Thread by @MistuRants

There’s so much to be said about the rheumatologists in LASUTH and LUTH that manage #LupusWarriors here in Lagos, their attitude to work and how they make us feel. If nobody will say it, I definitely will, and what better time than during #LupusAwarenessMonth

Today, I celebrate our doctors. For letting us invade their privacies and making themselves available every time we need them. For enduring hot stuffy consultation rooms to attend to tens of Lupus patients every clinic day.

For gladly joining our support groups and always responding to all our questions, even the most ridiculous ones. For supporting some patients financially and even helping us solicit funds from their colleagues. For always being at our beck and call 24/7

Professor Adelowo, consultant of rheumatology at LUTH once said to me- Misitura, as he fondly calls me- “never feel like you can’t call me any time, there’s never a time that a lupus patient needs me that I won’t be there.” And he just didn’t say this, he proved it.

When I left my job in 2019 and was unemployed, Dr Imma in LUTH offered to buy my meds until I got a job and steady income. Dr. Igebu cried with me when I was so depressed and was contemplating suicide. She supported me emotionally until I got into a better mindspace. #Lupus

I was diagnosed by @Akpabioakanimo and team in LASUTH in 2016 and he was more than a doctor, he was a friend and he still is. He reassured me endlessly about my hair growing back. He didn’t think I was vain when I was depressed about my skin. #LupusAwarenessMonth

He referred me to a dermatologist and followed up with me until he was sure that my concerns were addressed. When I got sick from school and they took me to LUTH, Dr. Akpabio came all the way to see me and introduced me to his colleagues in LUTH.

Dr Ezomike was always present with encouraging words of motivation and assurance. I had just been diagnosed so I was reading loads of scary things online and every time I had a question, he was ready to break it down to the simplest answer for me. #LupusAwarenessMonth

Prof would tell me- “Misitura, I’m your doctor but you’re the patient. You know about Lupus more than I do cus it’s you who is living the symptoms so free to tell me exactly how you feel no matter how strange it might be.”
And every time I do, he never invalidates my experience.

Gaining 25kg thanks to Lupus meds got me in a bad state emotionally and I’d cry about it during my clinic appointments. Each time, Prof and his team would gently explain to me why I need those meds and promise me that as soon as they think I was stable, they’d reduce them.

I threw a lot of tantrums when I first got diagnosed. I’d come for clinic appointments and start threatening to stop taking my meds or even killing myself but my doctors always made sure I didn’t leave the same way.

The way these hospitals work, you have to physically move your file from one department to the other, so imagine the stress my doctors have to go through to monitor my progress in the other units where I was being managed too.

A lupus complication would mean that you had to be referred to another unit that’d help with managing that condition but your doctors still need to follow up on the meds you’re getting in those units so they make sure none of the meds act against your lupus meds.

I was a difficult patient ngl. I’d say things like - “the drugs you prescribed to me are not working, I’m in pains everyday.”
“The meds are too expensive, I can’t be spending all my money on meds, I’m done.” as if they were the ones who manufactured the meds.

When I started having the worst headaches this year, I met Dr. Hakeem at LASUTH and he has been the most supportive person ever. Even if you send him a WhatsApp message at midnight, he’d respond.

I needed to see a neurologist and he brought one all the way from their unit to see me at the clinic.
Everyday, he’d respond to tens of messages on the support groupchat with love, care and empathy.

They are doctors and that’s their job, yes. But for a condition like Lupus where your patients are sick almost everyday, giving your all 24/7 is a commitment that is rare and I personally do not take that for granted.

The Nigerian health care system does not support doctors to give their best but these doctors go above and beyond despite the limited resources available to them. And I can only imagine what they’d do if the system actually works.

God bless the rheumatologists taking care of us #LupusWarriors in Nigeria.

If you’d like to donate to help #Lupus patients across Nigeria who can’t afford their meds/ organ transplant surgeries, here’s the account number to our registered support group.

Thank you and God bless you exceedingly.

Lureg Support Foundation
1000671591
Lotus Bank