When I could not run for no reason at all

When I could not run for no reason at all

I have had a headache since yesterday, Saturday.  It just started when I got up to go to the washroom in the wee hours and persisted since then.  I woke up on Saturday feeling the pain of the headache on my forehead.  I however soldiered on through the door with the hope that that headache would go away.  It occasionally does go away without much persuasion.

However, my head was still aching when I went to bed yesterday.  There was therefore only one way out when I woke up today and the headache had not subsided – I had to visit a medical facility.  The walk from Uthiru to Mountain View for the clinic was laboured.  The hot sun burned my forehead, further aggravating the ache.  I could feel my heartbeat pulsation on the forehead.  Each pumping of the blood was a jolt of pain, but I walked on.

I got to the third-floor clinic and started waiting for my turn to see the doctor.  It did not take me long to start recovering.  I was seated at the waiting area with four other adults, who were evidently in pain, while a toddler or two kept crying due to some discomfort.  If that was what we call being unwell, then I was surely quite OK.

I was in fact just about to think twice over this issue of deciding to visit the medical facility when my name was called, and I found myself at the vitals checkup room.  I have always wondered why the medic at this section asks you about all of your troubles, when you shall still be asked the same with the doc later on.  I did not wonder loudly but went through the motions.  The headache was still there.  I could feel it throbbing with every heartbeat.

I was finally called a second time to see the doc.  I knew how it would go.  It went how it should have gone.  I was referred to the phlebotomist to draw blood for a blood test to determine ‘the thing that is causing you the headache’.

I matched into that room marked ‘Phlebotomy’ and was directed to a seat.  I have drawn blood before, but this was different.

“I am Mary,” the lady started, with a big smile, just after I had taken a seat.

Is this real?  I have never ever been introduced to a phlebo before!  I never thought they were humans!

“Nice to meet you,” I responded, more in surprise that anything else.

“You just sit and relax,” she said, while starting to prepare her tools, which included some cotton swabs, needles and syringes.

“I am known as the vampire!,” she finally said, when all paraphernalia had been set, ready to start on the action on my right arm.

“Vampire, you mean?”

“Yes, I draw bloooooddd!,” she laughed at me, even as she started the venipuncture.

I just had to laugh in response.  I did not see that coming.  Is it only Sundays that medics are friendly or is it Huduma day in practice?

So, we go got chitchatting over dis-and-dat including why diagnosis still relies on drawing of blood and those painful pricks on the veins, all the way to the beauty of working on a Sunday.  While she swore that blood shall remain the source of ‘medical data’ forever, the computer scientist in me knew otherwise.  We shall soon swallow or implant those data reporting transmitters and that is what shall be used to get data out of our bodies.  Puncturing of any nature is coming to an end soon.

The blood action was done as soon as it had started.  If there is a blood work that I have ever enjoyed, then this was it.  Anyway, I would soon be out of that room and start another wait for that final call to see the doc.

When I finally sat next to the doc, more of opposite him of sorts, I knew from his face that things were bad!

“We have checked the blood, and…,” he started.

“Yes, go on, and what did you find?”

“Imagine your blood has revealed nothing out of the ordinary!,” he shrugged in disappointment.

I am not sure why he should have been in distress.  It was music to me!  I hate medical facilities and the medicine that comes out of them.  I was relieved!  My Huduma day was now starting to come alive.  I was prescribed some painkillers, which I believe shall not be getting into my system if for sure I was just OK.

As I walked out of the building and faced the still hot mid-day sun, my head still throbbing mildly painful which each heartbeat, I wondered why I had even made that decision in the morning to come to the medical facility.  It was more of a safe-than-sorry decision, but my gut feeling had been quite against this visit.  That was my instinct.  I had wanted to fight the headache off until it was all gone on its own.  Well, that is still what I now have to do… fight the headache off until it subsides on its own anyway.

Good news for runners like me is that you can know if you are well or not, by just using your ‘run-o-meter’.  I knew from yesterday when I could not attempt to run or walk fast, that I was surely not normal and something was amiss.  Well, one day later and I still cannot run but I am told that nothing is amiss.  Whom should a runner believe?  Their own bodies or the opinions of those outside their bodies!

WWB, the Coach, Nairobi, Kenya, Oct. 10, 2021