!!!!! What I Never Told AnyOne!!!! {True Story}

What I Never Told Anyone is a True Story about Makayla



The amazing story of miraculous recovery and healing of
Makayla continues. i’m aware that some of you never got
to reading the second page because of technical
difficulties and i apologize for that. If you are one of such
people, please scroll down and click on page 2 for the
concluding part of the story.


I want to tag this category What I Never Told
Anyone. I’m leaving it open for anyone who has a true
life experience to share. This is a forum for open and
honest conversation and I would be glad if you’re bold
enough to talk about your life as I am about to do. Of
course, if you choose not to reveal your identity, it is okay.


MAKAYLA’S STORY


I struggled with the choice of whether to share my story
or not. I struggled for months. At a point when I was going
through what I was going through, I was very certain I
would share it but later down the road, I wasn’t really
sure I wanted to let this part of my life out. However,
lately, people have been asking me questions on Facebook
and I just felt it would be best if I told my story or rather
my baby’s story.


Makayla was born on the 5th of July 2011. I didn’t have a
hard labor because the doctor made things easy for me
and Owen (my husband) was there the whole time. She
came at exactly 6am that day and after excruciating
pushing, I was finally relieved to be free of her. I can
remember clearly how the doctor lifter her in the air to
pass her to the nurse when my eyes caught something
unusual on the lower part of her back. I thought maybe I
wasn’t seeing clearly but I focused my eyes again and sure
enough there was something like an extra skin or so (like a
growth) in that area. Immediately my smile drained but I
was not so cheerless because she was very beautiful.

However, I couldn’t ask the doctor what it was for fear
of what he might tell me, so Owen did and his reply
was
that it was nothing that couldn’t be handled.

I left the hospital less than two hours later but with a
letter from the doctor referring us to Lagos State
University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). He emphasized the
urgency and told us that the earlier they treated her, the
better. Up until that moment, none of us knew how
serious the case was going to be. Two days later, my
mother-in-law accompanied Makayla and I to Luth to
Children’s Emergency and there began my journey of
shock. It started with a boy brought in burnt from head to
toe in a domestic fire which claimed his mother and almost
his sister. The boy was just eight months old.

The attending doctor saw us and started asking me
routine questions about my pregnancy if I drank alcohol or
took hard or prescription drugs and all that, and I
answered him (still I was oblivious about what was
happening). Then he took Makayla’s blood for some tests
and told us we were going to be put on admission because
she was going to be in surgery the next day. I didn’t like
this. I hated hospitals. I really hated hospitals. We were
given space in a crowded room where I could sit and
watch her while the doctors did their rounds. I think I must
have been sleeping when the first set of doctors came. I
answered routine questions politely and then one of them,
Doctor Ojo said, “madam, do you know what is wrong
with your baby?” and I answered that I knew she had
Spina Bifida according to what my doctor had written in
the letter. Prior to this, I had not Googled it. I was too
tired. Then, the doctor began breaking it down in layman’s
terms for me, “Spina Bifida is congenital disease that
occurs in babies in the first month of conception.
Something happens and the spinal cord does not close up
properly and that is why you see that thing on your
baby’s back. We are going to do a surgical repair on that
area and you can go home in a few days.”

I was happy to hear that but if any of you know me well,
you would know that I didn’t let things just go like that. I
asked how this disease could affect her and he looked at
me (for he was kind) and thought I was too young to tell
me the truth and then he asked for my husband. Owen
was at work. I told him to tell me whatever, that I could
take it.

“Spina Bifida does damage to the spinal cord and this
affects the lower part of the baby’s body. She might not
be able to walk and may have to use a wheelchair all her
life. she won’t also be able to control her bowel and
bladder movement and it may also affect her brain.”

He finished and I was staring at him blankly. He tapped me
gently, told his other junior doctors to take notes and
walked away. I sat down dazedly and it didn’t take long
for reality to bite and I began to cry. Owen came and I told
him and my mother-in-law what the doctor said and
though they did their best to reassure me that everything
will be fine, I wasn’t seeing any light at the end of the
tunnel.

Surgery was slated for the next day and the dawn of
light on a bright morning filled me with hope and that was
what took me through the day. The surgery was
successful and we were led to the post surgery ward. We
walked in and were offered bed. The nurses were kind at
first until they laid down their rules.

1. The mother is not provided sleeping space. She
would sit beside the baby during her whole stay in
the hospital. Should she get tired and desire to lie
down, she can do so in the visitor’s room. Her baby
would be looked after y the nurses (big lie).

2. The mother must be up as early as 4am to bathe
herself and the baby and clean her corner (was this
secondary school?).

3. Visiting hours are from 5.30 to 6.30pm (ridiculous!).

4. Mothers are not allowed to eat around their babies
for hygienic reasons (understandable but I broke the
rules so many times).

5. And they added many more other rules that I can’t
remember now.
I hated the place instantly and I asked what it would cost
to get a private ward. I would find out later that deposit
alone cost over a hundred grand and one week’s stay
could amount up to half a million. I had no option than to
manage. What I thought was going to be a few days’ stay
turned out to almost three months. These were the
factors that prolonged our stay.


1. 1. A Nurse’s Carelessness

Four days after the surgery, the doctors were doing their
morning rounds and discovered that Makayla was healing
nicely and ordered a particular nurse to apply fresh
dressing. If I knew then what I know now, I would have
stopped her when she was disinfecting that wound. She
dipped the cotton wool in saline water and rubbed
Makayla’s skin like she was rubbing a footballer’s knee. I
cringed at what she was doing but I thought it was normal.

