Pendoctor

Many years ago, employees of a company had their annual medical evaluation in the hospital where I worked. After analyses of their medical assessments, we observed that most of them were hypertensive and obese, amongst other clinical diagnoses. The management of the company was concerned about the clinical findings of the staff. My hospital was asked to give them a health talk to address the various medical issues. My directors assigned me to give the talk. On the agreed date, I arrived early at the company. I made myself comfortable in their staff clinic while I waited for the venue to be ready. I tactfully obtained some information from the clinic nurse about the lifestyle of the staff. She was frank with me. During the session, I also observed few unhealthy habits common to the employees. Firstly, all of them ate heavy meals daily. A fast-food company served their lunch every day. I learnt indirectly that the lunch that was served during the health talk was their routine meal daily....

Let’s call his name Dr Tunde. Dr Tunde and I worked in the same hospital for a few years. He was a cool and good-natured guy. He spoke gently always even when provoked. I knew he was a Christian but did not know that he was a Catholic. I was in the doctor’s call room of the hospital one early morning when he walked in with a sign of the cross on his forehead. It was drawn with a grey colored paint, I thought. I had a sudden fright in me. The only place I had seen such sign on people’s forehead was in Nollywood movies, and they were occultic people. I mused, “Is this guy a member of a cult group or what?” He walked into the room as if all was well. He greeted me and went to sit down on the bed. The bed was behind me. I wanted to look back to see clearly what the cross was about. Again, I was a bit afraid, so I sat still. “Is Tunde a member of a strange sect or what?” I asked myself.  I could not continue what I was doing because I felt I needed to clarify from him what was drawn on ...

As in 2020, when Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and other previously unknown Virtual Meeting services became popular when the Covid-19 pandemic struck, immediately the inconvenient effects of this poorly executed monetary policy began to bite, some persons or businesses have begun to benefit from the situation. Almost every literate person has heard about Mobile Money Services (MMS) offered by Virtual Account products like Opay, Palmpay, et cetera. The ease of opening the account is commendable. Most virtual finance institutions use phone numbers (except the first zero) as account numbers. Also fascinating is the knowledge that you can open the account in the comfort of your home, and it becomes operational within hours, faster than the process commercial banks offer. When the push for mobile/cashless banking became enforced by CBN, I knew that mobile money services would be the first beneficiaries. The unbanked person prefers to open an account without providing the documents commercial banks...

Have you noticed that your doctors ask too many questions for the one or two medications they prescribe? It is borne out of pain in their past.  Firstly, read this encounter with one of my clients. Some months ago, I medically examined an engineer who gave me some talk about his work. His medical complaints were mild so he was in a chat mood after the consultation had ended. I was in a chat mood too. I listened to him with keen interest. After his talk, I began to ask for clarifications about the things he said about his profession.  Though he answered all my questions, I still apologized for being inquisitive. Some persons do not like answering questions. They want to talk/lecture but not be questioned. He was not that type. He told me that he had a doctor friend who liked to clarify issues properly also. “Doctor, I understand you. My doctor friend is also like you.” He made the statement to make me feel comfortable to ask my questions.  I learnt a few engineering jargon...

  Perhaps I was too young to understand what the teachers in the children class of First Baptist Church taught us in my early years. I assumed from their teachings of the bible that angels were gargantuan and celestial beings clothed in white apparel. They also had wings. They were invisible and sent by God to help people or to destroy His enemies. Even after I had attained adolescence, I still held on to my childhood understanding of angels. My knowledge of angels changed after I encountered one. The year was 2011 or so. I had the habit of leaving home early to drive in light traffic to work. I lived about 20km away, so wisdom required me to leave as early as 5:45 am to resume at 8:00 am. Lagos traffic! I had the usual experience in the early hours of the morning until I approached the intersection, where I noticed that the traffic lights changed unpredictably from red to amber or green. The intervals between the change in the colours were irregular and confusing. I had a suspicio...

  When I read in several Nigerian newspapers that Temilade Openiyi, known in the music industry as Tems, won the Grammy Award for her category, I said to myself, “There is a limit to which discrimination ignores excellence.” Beginning with historical characters, Joseph would have died as a prisoner for the alleged sexual abuse of his master’s wife. His rare ability to interpret the King's dreams with 100% accuracy while in prison fetched him recognition and set him free. Even while he was a slave before his imprisonment, Joseph stood out of the pack due to his character and pursuit of excellence. Potiphar, his master, recognized him and appointed him as a manager. The same recognition was the fate of Daniel, who was said to have an excellent spirit. While in exile in Babylon, the light of excellence in him shone so brightly that the King made him a “Governor-General” to whom other Governors who were citizens reported.  In our time, more than two centuries ago, during the dark ...

