Paul ADEPOJU

This is the picture of my bed twenty fours ago. Prior to this aesthetic commotion, my bed was well arranged and folded before I couldn't find one of my phones (I have three). The disarray started with checking under the pillowcase. I lifted it up but didn't return it to its proper position. Then I checked around the edges, pulled the bed spread which I also failed to properly rearrange after the futile frantic search.

When I couldn't find it on the bed. I took my office bag and emptied its content onto the bed. I looked through but couldn't find it. Then I moved to the wardrobe. One after another, I took the cloths off the hanger. I checked all the pockets and after that, I heaped the cloths in one pile at a corner on the bed.

After turning the room upside down, it then occurred to me that I should have dialed the missing telephone line and I would be able to locate the phone by tracing the sound of the ring tone. I did it. Alas, the phone was in my left hand. I was annoyed and amused at the same time. I heaved a big sigh of relief and cleared a small region on the bed to lay my head on before I attempt to rearrange it later on.

A cool refreshing wind blew through the window panes and I surrendered myself to it. I decided to relax for twenty minutes only to wake up around 6:30am the next morning.

I scampered around to get set for the day's chores. Since the removal of fuel subsidy, I've decided to forsake expensive bikes (okada). Instead, I'm waking up as soon as possible and heading out to meet the 6:45am bus that plies my route. I quickly showered, packed my bags and began to dash towards the door when PHCN flooded the room with light. I took a quick glance at the bed I slept in overnight. "Is this my room?" I asked no one in particular. I took a picture hoping it will be remind  me of the eyesore back home that will encourage me to head home and fix it. But it dint't working.

It is almost eight in the evening and I'm still preparing some scientific articles in the hospital's medical library. At 9pm, I will be attending a webinar which will run till 11 when I expect to chat (via skype) with a colleague in London... It's clear that I will sleep in a roughly made bed again tonight. As a medical professional, it becomes imperative for me to ponder on the medical implications of my circumstantial rough trend.

Illnesses share a similar progression with the current scenario in my room. A larger number of disorders start mild. They give signs that we ignore, or compound with some dangerous habits like smoking and heavy alcohol consumption. The warning signs come again yet we ignore them.

This intentional or circumstantial ignorance is a reinforcement for the gradually spreading condition which could become life threatening or terminal. Resources that kept us too busy that we fail to heed the signs go down the drain or up in huge medical bills. Peace is gone. Satisfaction is sacrificed. All because we failed to do just a little something that would have saved us a whole lot of sermons.

Sometimes I wonder why my patients allow problems to compound before rushing to the clinic to get treated. But as I'm typing this blog post, it dawned on me that I'm not different. It is something that is deeply ingrained in everyone of us. And addressing it doesn't need God's intervention, it's all about our resolution to lead a healthy lifestyle.