by Toyin Kareem

I drifted off again and when i woke up, lady beautiful, whose name i later realised was Ophelia, was lying on the bed opposite mine. She was actually the patient. Incredible. There was no obvious sign…well until she stood.

I had just finished dressing up after my bed bath when the team of doctors arrived for the ward round. I had been on admission for a while and was recuperating nicely after surgery. The doctors came very early (6am) as usual and they looked like crap like they always did that early. Not a nice sight for sore eyes. Definitely not my idea of eye candy. They always looked like something the cat dragged in or like someone just kicked them out of the bed (which is probably close to the truth). I actually promised to give one of the doctors a shaving kit for Christmas. Little minx that I was. Anyway, they checked my wound, confirmed it was healing nicely and I would live and moved on to the next patient.

I snuggled back as much as I could on the hard hospital bed and when I eventually woke up, a very beautiful lady stood opposite my bed. Lady beautiful smiled and waved hello. I smiled and waved back. I wondered which of her relatives had been admitted. I hoped it was someone interesting because the wards are mostly boring unless a new patient was getting admitted which caused a flurry of activities or you had a crazy one on the ward. We had a resident crazy one who usually gave my mom details about all the visitors I get after they leave for home. My very own personal cop. We hardly got beautiful visitors with cute smiles so I stared. Her skin looked caramel soft and she had a brilliant smile to match. She had long flowing locks, curvy body with full rounded hips, ass and boobs. Now, she was a sight for sore eyes. She was definitely my idea of eye candy.

I drifted off again and when I woke up, lady beautiful, whose name I later realised was Ophelia, was lying on the bed opposite mine. She was actually the patient. Incredible. There was no obvious sign… well until she stood. I noticed she wasn’t balanced on her feet and shook a little. Sickness is no respecter of beauty. In the few days that followed, we got talking and bonded well. She told me she was based in Abuja and was looking for a job before being diagnosed with brain tumour. She explained how she had been having recurrent headaches she initially thought were migraines until someone suggested cerebral malaria. It wasn’t until much later when it got worse that she discovered it was actually brain tumour. She was later referred to the hospital for surgery but due to the long list of people awaiting surgery, hers was slated for some weeks later.

She was my very first mother in-law to-be. She promised I was going to marry her son. See, my cougar ways go way back lol. Her husband, Frank was quite an eye candy himself and such a gentleman. Their son, Iyke was the cutest most adorable baby. The apple certainly didn’t fall and roll off into the next farm. Mr. Frank worked for a private company in Lagos but after taking too much time off work to help his wife, he had to quit. A few days later, her job appointment letter was delivered to her on the hospital bed. I remember the day it was delivered, she was ecstatic. For once, I actually enjoyed being admitted. She was so much fun. We would talk about boys and school, my fears, hopes and she would gist me about everything.

When her relatives came visiting, it would be like a cocktail party…well except for the drinks. It was beautiful and upped my morale a lot. Even my physiotherapist noticed I always had high spirits. Her husband used to sleep in the car because families weren’t allowed to sleep with patients but you would never guess. In as much as I knew there were no guarantees in life, this was one of the cases I knew would end well. It was the cutest naija-couple love. You live on the ward long enough and you kind of figure out the ones that will walk back home. You just know that some people would help your face shine brighter.

A flurry of activities woke me up one morning and I groggily opened my eyes to see panicked faces. Ophelia was vomiting and having difficulty breathing. Nurses were in a panic. My mom, with her slim figure dragged the biggest-sized oxygen tank from the nurses’ station to Ophelia’s bed-side. She was quickly scheduled for an emergency surgery. Thankfully, she came out fine although she was in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for a few days just to be sure she was in the clear. She came back out and I was almost giddy with unbridled joy. You would have thought she was my sister. She certainly acted the part.

A few days after, she was telling me about how she was going to feed me fat for her son when I realised her words weren’t making sense anymore. She was rushed back into surgery but she didn’t make it back out.

It’s been a while since it happened and I just sometimes wonder how Iyke is doing.

It’s cancer awareness month. Make it count. If you notice symptoms that do not go away, please see your doctor immediately. Don’t procrastinate on your health. Abnormal pulse and breathing rates, deep, dull headaches that recur often and persist without relief for long periods of time, difficulty walking or speaking, dizziness, eyesight problems, including double vision, seizures or vomiting are some of the symptoms.

Let’s be safe and healthy.

————————-

Toyin Kareem loves to laugh and likes to love, but most of all;I love to inspire. She blogs atwww.toinlicious.blogspot.com and tweets from @toinlicious

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.