Several years back, I was gifted a hospital voucher. It was from one of those “Posh” hospitals located on the ‘other side of town’. Where we see the who’s who admitted et al. The moment I received that voucher, I was hesitant to pick it. One was because I wondered how they had chosen me as the recipient of a voucher – I don’t get sick. Second reason I hesitated was because I felt this was a business strategy for the institution. My resolve on not being sick is something I made even before I got born again. When I was a hard core subscriber of the law of attraction. I can remember of very few times that I was sick. One was my chicken pox encounter – (every childhood friend I know got this plague) consider this a rite of passage. My back issues – (This was my own fault) and then that time Malaria attempted during training (Dawa na kazi my friend pale Kenya Army. My prevention of early onset/ symptoms of Malaria has been a good run/ or a swim). I developed a hard shell from a young age when I tried feigning sickness (Stomach Ache) at Ahiti Ndomba and when I learnt the cure was an injection, I healed immediately. Since then, I thank God for My God given health and wellbeing. Supported by proclaiming health with all the power possible. – Faith has everything to do with it. Hallelujah…
I put away that voucher which had an expiry date of course and forgot about it. Though once in a while, I remembered that I had a voucher and probably my friend would ask me about it. If I had redeemed it. When I saw it, I thought they will probably include me in their mailing list and then once in a while they would be sending me offers on medicine, sell my info to insurance companies and blah blah. I didn’t like that. I started feeling guilty for not saying outright that I don’t get sick, instead of just receiving the voucher and wondering if to use it as a bookmark or to go ahead and get my weight and BP checked.
3 months passed and I remembered this voucher. And I got into panic mode because I would disappoint my friend – or I thought I would disappoint him. I remembered this at a time when I was overdosing on milk because – supply. I have even been nicknamed pussy cat at the office because I am taking too much of this milk. And I still cannot get chubbier. So, the voucher had a few days of expiry. I was actually thinking that my redeeming the voucher would cost me time and money. – access you know. So I actually purposed to visit and experience this hospital. My mind was like, you only go there when taking blood and during emergency responses. Go…
In the days to come, I would notice some rash developing on my skin. It started with my leg and I was like nah, sock band too tight! I let it go hivo, then apana, bam! Three on my hand around my arm band and then I was like eh, this is now becoming something. The watch and bands are usually loose enough. By the second day the rash was serious. I have forgotten the name of that particular kind of rash, but it is those big ones that appear when you have received a serious mosquito bite, or you have had a really nice day on the grass with your swimming costume on. But then I was like, “No worries, Kuna voucher!” I will go to the hosi tomorrow. So that night, the first thing I did when I got home was look for the voucher and put it in my diary. Kesho is hospital day Chris!
I even dressed up for this day, it was a big one. I mean, you gotta dress the part for an “Ivy league hospital” I marched there confidently. It was the final day of the voucher. If you have been to a corporate section of a bank – where they have flasks waiting for you, various beverages, Milo, Specialty Tea bags, Coffee, including Soya! That was what met me. I even thought I was in the wrong place. Like is this the VIP section? Or what? I went to the reception and asked the two receptionists how to go about this process.
“Good afternoon,?” “I need your help” “How can we assist?” “Hmmm, you know, I am not used to these things… “Like hospitals, I don’t know how to go about these things… Please guide me through…”
She went on to ask me my details, if I am insured nini nini then if I have a file, and I was like “no, I don’t know,” then she asked if I would be paying by cash, money transfer or mobile money. I looked blankly at her as I thought of a response.
“Actually, I am here to redeem this voucher expiring in a few hours….” “Oh, okay, that one humm, Okay.” “Kindly give me your details…”
I gave her my details forgetting my data mining fear and I was asked to sit and wait for the nurse’s call. I settled myself in one of the leather couches right next to the refreshments corner. I badly wanted to refresh myself but I was already having a bad feeling about my presence here. I didn’t belong! There was even wifi on the house… I didn’t refresh myself. Because I did not want a scenario where I would be asking some nurse if I could have my coffee while she was doing the preliminaries. I was called a few minutes later for the first step. I was briefed that I would be checked first and then, I would be referred to a doctor. I got into the nice office with various posters on medical info, medicine campaigns, etc. I am used to this step sana because of donating blood. This was the first time I came across a thermal gun. I was already thinking, these people have already injected me with radiation. Naivety was real. The only difference with this nurse is that she was just doing things as if, I was a frequent customer. During blood donations they brief you every step of the way like air traffic controllers. She did all the checks and released me.
