aunty nurse

yesterday was a lot better than the day before, thank you all for asking (like you care, right?) but it had its many twists and sometimes i wonder if i'm just dramatic or if dramatic things just find a way to happen to me.

so it happened that my car developed some tyre issues on the way to work and i sent it off to get repaired. which meant that at the close of business yesterday, i had no choice than to use the public transport system, which i haven't used for 11 months now. at first, i kept thinking how i'd manage without my car on the way home but as soon as i got to obalende (a popular busstop in lagos, nigeria) i felt like a kid in a candy store. suddenly, life was exciting again. it is funny how much i miss the under-bridge busstop scene. its like a different world altogether. the lady who used to sell me recharge card was still there (albeit now much fatter and lighter skinned) with her drag queen make-up still intact, the guy who calls out for passengers on the 'sound system' was still there, only fatter and much darker etcetera. i felt like just going up to each of them and going "hi, its such a long time! do you remember me?"...thats how much it feels like i've known these people, who don't even give a toss if i exist or not.

the bus ride was quite another story. firstly, fashola has finally prevailed it on bus drivers not to exceed 4 passengers on a seat. although we got to pay more than we used to, and i shudder to think what the price will be by Nov. 1, it promised to be a very comfortable ride...that is, until a soldier got into the bus and decided to seat by me. i have nothing against soldiers, but must they always use air freshner on their uniforms? his 'perfume' was really concentrated and each time the bus slowed down in traffic, i just stuck my nose out of the window in order to survive. to make matters better, he had drunk "that" alcohol that leaves their breath smelling like...like...er, just a really really bad smell. luckily for me though, the bus hardly moved before he put his head down (and thankfully, his mouth went down with it too) and slept like a rag the entire journey.

i thought the drama was over until i got home and had to visit a family friend who was ill. i stepped into their living room and met him sitting with his wife and a lady who was frantically using a kitchen knife to saw off the top of a medicine vial (the type in the picture attached) like someone's life depended on how fast she could get it open.

there were three vials with liquid contents of varying shades and two syringes lying open on the table. naturally, i asked who this person was, and the reply which should have been obvious to me, came: "this is aunty nurse". simple. like thats her first name and surname. i asked if he (my family friend) hadnt been to the hospital since the illness began and the wife answered that aunty nurse said they don't need to go to hospital and that she would come to 'treat' him when she returns from work...hence the parade before my eyes.

for context people, aunty nurse happens to be a 25 year old looking girl who most likely finished SS3 a few years ago and couldn't go further. She applies for a job in some private clinic and has over the years learnt how to inject patients accurately without causing abcess. so she decides that being so close to doctors has given her the expertise and medical knowledge to not only administer drugs without a doctor's prescription, but to prescribe them herself. and that is her "off duty" trade to semi-literate people who feel that any medicine is good for an ailing person. and so i asked what was wrong with my friend, and the wife says its asthma. i then ask, "aunty nurse, what are these drugs for?", and she said "for malaria and for the cold"...to which my friends wife nodded vigorously in agreement. basically, asthma is clearly a combination of malaria and cold. i simply told them it was late and that i had to go...there was no point in even asking what the names of the drugs were because there were no labels on the vials and it was obviously 'borrowed' clinic supplies she had brought with her from work.

on my way out, i called the wife and explained to her the dangers of self medication without seeing a professionally qualified doctor and how asthma could be deadly if not well managed. her response was that "aunty nurse has been treating us for a very long time. ah, brother no worry, she sabi work well well. she sabi."...i hope aunty nurse also sabi how to run from the police the day a patient dies from her illegal medical practice, was all i could think. i then said a prayer for him and went to my house but all the way home, i just thought about how many mechanics, bricklayers, manual labourers and a good percentage of nigeria's population must be calling on aunty nurse and her ilk everyday for treatment of significantly life threatening ailments only because they feel that a nurse and a doctor are one and the same thing.

maybe in countries where they have certified nurses, this sort of practice could be ignored, but in nigeria where "trainee nurses" (post-secondary school students who cannot get into university and work as auxillary nurses) are all the rave, this cannot be allowed to continue. i figure that healthcare administration and regulation isn't one of our biting problems at the moment but somehow, someday, someone has to say 'enough' to aunty nurse and her unlabelled medicines. maybe another day, and in another lifetime. sad

let me try and get some work done peeps...till later