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CHRONICLES OF A NIGERIAN PHYSIOTHERAPIST: by Bola Abioye


EPISODE THREE
Sometimes, we think we know how we’ll act in certain situations but everyone above the age of fifteen would certainly agree with me that some situations bring out who we truly are. Well, that’s not supposed to be; our characters are meant to dictate what a situation would and not the other way round. Does anyone understand me?

Okay, if you don’t; scrap that!

That’s a motivational speech for another day.

The sight of Ituah made me quick to turn from the treadmill (on which Teju was doing her low-intensity resistance exercise; under my supervision of course) to the back of the cybex machine and luckily for me; there was a door with the tag ‘gents’ just in front of me and I shouted ‘goal ball jor!’ (Well, in my mind). God had certainly made an escape route for me even before the problem arrived.

Now, don’t get me wrong…
I’m dating just one girl and I’m not the type that does the whole infidelity stuff; it’s damn too stressful and time consuming too. If there were more than twenty-four hours in one day, I may consider it though (winks).

It’s just that when you are dating such an unpredictable babe like Ituah; some kind of ‘abnormal reflexes’ become part of your lifestyle.

‘Charles!’

The echo of my name helped remember that the blood running through my veins is still red and not blue (my way of saying I jolted back to reality). For me, it was more than reality because two voices called my name at the same time. I don’t know if you believe in the whole jinx thing but I turned back only to realize that after successfully escaping, my I.D card that dropped had given me away and Teju was now really tired and wanted me to further reduce the rate at which she was going. Well, that warranted a jinx.

‘Charles’ Ituah said in a persuasive tone and I could only wait for her next certainly unpredictable line of action.

I looked back at Teju and she had found a way to turn off and get off the treadmill.

‘Charles, my dad’,
‘Your dad’ I repeated after her.

In the next thirty minutes, we were at Ituah’s place; a place I don’t particularly like visiting but let’s say this was one necessary evil.

Teju? Her driver came for her.

I drew back as we came to the front of the door of their room and palour apartment. I had to think well about if I wanted to face the impending “doom”.

‘He needs your help this time’ she reminded me.

I paused for a minute to think. I was there to help him regain function. Again, I came to the conclusion that it would take a little while for a stroke patient with slurred speech to articulate words to throw me out of his house.

I couldn’t believe I was going to break the unwritten rule of not treating family/friends by yourself (an alternative of which is referring them to a competent colleague) for an alcoholic; who had previously suffered from Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA)—a minor stroke that lasts for about 24hours; but ignored all warning signs, continued with his heavy alcohol consumption and refused to continue his aspirin dose all together.

Somehow, his beautiful daughter just knows how to find her way into my heart. Prior to this, I had educated her (when she followed me to see one of my private patients) that recovery pattern in stroke patients is rapid in the first few months and therefore it’s very important to ensure that the stroke patient receives physiotherapy at that point.

They couldn’t afford the expenses of paying for the hospital bills, transporting him to the hospital and waiting all day to be attended to in a general hospital. Altogether, the best bet was for me to step in.

Just as Ituah’s father is stubborn in things of his health and assumes he knows everything; he is equally stubborn in his believes that Warri people are evil and his daughters should stay away from them. Therefore, it was only normal for him not to support my relationship with his daughter. His constant advice to his daughters is ‘follow Yoruba guys’.

Ha!!! Awon Yoruba demons!

Really! Who does that in this day and age?

My girlfriend’s father!

But I have one unanswered question. How did she know I was in that gym?

Edo girls! Chei!
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