STAYING ANOTHER NIGHT IN CAPE COAST

Waking up Sunday morning, there was nothing unusual about the day until was nothing unusual except for my not going to church. That was until breakfast. Usually, I am happy to eat a fried omelet with some bread and milo. I was having so much trouble eating though, that I barely ate half of it. As the morning turned to afternoon, my stomach began to turn.

Unexpectedly, I reached that point where “I’m not feeling well” turns to “I’m gonna be sick”. Not long after breakfast was headed down the pipe to the gutter. After that I felt much better (any one who has drank too much knows that feeling). Not feeling like attempting solid food again, I had some fish soup which was really good. I think Mrs. Ackerson had made it and given it to Anita to keep in the freezer. Not more than an hour after that, the feeling came back, and the fish soup came back up. That was actually very painful.

At that point, I started to get concerned. I just tried to drink water and rest. That was not working either. The water was coming back up and my legs were shaking. In addition to the nausea, I had a serious fever. My plan when I started feeling sick was to go to Accra the next say and return to the doctor, but it was getting too serious. Instead, Anita, her friend Vera and I got a taxi and went to the hospital. We drove through numerous alleys and revelers on the street before we got there. While Vera and I searched for the entrance, Anita paid the taxi. When we found the reception, we also found that there was no doctor in until Monday. Being that it was a private hospital, they were not too heavily staffed.

As I was continuing to feel worse, we went back to catch our taxi and go to the Central Region Cape Coast Hospital, but the taxi was gone…and we were in an alley way at 10pm. At that point, we did what we had to do, which was to walk and find a taxi. Dragging myself along, I told Anita and Vera that my friends and family would be very upset to see me that sick walking through a strange alley looking for a taxi to bring me to the hospital. After about five minutes, which seemed like twenty, we got a taxi a headed to the hospital.

Upon our arrival, I knew that they were going to ask me to fill out some forms and get an ID card. I did not want to do that again, and handed them my cards from Nyaho Hospital and from SSNIT. I knew they wouldn’t accept them, but I just wanted to see a doctor. Plan B was to give Vera my health card and let her fill out the form. About ten minutes after waiting, a doctor came to see me.

I do not ever remember being like that, as I was spaced out, legs shaking, and feeling like I was spinning. The nurse took my blood pressure and some blood and then I spoke to the doctor. Seeing my condition, he allowed me to lay down and decided they would admit me.

I was going to be spending the night. While I have stayed with a lot of people during my stay in Ghana, I did not expect to be staying in a hospital.