Strengthening Weak Knees

I hate being sick. I never thought of myself as a very sickly person until coming to Nigeria. Malaria, typhoid, dysentery, diarrhea, and boils were only a handful of the illnesses to which I grew accustomed. Basically, we thought enduring bouts of bad health was just part of the job description of being a cross-cultural worker. Jen and I even started to appreciate the feverish moments to take it as a sign that we needed to slow down the pace of our work.

But then when we had Ibrahim, Rahamatu, and Musa, all this causal thinking about infection changed. Suddenly it wasn’t “bulletproof Brad” or “jagged Jen” getting sick but these little kids depending on daddy and mommy to get better. I still remember Dimis and Mary Mai-Lafia telling us to give our kids malarial treatment at the first sign of fever. So there I was ever-armed with children’s fever reducer, multi-vitamin mixes, and kid’s malarial remedies. Immediately after Rahamatu was born, I held her little arms and listened to her cries during a blood transfusion that still makes me shudder to ponder it.

Last week, I woke up feeling some pains in my right knee that I thought might have been from excessive walking on our farm. The pain gradually increased until morning I woke up to a tremendous pain behind my right knee and Jen looked at it in dismay saying, “That looks like a softball!” I immediately sent a text to Dr. Eni asking for some tips on urgent treatment. He recommended rest, elevation of the leg, an analgesic, and hot compresses on the swollen area.

After a week, I am still not able to walk normally but I can actually dress myself, walk stairs, and drive without too much pain. With another week of treatment, I expect to be walking without a hitch hailing the Lord’s healing grace.

The Almighty uses our feeble bodies and weak joints to teach multiple life lessons especially in a context like northern Nigeria. On the 3 rounds of treatment that I have spent this week, this would have been half the monthly salary of an average Nigerian worker. Most northern Nigerians endure infections like this until there is no other alternative than amputation. How desperately the indigenous people of northern Nigerian need health care delivered with compassion. With even greater desperation, medical treatment needs to be given with the gentle touch of the Great Physician.