A GIFT OF GRACE

I felt so  perky this morning while I gazed sturdily at the cars moving slowly in traffic. The slightly  tinted glass window of my apartment  adjacent  to the Oak Plaza hotel on the Spintex road was not giving a better view but the blessings alone in seeing yet another day  was just enough to enjoy it. Indeed I am  lucky, I am lucky to be amongst the living and so are you too if you are reading this .Ever wondered why we live? Are we better than those in the grave?

Well, life in itself is a gift of grace.
Like Ephesians 2:8 says " God saved you by his grace when you believed, and you can't take credit for this;
it is a gift from God."  This is the bibles way of telling us to be thankful for absolutely everything no matter how good or bad we think life is. I belong to a category of people who never really appreciated this gift until this ordeal happened.

It all started when I dropped my boyfriend at the airport to catch his 8:45 flight to UK. It was already nightfall  and since there was no fun to catch up on that Wednesday evening,  I drove home and went straight to bed. An hour and a half later  I begun to have this stomach pain that just wouldn't stop  no matter how many tablespoons of  Nu-gel I took. It only kept getting worse . I suddenly felt so sick  and had been practically living in the bathroom.

Just when I thought the pain had subsided enough  for me to  catch some sleep, I begun to feel nauseous,  started throwing up and having short breaths. The uncontrollable urination wouldn't stop until the next morning and I just couldn't wait to tell Paa Kwesi my dreadful experience over the past eight (8) hours . Honestly it felt like death was close. I missed Grandma. She always reminded me  of drinking loads of water whenever I experienced any sort of stomach upset but it didn't get down this time because each time I drank water my tummy ache would intensify.

It felt as if there were pins inside of me that were hurting beyond my control.  I searched for the exit next to me but there was no way I could get out of the house. I begun to pant so quick, gradually I was loosing my breath and my heart kept missing the beats by the seconds  and the sweat which dripped  off my face kept  draining  me .  When I realized I could not lift my arm, I thought death had taken me . After minutes of no sign of help, I decided to close my eyes .....the only option I could chance on.

At about 3pm I woke up feeling a bit well but extremely feverish  and so I quickly  rushed to the washroom to take a shower  and rung Kojo to pick me to the hospital.  Sincerely I don't know how I managed to come down the stairs but we got to the hospital though.

Upon arrival, we met a long queue and most of the patients there looked tired, ,weary and some were even dozing off.  Upon enquiry , we were told by one of the nurses that  it was  only one doctor on duty as of that time. My face dropped at the response "Had the doctors gone on strike.?, Hell no" ... I thought.

According to the nurse , the hospital only has one physician on duty in the afternoons unlike in the mornings when  they had several of them at post.

Waiting to see the doctor was torture. I could hardly breathe now and my heart kept missing  a beat again while I silently prayed for strength to hang in there. Suddenly,  I begun to feel extremely  dizzy and  I was sweating profusely.  Even though I thought I heard voices of  people or perhaps  that of the other patients  screaming "emergency" , I just couldn't bring  myself to open my eyes to see them , I was  content drifting  away to sleep. That was all I could ever remember.

I woke up some few hours  later only to realize I was on a stretcher  with a couple of infusions  on me at the Health-net hospital at airport.  What the hell happened?   I walked in here myself .

The nurse who stood by me , smiled and breathed a  sigh  of relief and simply said to me "thank God you  woke up". Just then I tried  sitting  up and felt a sharp  pain in the upper part of my abdomen. Quickly the nurse assisted me to lie down and told me not to stress myself too much because I had just undergone surgery and needed to allow the wounds to heal. Surgery?  ...what for? ...I asked surprisingly.  She introduced herself as Zoe and left to  get the doctor.

After having a good conversation with Dr. Owusu  , I realized  I had developed three peptic ulcers in my upper and lower abdomen.  An intestinal test was performed while I conked out and they found a large blood clot and  so they quickly rushed me into  the  Operating Suite where they clipped the ulcer and performed an upper endoscopy.  No wonder I could  not sit up when I tried to early on.

I spent five days in the hospital with at first a red blood count of eight. Nurse Zoe  constantly spent the night at my bedside nursing me and making sure that I ate well and took all my medications.  She did that even when she was off duty and on one of those nights she came keeping me company, my ward mate passed on in  her sleep.  The nurses on duty quickly rolled her away to the morgue and sleep was far away from me that night.

Before I got discharged Dr.Owusu had this to say to me ,"Next time you have  diarrhoea and nausea  or vomiting ,get to the hospital as soon as possible because you may not get lucky again." Most people with similar conditions  I am told  kick the buckets even before they got to the hospital .

I am home  now and am still feeling some sharp pains in the upper part of my abdomen.  I still have bad days when I feel sick but I work it through.  I am alive and for me everyday is an opportunity to fulfill my purpose here on earth.

When you think things are bad, when you feel sour and blue, when you think you are muchly  much more unlucky, remember; Life is only travelled once.....Today's  moment becomes tomorrow's memory.  So enjoy every moment , good or bad because the  gift of life is Life itself and its just by grace that you still have it......Live life.

If love cant cure it, nurses can. This is dedicated to the beautiful nurse who took care of me throughout my days in the hospital.  Thank you for the constant calls to check on me even when I got discharged.  I cannot forget your name, what you did for me and how you made me feel.  God bless you immensely.

 This is also for the gentleman who left work unattended to in the office in order to pick me to the hospital.  I know hospitals freak you out a lot but you endured for my sake...God bless you Mr.Khardi .

To all those who called my phone and sent messages but have still not heard from me , I appreciate your kind thoughts. All messages and phone calls would be replied and returned in due course.

I haven't been here in a while...... I have had my hands full.

Wishing you all a happy Monday and a beautiful week . ......