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Published: March 12th 2008
Sunday morning we got to sleep in a little and savor our last few moments of air conditioning and huuuge beds. In the early afternoon we went to a beach resort to spend some time in the ocean before heading back to school. I couldn’t help but think of all those loved ones back in the States, on this sunny, 95 degree day of March 5th… o wait, it’s March. It’s cold where you are, and probably snowing. bummer. lol :-P Anyhow, there were boogie boards at this beach, and the waves were quite strong so instead of jumping them, we took turns using them to ride the waves into the beach. A very very good day.
But let me assure you, not all days are good here.
We arrived home on Sunday night around 5 or 6pm… I decided to start throwing up around 11pm… and kept throwing up until around 6am the next morning. Now I promise you my intention with this next bit is not to make you queasy or to relive my sickness or envoke sympathy, but only to show you how thankful we should be for the wonderful health care we have back home. Also, my story of being sick is not at all different from the other maladies that all the other international students have been experiencing. Our group keeps laughing that never before have we bonded with others so closely over various bodily excrements.
When one is sick here, we are told to go to the student clinic on campus to get our blood drawn, which is supposed to house enough doctors and remedies for all the University’s students… all 25,000 of us. Whenever we are sick we are advised to get our blood drawn because, here, it’s pretty much always assumed to be malaria until proven otherwise, and general blood work will be able to show other serious diseases as well. Luckily the clinic is not too far from the ISH, but having already collapsed once, we opted to take a taxi. The clinic opens at 8am, but fills up very very quickly giving way to quite a lengthy wait time, so Shane and I left the ISH at 7:30 to wait for it to open. When we got there we had to sit outside, and of course it was already getting hot and humid, which is the last thing a sick person wants to feel. And worse, there were already 13 people in line in front of me. In between telling myself that I absolutely had to stay conscious, I kept envisioning myself running over to the side of the building to throw-up in the flower-pot. Shane actually asked me at one point what he should do if I should pass out. lol We ended up waiting until 8:30am, one half hour after the clinic was supposed to have opened, which I assure you feels much much much longer when you are sick. One of the other students in line made a phone call, and then announced, “They decided not to open the clinic today.” …..what do you mean they “decided” not to open the clinic today?!?! So being told that I waited in this line, outside, in the heat, away from my bed, for one hour… what does one do? Half of the people in line seemed un convinced that the clinic wasn’t going to open, and maintained position in the line, while the other half all walked away in the same direction. A girl in line told me that if I was very sick then I should go to the University Hospital, which sits across the street from the University. No taxis were anywhere to be found so we walked back to the ISH, and Shane ran up to my room to get my student ID that which I would need to show at the hospital. Still unable to get a taxi we again had to walk towards the University front gate until we could flag one down… and by now the sun was in its high heatful splendor, and any water I had been able to retain was now being sweat out of me. lol… not at all pleasant. So, we arrive at the hospital, which doesn’t at all resemble a Western hospital. It is one story, set up in a square shape with the middle hollowed out, such that there are no enclosed hallways, its all outside. Think of it like a square shaped motel, where the rooms face towards the middle of the square looking into a courtyard. But now, put people… everywhere, completely lining the square courtyard in a line sitting one, sometimes two or three people deep. There are women with babies on their back, men with boils and handkerchiefs over their faces indicating they have something contagious, toddlers with physical deformities, old women in wheel chairs, everything you can imagine. But the line, if you can call it that, had no discernable starting or stopping point, because it lined the entire square, and the people weren’t facing any one particular forward direction. It was insane. We walked in and literally just had to stop to look at everything. There was one window where people were crowded around. Not knowing what else to do we joined the clump of people in front of the window. But after waiting about 10 minutes, no progress was being made. A girl that was sitting down waiting in the large “line” of patients eventually asked me if I was picking up a records form. I said no, and she told me that’s the line I was currently waiting in, and that I should just take a seat. No forms to fill out, no one to give my name to... just sit down. So that’s what we did. The empty seat I found was next to miserable looking man who held a handkerchief over his mouth. We waited for another 10 minutes, and there was still no movement or perceivable end point to what we were waiting for. no people being taken in any rooms. no people calling out names. nothing. Shane, still being concerned I was going to collapse, decided to call Mercy and ask if we were doing the right thing by waiting. Thank goodness she was so so so helpful and told us to go back the ISH and to get a Coke and go to sleep. She said call as soon as she freed up at work and then would take me to a place to get blood work done and be tested for Malaria. I was so happy and so miserable at the same time I literally could have started crying lol. I know I wasn’t as sick as half those people that were waiting there in that “line,” and I can’t imagine what they must go through.
Mercy came in a few hours and took me to a Western style clinic/laboratory/pharmacy that does everything from blood tests to heart scans. It was air-conditioned, there were only two other people in the waiting room, there was someone at a desk to give my name to, and it was absolutely wonderful. I got my blood drawn within 5-10 minutes of waiting, and Mercy took me back to the ISH to sleep some more. Shane and I went back to the clinic 3 hours later to get my results, which came up negative for malaria. Mercy had suspected earlier that I didn’t have malaria, I don’t know how she knew. It’s probably because she’s a mom. she knows. lol. She said she thought my body was just finally adjusting to being here and very tired and worn out from the weekend. Although the experience was slightly horrific, I am glad that now I know what to do, and where to go to get my blood drawn, so that if and when I do get malaria, I won’t have to go through that again. Since then two other girls from our group have gotten sick, and I was able to take them to the nice clinic now that I know where it is (the one had a severe iron deficiency, and the other had a protein deficiency).
Throughout the rest of the week I was still very weak and maintained some lingering flu-like symptoms, but now I am feeling much better. At some points I almost wished that I did have malaria because at least then it would be identified and they would be able to give me medicine to knock it out completely in three days or less… but at the same time, who reasonably wishes to have a disease that is the number one killer of people in Ghana? (when it’s left untreated that is)
So yes. those have been my adventures thus far, and again I apologize for making it so long and going so long without updating… trust me, after that, I’m kicking myself for it now. lol
I still have one more previous event update to get caught up on, as this past Thursday was Ghana’s Independence day… they turned 51! But I have to go to class, and I might as well post what I have… if anyone’s still reading lol.
Hoping all is well and missing you all!!!
=p
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Nina.. Again.
non-member comment
titles are overrated.
Yikes.. Sick is no fun. But yet again, I'm sure going to a hospital even if it is to see the people there is another eye-opening experience to everything we take for granted here. Even at Pitt, we have the Univ of Pitt Medical Centers (those huge hospitals) RIGHT ON CAMPUS, so if our Student Health isn't helping, kids just easily can go get treatment. One of the less fantastic things about travelling, the adjustment, but the weekend sounded fun! Do Ghanians believe in saltines and ginger ale? If not, you should get credit for "discovering" that in Ghana. "Lauren Winkelman, Miracle Worker for Ghanians Everywhere with Stomache Bugs" Yeah.. I like that.