Twelve years ago Amos Chege, 32, was aspiring to become a wiring mechanic when he started experiencing high fevers, excessive body sweating and later intractable nausea accompanied by vomiting. He visited several health facilities, treated aggressively for unclear maladies including brucellosis, typhoid and malaria. He improved a little only to develop right hip pains, limping and friction within the joint while moving soon after. It is during this time that he went to a prominent mission hospital where he was advised on being admitted and taken to theater to further investigate the cause of the hip pains. Unfortunately he did not have the funds to afford the surgery in that hospital so he ended up at Nakuru Level 5 hospital (formerly Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital) where he was admitted and further intensive investigations into his problems continued.
The admission
It is during this memorable admission when he developed difficulty in straightening his leg which, “would jerk to a flexed position and whenever I tried to straighten it, I would feel intense pain at the hip,” he says. Subsequently he was placed on traction to keep the leg in an extended position. Soon after, a fluctuant swelling developed in the right hip region and doctors would aspirate bloody fluid from it to take it to the lab for investigations. He woes that, “the doctors would read the results but not tell me what they found out.”
A month into the admission, he was taken to theatre, underwent surgery where samples were collected from the joint for further analysis. Soon after he developed inability to move both his legs, lost sensation and became dependent in all his activities involving mobility. He could not take himself outside to bask the sun and had to rely on a caretaker. “Whenever it started raining while I was outside and alone, I had to crawl to a shade,” he says. He was subjected to gruesome physiotherapy treatment which “did not yield much in terms of recovery.” It is in this process of treatment that the results of the surgery came and he was found to have tuberculosis of the hip joint. He was placed on treatment for TB and continued with the physiotherapy.
At this point of care, three months into admission, he felt he was not progressing much, and coupled with crude treatment and demeaning verbal jab from one of the healthcare workers, “hiki kimtu kinapona (this guy is healing),” he requested for discharge. He was let to go home to be on a wheelchair having being advised that he would never walk again.
Recovery
Unlike hospital where there was staff, at home he was alone since everyone had to go to work. He perfected how to move by himself and aggressively continued administering himself exercises. It is while in this process that he started feeling some mild sensations deep within the legs while basking the sun. Soon after, the legs started twitching and he noticed mild movements of the toes. He continued with his aggressive exercises, trying to stand while supporting himself with the walls and with a rope anchored in the truss of his bedroom and with deep belief and hope that he would walk again. With time, several months after discharge, the legs started to gain power especially the left which had no obvious problem initially.
By the time he visited his next clinic, the left leg was fully functional. The doctor advised him to use a walking frame. It is while using this mobility device that he realized his right leg could not step on the ground as normally as it was stepping with the toes. It occurred to him that the leg had shortened.
Soon after he graduated into using clutches, and started covering longer distances while moving. He also started tilling the land despite resistance from his father which also made him realize that he could step with the entire foot of the right leg. He progressed to use a walking stick which gave him confidence in mobility. With it he could walk far distances, visit his friends and handle more activities.
While at four months of religiously taking the anti-tuberculosis drugs, he dropped the clinic, felt that the drugs were no longer important and coupled with their side effects, he discarded them. His father sought a traditional healer who prepared for him concoctions of herbal treatments. With time he would occasionally drop the use of walking stick except for the severe joint pain that he would experience if he stepped hard with the affected leg and the limping.
Challenges
His illness process had lots of challenges. “Early into the illness after discharge from hospital, I lost my mother who was also struggling with a goiter problem.” This event severely affected him as people thought that their family had been bewitched and that he would die next. He sympathized with his father who had to take care of two critically ill patients, despite that they were not well off financially as a family.
It also adversely affected his work. “I was studying an automobile wiring course which I did not complete,” he says. “The work required a lot of mobility since clients would call you while in far places that their vehicles had spoilt. I had to change my career ambitions. While bed-ridden at home, I would think hard of what I wanted to do after recovery, would draw images of a maize mill and barber shop.” He settled for being a barber since it required less capital and was physically tolerable. This was in 2008; three years into the illness. Later he relocated to Nairobi from Elburgon where initially he started working as a casual laborer in construction sites but soon realized that the leg could not allow him to carry lots of weights. It is at this point that he resumed his barber work which is now his principal occupation.
“Some people can easily kill your hopes,” he says. “I was categorized as disabled by them, a situation I had to refuse. When I was not walking I was donated for a wheelchair by an organization but I completely refused to use it despite pleas from relatives since its use would mean that I am disabled. They had given up hope of ever walking in me.”
The illness affected his social life. “When I was getting sick, I had a girlfriend who left after my illness since she thought I was never going to recover,” he says. “That severely dented my hopes.”
He woes that stigmatization was rife, “there are people who would talk badly about me being disabled which tended to be immensely discouraging since it would almost make me believe that I am actually disabled.”
Today he goes on well with his duties, except for the occasional pains that have crept in the last couple of months and have made him take treatments for joint pains and go for massage. He is grateful that he has come from so far and he is able to sustain his livelihood despite his challenges. He was once married but separated after several months although he hopes to marry again soon.