Hospital
on Emily Hopkins (Ghana), 11/May/2010 15:33, 34 days ago
It is fair to say that I would be doing very well to come and live in Ghana and not have a trip to the hospital…I guess I expected it at some point…what I didn’t expect however was quite the sudden rate my ailments came upon me and indeed the force at which my body can react to things It is not liking!Like the UK the first weekend in May is a bank holiday and it was with a sense of great excitement that nearly 20 VSO’s headed to the beach for a long weekend of sun, sea, sand and ‘Star’ (a favorite local beer). We had great fun sunbathing, playing games, swimming and dancing bare foot in the sand to live music. We stayed at the ultimate backpacker beach resort in Ghana ‘Big Millys’ which was the perfect setting for a great weekend. However rather unfortunately I woke on bank holiday Monday to leap out of bed and rush to the bathroom to vomit rather violently, I’ll save you the details as I am a lady but let’s just say that this continued every 10-20 minutes for the entire day, by 4pm I was not in a good state, I couldn’t even keep a sip of water down, my whole body ached, I was white as a sheet with a fever. We decided (or rather my amazingly supportive friends here) decided that I should go back to Accra to hospital, so a taxi was chartered and off we went stopping along the way forme to jump out of the taxi and throw up on the side of the road whilst children pointed and laughed at the white lady who was sick.And so we arrived at the hospital, I looked a sight to behold in my swimwear, sarong and sick bag, but we got seen very quickly as it appears no one in Ghana is sick on a bank holiday. The doctor sent me for blood tests fairly swiftly where my housemate Katherine had to literally beg the blood testing guy to give me something to vomit in at which point he took the yellow bag used to‘safely’ dispose of the needles tipped out the contents and shoved it under my nose!!! Soon the doctor diagnosed me with malaria and food poisoning gave me an injection in my bottom and then a sedative as I was fairly teary by this point and sent me to the female ward to be hooked up to a drip.So there I spent the next 3 days, I don’t remember much of it, but one memory that sticks in my mind is waking up to rush to the toilet to vomit only to find another woman doing the same thing, I think the fact that we were happy to share the same toilet bowl to vomit in is testament to quite howsick we were!!The care I received in hospital was really quite good and I was so blessed to havevisitors who were greatly concerned about my well being (including my male colleagues which I was most embarrassed about!). The nurses were great and I was particularly grateful to a Russian nurse who said I was like her daughter and came to check on me all the time and telling me stories of how she met her Ghanaian Doctor husband in Moscow and how they both worked as illegal immigrants in kitchens living in one room in London in order to get money to bring to Ghana…are our streets really paved with gold!?I was really looked after when I was ill which was great, the only downside about the Ghanaian hospital I was in (and it wasn’t a private one) was the food. I couldn’t eat much in hospital largely due to the fact I was ill but this was not helped by the meals which were served up, some how hot pepper soup doesn’t quite feel like the thing you want after a 24hr vomiting session. When I asked for plain food a rather strange dish called ‘Tom Brown’ appeared…for days I kept thinking this meal which is rather like a sour fermented porridge was called ‘Tom Jones’!!!Anyway all’s well that ends well and I am now back at work taking it easy and I thank God for my health and that I had access to medical facilities.