She’s Bamgbose Ajibola Eunice, a Second-Class Upper graduate of Peace and Conflict Studies from Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State.
She’s in dire need of financial assistance for urgent surgery so “I can live normally” she said my current condition has inhibited my mobility and ability to function well in my day-to-day activities”.
She said “It’s a different kind of trauma when you feel pain most of your life from a very young age. When you know pain. Not the kind of pain experienced when you hit your foot against a table or the disappointment that comes in failing an exam. But the kind of pain that is felt even beyond the physical. The kind of pain you hope to end, but know there’s nothing you can do to relieve it because of finance”.
At about age six, I started feeling some discomfort in my left leg, so bad I couldn’t stand up with increasing temperature. I was taken to a general hospital in Abeokuta. With medication the pain reduces, only to reappear.
As I turned eight, my father died in a fire accident with third-degree burns on his way from work, leaving a pregnant mother and daughter to survive on their own. Just then, the symptoms on my left leg started again, never really had time to process the grief of my loss; it was as if the pain didn’t want my father to see the anguish of his daughter.
The magnitude of the pain on my left leg this time has shrunken my leg size as I started to limp, and I could hardly sleep at night.
My mother, in fear, took me to hospitals back to back, with different doctors saying different things. My life is all about drugs and physiotherapy.
I was always on different medication, both medical and traditional, to battle with the pain. All hospitals, tests and medication were wrongly diagnosed as our trip to National Orthopedic Hospital in Igbobi, changed the narrative. In further inquest, I was referred to another hospital where a test result came positive of tuberculosis of the bone.
After the excruciating 18 months of treatment, isolation, exclusion and usage of nose masks years before Covid-19, my joy knew no bounds when my retest results confirmed healing; negative, but was dashed to hear that the ligament connecting my hip and cervical bones was infected by bacteria from the disease.
At the age of thirteen, I was diagnosed with TB arthritis. Some doctors called it ‘hip inflammation virus’. But it was mostly referred to as ‘TB arthritis that has led to hip inflammation.’ I felt dejected. I had hoped that all the laborious daily intake of medications for almost two years would be my final solution. But fate was at it again.
I started physiotherapy again. The pains were fierce and unbearable, but I became so used to it that I expected it each waking moment. This pain became my personal devil – an evil presence I had to live with. The doctors suggested a surgery, but they wanted it to be a last resort. After a few years of all action, in 2019, my doctor told me I had to do a surgery as soon as possible.
With these, I continued in school. The condition of the leg caused me a lot of embarrassment, as I often lost balance when walking which resulted in my trip and fall that made people look at and even call me an “ogbanje”.
The pain is increasingly becoming more severe, as I get older and move around. I could have continued the use of medication such as Tramadol and Codeine and endure the painful side effects, but the medical director had warned me of the other damages it could cause to my body and advised me to do the surgery. The initial estimation of the surgery was 1.3 million Naira but the accumulated treatment is estimated at 2.5 million Naira.
I need help ma, use Almanah Hope Foundation to help me, please help me to tell my story. I am 24 years, I just graduated; since age 6; I have lived in pain; older it’s becoming more excruciating with worse being the emotional pain. I want to go to NYSC, get a job and help my mom who for the past 14 years have been taking me around the hospitals.
This young girl, came into my twitter space some 3+ years ago. She appreciated my work with widows, that her mom is a widow. We’ve kept in touch and when she shared her story 8th February, 2022; I was in a state of shock, disbelief, anger and pain because for years she’s been full of smiles, positivity and independence that I couldn’t believe her story. She show no sympathy or anything that show what she was going through.
Let’s save this young girl, donate to her or get to her doctors and pay to the hospital.
Bamgbose Ajibola Eunice
Account number 2093337959.
UBA
Dr Taiwo And Dr Olufem,
National Orthopaedic Hospital Igbobi
Lagos State.
God bless you abundantly
A Widow's Window 