Greetings!
As bad as this may sound, I’m probably among the top 20 people in the world who engage in self-medication (just exaggerating though). I can go year after year without feeling the need to run helter-skelter for health issues. The only thing that comes often is a runny nose or catarrh, and when it does, I simply go to the nearby chemist to buy my usual medicine. In fact, anytime I get there, they already know what I’m going to buy. Sometimes, I go directly to the counter where the medicine is located, collect it, pay, and leave.
When a headache comes, which happens on rare occasions, I just go to the chemist and ask for something for the headache, and that’s all. I don’t go about telling nurses or doctors to give me injections, take my blood to run tests, figure out the sickness, and then load me with different medicines. Like a neighbor of mine often brags, “I know my body, and I always know what’s wrong and what medicine will cure it.” I know it’s a wrong approach, but it works for me, and I haven’t faced any challenges regarding that—at least, not yet.
However, I once saw the negative effects of this practice on a friend when I was in school.
It happened one particular Saturday. Henry came back from choir rehearsal around 7:00 pm and complained of a sharp headache, asking if I had any paracetamol at home. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any, so I took 100 naira and rushed to the nearby chemist shop to get him half a sachet. He took two tablets when I got back, and we thought he’d get some relief from the medicine. But instead, it worsened after an hour, and I suggested we go to the chemist so he could explain his symptoms better and get more appropriate medication. However, he refused. His refusal wasn’t because he lacked money to buy better drugs; it was simply because he believed he knew his body well enough to handle it, which made sense to me because that’s how I treat myself whenever I’m sick.
As time passed, though, his symptoms grew worse. The sharp headache developed into both coldness and hotness in his body at the same time, and he also began to experience stomach pains. By then, it was quite late, and the chemist shop in our street had already closed. The stomach pain was so severe that it had him rolling on the floor, shouting in pain, and he couldn’t get up.
Even though it was still based on self-medication, I went to a distant chemist shop that night, described his symptoms in detail to the person in charge, and bought a good number of drugs, which were quite expensive. The drugs worked like magic that night after he took them, and we were able to sleep peacefully—although very late. The ordeal nearly caused us to miss church service the next day.
Thanks for reading.
