🤫 Confess🏥 Health
I Was 32 and Thought I Had Ulcer. The Doctor Said Something Else.
S
Savage Warthog from Asaba
16 days ago
In 2021, I was 32, working as a civil engineer in Jos, and I thought I had ulcer. The burning in my chest, the nausea after meals, the way food just sat in my stomach like stone. I bought mist potassium and antacids from a chemist in Bukuru and carried on. My wife kept saying I should go for proper check-up but you know how we men are. I was the only son, the one paying my mother's rent in Bauchi, the one my younger ones called when school fees was due. No time for sickness. By December that year, I had lost almost 11kg without trying. My trousers were falling off. One morning I could not swallow my tea. That was when fear entered me. I went to a private hospital in Jos and the doctor asked plenty questions, then sent me for endoscopy. I did not tell anybody I was going. I told my wife I was going to site. The result came back and the doctor said the word. Ulcer. But not ordinary ulcer. H. pylori infection that had eaten deep, plus severe gastritis. He said if I had waited another month or two, it could have turned to something worse. I sat in that office and my hand was shaking. Not because of ulcer. Because I realized I had been gambling with my life to save face and save money. I did not tell my family for two months. I was treating it secretly, taking my antibiotics in the car, hiding the tablets in my toolbox. My wife found out when she was washing my work bag and the drugs fell out. She cried. Not because of the sickness, but because I did not trust her enough to tell her. That was the real wound. The ulcer I could treat with medicine. The distance I created, that one took longer. We are fine now, by God's grace. But I learned something: the people who love you are not waiting for you to be strong. They are waiting for you to be honest. And that check-up you are postponing? Go and do it. Your pride cannot pay for your burial.
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