The next day, the doctors returned, opened the place and
what we all saw shocked us. The stitches had loosened
and there was a gaping hole so large I could even see her
spinal cord. They blamed me for allowing feaces come in
contact with the area. I said nothing to defend myself
because I was scared that if I told the truth, I would have
to face the wrath of the nurses who cared for my baby
day and night. That wound kept us in the hospital for over
two months as they applied honey and dressed it twice
daily.


1. 2. A Weird Infection

Makayla, one strange night started coughing. I thought she
was cold because the windows were constantly open
but by the next morning, she could hardly stay awake, milk
spilled from the side of her lips each time she fed
because she was too weak to swallow and her skin
turned ashen. The neurosurgeons who were in charge of
her case wrote a letter inviting the pediatrics to come
check on her but it took two full days for them to show.

At this point my chubby Makayla was now reduced to a
skinny fragile soul and she was dying. Tests were run and
nothing was found to be the problem. All I had was
prayers from home because at that point I could not go
past “Dear Lord…” Five days later, she recovered but the
strange illness that made her cry five nights without
stopping had left her with a coarse voice.


1. 3. Hydrocephalus

While Makaya was recovering from the first surgery, she
developed hydrocephalus which is common with 80%
cases of spina bifida. Hydrocephalus is simply a condition
in which fluid accumulates in the brain enlarging the head
and sometimes causes brain damage. Each day, the
doctors came with a measuring tape to measure the
circumference of her head and slowly, they discovered it
was increasing. The only solution to this was
brain surgery. I remember fighting that decision and praying
strongly against it but God wanted it that way. I gave into
his will and on the 19th of September, she went for her
second surgery. We were told she had a 50/50 chance
at success with that procedure and may have to come
back to have a shunt placed in her brain which would drain
the excess fluid and distribute it around the body as
needed. By this time, I was the second longest staying
mother of a patient in that ward and even the nurses
jokingly begged me to go home. I had watched people come
and go and seen their babies get better. I prayed each day
that God free me from the place.

THE PAIN WE WENT THROUGH

Medical Procedures

Words cannot describe the turmoil people go through in
hospitals. if you have not gone through it, you will never
understand. It is a lot different for a helpless, little baby
who has to daily take drugs intravenously, drugs I was told
by the doctors that made adults cry when infused into
their veins and in addition had to probed and checked with
hardly any sleep. There were vital signs check every six
hours or so and don’t get me started on the needles. I
remember one time before her CT scan, Makayla was laid
out on the bed and the doctors were searching for just
one vein to insert a catheter and it took one whole hour
until I begged them to stop.


The Nurses


Granted, there are angels amongst them but seriously,
some of them are nurses from hell! One of them actually
told me, when trying to explain to me how to minimize the
use of diapers, that I would (in her words) ‘waste my
money on babies like this’. I was in utter shock and cried
for a long time and when I shared it with my doctor who is
also a consultant at LUTH, he urged me to report her to
SERVICOM. Like I said, you don’t report the one that takes
care of you. It is like a cabal in there. You look for their
trouble, they get diabolical. But I am not always known for
my long-suffering and so I gave a good mouth bashing to
one of them who told me my faith in God didn’t count for
anything and that the doctors were pampering me with
lies. What she was implying was that Makayla would not
get better because in her experience, cases like this turn
out for the worse. I didn’t stop at giving her my mind, I had
Owen threaten the entire nursing unit of that ward with
a report to SERVICOM and it worked like magic. The senior
CNOs came kissing my ass the next morning and right up
until I left, they handled me like royalty. They knew Nurse
‘Hellga’ as we called her had gone too far. Yes, most of
the nurses in our public hospitals in Nigeria are very mean
and uncaring. Yes, I said it! Quote me anywhere! They have
no human feelings whatsoever and they’d rather have you
die to prove their point than see you better.


My Own Health


I had just given birth. All the customary care a first time
mother was supposed to have was alas something I
couldn’t experience. For my whole duration I sat and slept
on a plastic chair in that hospital that when I finally left
the hospital, my bum was flat. I’m still trying to get it back
to shape (lol). At some point, the nurses picking on me,
exchanged my chair for a wooden chair and I went mad.
Yeah you would too if you hardly slept at night or day. I
fell ill so many times I was past caring. My face was filled
with post-birth eczema and my sister joked that I looked
like a soldier’s uniform. I was emaciated and didn’t have
the appetite for food. Peppersoups and hefty meals my
mom prepared for me where shared amongst the other
women in the ward. I hardly went on after the first two
spoons. I developed not only skin infections but vaginal
ones due to the poor state of the toilets. My mental
facilities were really messed up. Somewhere along the line.
It was understandable. Every mother there went through
it.

Financial Stress


Government hospitals are a lot cheaper than private ones
but when you get to stay for an extended period, you
accumulate a whooping bill. Thank God for my parents
who supported us the whole time. I don’t know how we
would have been able to handle the repeated CT scans
and numerous blood tests and all.


Owen’s Own Stress


Each day, he left the office and came to see me for just
one hour and braced the traffic for about four hours or so
to Lekki. Each day, he spent money on drugs and tests
and transportation. I never saw him cry because he was
my strength but I knew he was going through hell.

Now, to the good part. This one I won’t forget at
all