My battle with malaria parasites last year and the tenuous nature of our health

By Sadam Abubakar

I wish I could blow life into words. I wish the words could be woven to assume a shape and posture palpable to human beings.

My recent experience in bed with sickness made me long for words to have the ability to breathe, talk, and describe by themselves certain events that occurred to us in our lives. Some events and situations in our lives are beyond our ability to describe. The words should talk themselves.

The event that sparks my scribbling hand is a disease condition that turned me almost lifeless. It started as something not uncommon but metamorphosed into a thing of mystery and convolutions.

At a particular time of one day, my legs began to appear as if they didn’t belong to me. There was a slight headache and some traces of loss of appetite. These symptoms are common among people with malaria, an endemic disease in our region, especially this time of year. The next thing was the thought of taking P-Alaxin, a particular brand of antimalarial drugs, and some supporting drugs.

Two days later, my disease condition appeared to be getting worse, even though it didn’t cripple me in bed. I rushed to a particular medical lab for diagnosis, and after a rapid test for malaria, it appeared that the malarial parasite was still in my blood, running through my veins. The P-Alaxin drug didn’t kill the parasite in my blood? Maybe I needed to take more for a couple of days. I continued with the medication with P-Alaxin the next day, but to my surprise, the malarial parasite was still in me—perhaps even more active, since the disease succeeded in stagnating me at home for the whole day.

Combining therapeutics to treat a particular disease is arguably one of the best strategies to eliminate a disease that appears intractable. Thus, I received an intramuscular injection of chloroquine, continued with the P-Alaxin, and some supporting drugs. That day was the beginning of more suffering from the disease. I sustained a severe headache, and my body temperature kept alternating between high and low. I also occasionally shivered, and fatigue became my friend. I kept telling myself that today I would beat the malarial parasite in me, considering the combinatorial therapy. Was I right?

After a brief respite from the pain, I felt I could go out to the Masjid to pray Asr. I whispered to myself, no matter what, go and pray—who knows if it would be your last Asr to offer. I crawled to the bathroom, performed my wudu, and headed to the Masjid. I was walking while holding my head, as I could still feel the hammering of the disease in my head. I thought I could surmount that pain, and I kept going. Halfway to the mosque, the pain intensified, and I succumbed to the idea that I could only proceed to the mosque.

I managed to return home. But then another episode of the disease set in. My neck started bending, and my head followed. At some point, I had to ask my wife to straighten my neck to mitigate my pain. Meanwhile, I could feel my teeth gnawing at themselves, and some were abrading. I continued shivering while my wife still tried to cover me with a blanket. The situation escalated. The guy running the best medical lab in our town came. One of the best community health practitioners in our town, who is also my good friend, was summoned. They did what they could and assured things would be alright.

It seemed like they were right, given the temporary relief I had, but then things escalated around Isha prayer time. My mum came and prayed to me profusely. Almost all my family members came and offered their prayers for a speedy recovery, but things appeared to stand still. No progress in my health whatsoever! Finally, they all admitted I should be rushed to Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH).

I already succumbed and felt I was going to die. My beloved brother, Alhaji Garba, shouted that his car should be driven out of the garage and that they should rush me to ABUTH. We started the journey, but before driving out of Soba, it started raining heavily. Musbahu, who was not only my good friend and neighbour, was the driver. He wanted to turn on the long-distance light, but he couldn’t because of confusion. He phoned Alhaji Garba to say the car’s lighting system was faulty. Another car was sent with another driver, and we journeyed to Zaria.

The road from Soba to Zaria is in poor condition. So many potholes on the main road, and the shoulder is no longer in existence in most parts of the road. I was lying with my head on the lap of my wife, in extreme pain. With every bump into an unavoidable pothole on the road, the incessant pain in my head increased. I lost hope. I started whispering Kalimatus Shahada, hoping it would be my last word, since I already knew we couldn’t reach the hospital while I was still alive.

With the pain still sustained, we reached Zaria while it was still raining. Instead of going to ABUTH, some argued that with the urgency of my situation, we should head to a private hospital, and that the bureaucratic process of ABUTH before my treatment could worsen my situation. We headed to Pal Hospital. They quickly examined me while I was telling the doctor I knew I couldn’t make it. The doctor, from my history, suspected immediately that I was suffering from cerebral malaria. He argued that because I was out of Nigeria for a very long time, my immune system might not be robust against malarial parasites, and that worsened my situation.

Alhamdulillah. I am writing this because I survived. After the medication, I finally recovered. But this whole experience has reminded me again that it doesn’t matter our age; we can die anytime. Our health is pretty tenuous, and death is always around the corner. May we live our lives with God consciousness so that we go to paradise in the hereafter.

Sadam Abubakar wrote via sadamabubakarsoba@gmail.com.