I was instructed to wait at the fancy leather couch near the beverage table. Which I did. A few minutes later, I was called by the doctor himself. He talked nicely, invited me to the office – He actually opened the door for me, gave me a seat, and then he invited me to tell him my issues. It was only one. My skin has rashes – forgive me but I cannot remember the name of those projections…
“I noticed these things on my skin *showing the ones on my hands* and I don’t understand, maybe you could tell me what the problem is?”
“So Mr Chris, Do you have others?”
“Like on my body?”
“Yes”
“Kindly remove your shirt I see them…”
I unbuttoned my shirt and did a ka 360 as he checked my upper body out.
“Okay, you can now button up” *as he reached for the sanitizer on the wall and proceeded to dispense a little and do the necessary*
“Mr Chris, have you ever had chicken pox before?”
“Yes, when I was a child.” Toughest experience but as a phase, we encouraged each other through class.
“What we are looking at here is actually chicken pox.”
“…Hmmm, it can recur you mean?,”
“Yeah, yeah, it actually does…”
“I thought once you get it your body develops a lifelong immunity?, So what is the remedy?”…
I had already zoned out by the time he said this was chicken pox. Of course it wasn’t. Don’t sneer because I am not a doctor. Yes I am not. And I am not saying this because I want this story to twist. This doctor lied straight to my face that I had chicken pox when I knew too well what the problem was. I just needed to know what I needed to do to neutralize it and why it occurred at this particular time and not any other. But; fine. He went ahead to prescribe Acyclovir 1 200mg tablet every 5 hours for five days, I was to apply calamine lotion three times a day for five days, and then, One 10 Mg Cetrizet tablet daily for five days.
The bill came to a little over 3k for those meds at a time when my allowance was 10k for the month. The look on my face wasn’t reflective of a person who had just sat on a fancy leather couch. I didn’t have money on me, and I didn’t hide that fact to the lady pharmacist. I asked her if I could just get them in another pharmacy and she said I could. I intended to first get online and see what these meds were for, as well as confirm with the “family doctor”, share the symptoms and get advice. By family doctor I mean that relative who is in medicine and offers the rest of us pro bono medical advice. It happened that I was just having an allergic reaction. At the time I was having yoghurt daily. Three weeks down and my body couldn’t take it any more. After the phone call to the “family doc”, it turned out that all I needed to do was cut down on the yoghurt and add more vitamins into the meal plan.
I am not saying that some of these hospitals are out here to make you doubt your own health ( and treat you for things that you actually don’t have) but, I got another real encounter on the importance of having a sane and positive mindset around the issues happening within us. I was perfectly healthy days before, but the moment the idea of visiting a fancy hospital started building inside my mind, I actually started doubting my own health status. Probably I would have spent the money, if I had it or if I was not confident enough that I was healed of this disease. The treatment was nice yes, but that was definitely not my portion. I however feel that this was quite a nice way of marketing a service, where part of the clientele will be sold to the fear of being unwell and rush to sort out their issue.
It was a deeper lesson on trusting in God above all else. My health has been the perfect gift that God granted and at that point I doubted that. My lack of faith and probably choosing to please/ not disappoint someone was probably what got me the scare of my life but eventually it brought me back to Him who heals and Him who is in charge of all.
Meanwhile instead of getting busy and being in prayer through out that hour I was in that hospital, I was busy admiring the environment and enjoying being in a place I shouldn’t have been in the first place. My place was a place of faith, but as a growing child in spirit, I had chosen to trust in everything else but the Lord. If you’re at that point when you feel that it is taking so long for what the Lord promised, hang in there. What the world is offering might seem very colorful but what the Lord has in store is way better. Trust in Him.
‘But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.’
Isaiah 53:5 NKJV
Have you received a voucher recently? Share your experience in the comments section.