Kaone

By

George O. Obikoya

He hardly sees his doctor. When he is ill, he reassures his wife he would be fine. He blames his ailments on stress. His headache is due to stress, so are his irritable bowel, poor sleep, and the shooting pain in his back. He even says stress makes him eat more than he should most times, and that his recent depression also has to do with stress.

His wife does not pressure him but she often openly worries about his health, particularly lately. She tells him that she is worried he may also have a stroke, as recently did her brother, who shares birthdays with him. Her husband says she is superstitious. She insists her brother was also depressed for sometime prior to the stroke. He says he was probably also stressed but did not handle it well enough. She says her brother was overwhelmed.   

He returns home one day weeks later to tell his wife that he leaves on a business trip the next day. It is unplanned he says, and apologizes for the short notice. His says she is happy he is able to make a trip, that it shows he is much better. He agrees, and reaffirms his belief that stress is temporary if handled well. In fact, he says it is okay to experience stress sometimes. His wife agrees but says the body prefers ideal levels of everything. He seems to want to start an argument over that but his wife reminds him of their deal and says she just wants him to get better.

Both recently agree that they have had enough of arguments, prior to which they argued relentless over just about everything. It seems to be a part of him as he seems to somehow provoke one even, now prompting his wife remind him often about their accord.

Before he leaves, he tells his wife he wants to share something with her but that would be when he returns from his trip. She tells him he should not have mentioned it but assures him she would not demand he tells her now or stir a squabble.

She is clearly absorbed by the progress in her husband’s mood, which she says she noticed over the previous week. He says his workplace has been less stressful, and that he has managed to refinance his loans. Their only son also recently got a job, has not been using drugs for almost a year, and now lives with his girlfriend in an apartment they currently rent but say they hope to buy in future.

He returns from his trip to find that his wife is in hospital, admitted via the emergency room that same day for severe abdominal cramps. In fact, by the time he gets there, she is already in the surgical theatre. He learns that the operation is exploratory, that the doctors still do not know the cause of her pain. He slumps in a chair in the room, sweating and sighing repeatedly. He looks tired and perplexed. He says nothing anymore to the medical staff for a while. He just seems to be waiting to see his wife emerge safely from the operating room.

The operation drags on for hours. Then he is told his wife is in the intensive care unit, and he will not be able to see her that day. He begs the doctors to let him see her, even if only for a moment. They decline. They say he cannot see her not for the next couple of hours, not until the next morning at the earliest. He says he would wait. They say not in the hospital ward. He is clearly in distress. He is increasingly agitated and fidgety. He is pacing, sweating, and panting.

He leaves the hospital and heads home, but is apparently unable to sleep all night. He sits in the living room for a while calling the hospital almost half-hourly until he is told no one would answer his calls until the next day. They tell him his wife has still not recovered from the anaesthesia, and that the doctors are awaiting laboratory results to determine the cause of her problems. He says they are making matters worse for him but they insist they are being candid.   

He is at the hospital before dawn the next day. He waits in his vehicle for another few hours before being allowed in to see his wife who has now been moved to a surgical ward. He is told his wife is still not going to be able to speak with him as she is still in a lot of pain and was just given some medications that make her even drowsier. He says he just wants to see her. They eventually let him see her.

He is at the hospital for the entire day. He says he simply wants to hear his wife’s voice. He has not had a meal in almost a day, and has had little fluid intake. By mid-afternoon, even the nurses on duty advise him to look after himself. They tell him he looks drained. He says he is fine and just wants his wife to be okay. He asks them if the doctors now have a diagnosis. The lab results are tricking in they say, but the doctors have not arrived at any definite diagnosis.

He tells the nurses he is going to look for something to eat. He says he would be back later in the evening. He gives his wife a peck and leaves the ward. By that evening a hospital security man comes to the surgical ward. He says he is looking for someone on the ward. He says she is the wife of a man whose vehicle security patrol found in the parking lot a while earlier, the engine noticed to be running for sometime.   

The nurses ask what her name is. He says he only knows his, and tells them. They acknowledge that the man’s wife is on the ward, but just recovering from surgery and resting. The nurses ask where the man is and say he would no doubt be glad to know his wife is doing fine. The security man says he is on the male medical ward in coma, that he has just had a stroke.