the pains subsided.

 

This was the 11th month without any major crises; my major and only challenge was the replacement hip.

 

November was a hell of a month, but when you have God, you have God!. 

 

December

I remember bragging to the nurses in the school clinic that I haven't had major crises pain for a year. I remember them checking my file to confirm.

It was this same month. I was supposed to be discharged officially, to go all through that, to be discharged before the required time, using all that time going through hectic routine, fulfilling your duties in school, academics, and everything else. 

 

Good sides are coming up soon.