  My friend, Lateef, was not expected to celebrate his first birthday. Before he was born, his father had lost all the three children he had from his first wife. All three kids died from a mysterious disease at about their tenth month of life. Other families had similar tragedies. Some kids were lucky; they survived the protracted febrile disease that became epidemic at that time. Lateef's father, Babakin, like other men in the community, refused the advice by the men and women who wore white coats. The officers were thought to have brought strange practices in the treatment of diseases. The gods of the land would be offended if the villagers followed the recommendations of the men and women from the city. Their gods had been their health custodian for several years. Nobody dared to try foreign ideas. Soponna and Ogun were feared. Babakin drove his first wife out of the house one midnight after their third child died. He blamed her for the misfortunes in his life - deaths of their ...

  Dr Etim looked at his watch. The time was 1:35 pm. He felt lucky to have had as much time to rest during work. He held his bottle of Coca Cola and watched the traffic from the sixth floor of the hospital. He always enjoyed the panoramic view of the buzzing city and the cool breeze that blew against his face whenever he could take a break at work. Such lucky days were few since he started working at St Caroline Multi-Specialty Hospital, a 200-bed medical facility. He loathed the management's decision that mandated the most senior doctor to be the first-contact doctor for every emergency. His hospital changed the policy following three consecutive preventable deaths of patients. During an analysis of the deaths, it was noted that doctors with less than two years of experience were the ones who attended to the patients when they first arrived at the hospital. Dr E, as he was fondly called, had spent twelve years in the hospital. He had an interest in emergency medicine. He had compl...

I smile wryly whenever my clients tell me they have reduced their food intake, stopped soft drinks, and other food binges, still, they have not lost weight. I ask one question always, "Have you increased your exercises, and do you do them regularly?" They always say no. I then explain to them that sustainable weight loss is a combination of two things - reduction of food intake (for most people) and increase in moderate exercises - which must be done consistently.  For weight loss, moderate exercises lasting 60 minutes for 5 days every week, are the standard. Any inconsistent effort will not give the expected result. For those who don't desire to lose weight, 30 minutes of moderate exercise is recommended for 5 days a week. For persons not used to exercising, starting with 15 minutes for 5 days, then gradually attain 60 minutes, is recommended. One needs to train the body to endure the stress of exercises. Moderate-intensity exercises include brisk walking, jogging, swimm...

  "David, don’t you want your sister to go to the University?” my mother asked me while dabbing my tears. “No! I want her to stay at home,” I responded. I did not understand what was happening at first. When my only sister, our firstborn, sister Eniola, brought home several bags of provisions some days earlier, I thought she went for the monthly shopping for the family. We did our usual hi-five greeting when she got home, and she took the bags into her room. For many days, the bags remained in her room. I didn’t bother to ask her why they were not in the kitchen store. A day before she resumed at the University of Lagos, she began to put tins of milk, cereal, and sugar inside travel bags. I was in her room. That was when I realized she had bought new clothes and shoes too. “Why are you packing bags, sister Eni?” I asked her. “I am going to school,” she responded. “You always go to school; you do not take cornflakes and milk to school.” “That was secondary school. I went there and ...

My wife knew that something was fishy when I went straight to pick her gown and began to iron it immediately I got back from work. Earlier that morning, she had toasted me to help her with her crepe gown while I was ironing my shirt for work. I politely turned down her request. "Your gown is heavy. There are too many folds that should be delicately pressed neatly," I replied as an excuse. It was the dress she planned to wear for our anniversary date the following day, a Saturday. I recommended that she should give it to Aminu, our drycleaner. "You are not a nice person," she replied after I declined her request. Later that day, when she saw me ironing the gown within five minutes of getting home, she was curious to know if it was romance or something else that explained my change of mind. "Baby, what's happening?" she chuckled. "Why are you ironing my gown? You have not even settled down."  I didn't respond. I increased the concentration ...

  Chapter 1 My name is Sola Olakunle. I did not like my father's company much like my mother's. My mother understood what a four-year-old boy needed. She baked a lot. She ensured we had enough chocolates, cakes, and biscuits at home. Because of the immediate benefit of eating a small portion of what she made while in the kitchen with her, I volunteered many times to assist her in cooking or baking. My father on the other hand turned our house into a second school. "Leave the little boy alone," my mother often cautioned my dad whenever she observed that I was being bothered with questions. "He is too young to understand your academic tasks. Allow him to enjoy his childhood." My father always ignored my mother's pleas. Honestly, he was a fun-loving man too, but he just had his ways of reducing how much play I had. “Spell the word 'hygiene',” my  father told me one day. I ignored his question. I prayed that he would not repeat it. “Sola, I ...