In love with my abductors

Breakfast is not for everyone

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I was fully awoken by the time I heard my alarm clock go off. The ring tone was set to silk and I thought silk was supposed to be soothing but ironically there was nothing soothing about the way my alarm clock rang. As I struggled to turn it off, I made sure it wasn't the 'snooze' button I tapped on. If it was, the next time I would be awakening would be in the middle of the day and that had its own problems. As I did that, a wave of dread washed over me because I also realized it was a Monday morning. How did the weekend go by so fast?

I quickly checked my 'WhatsApp' for messages on my glass group, hoping to see a message that the lecturer had cancelled lectures for the morning but it was not so. I pondered for a few seconds if this medical degree was really worth it. If I missed a day of school it would not really matter and I could sleep and be well rested. But instead of going back to sleep, I reluctantly got up and began my morning ritual in preparation for school. After I was dressed up in my scrubs and ward coat, I glanced at my phone and the time was 8:05 am. Perfect, I had enough time for breakfast before the lecture started.

I grabbed my stethoscope and my bag and as I closed my door, I said to myself "let's go get this degree".

The breakfast was terrible, soggy chips and fried egg that had virtually no taste. The only palatable thing was the juice box I used to wash down the meal and it made the food taste a whole lot better. Every time I ate the food the hostel served, it was just a reminder why we needed a kitchen in the building but our pleas fell on deaf ears and the management refused to do anything about it. So we ate all the terrible meals as we had no other option.

The lecture was so boring that I had to play some games on my phone to keep myself from dozing off. Why was pediatrics so boring? I prefer obstetrics and gynecology; it was far more interesting listening about ways you could save a pregnant woman and her baby than listening to how diseases in children were treated. I guess the dull nature of the class had more to do with the monotonous way the lecturer read through the lecture slides than with the actual topic. Either way I was glad when she reached the last that read 'thank you for your attention', signaling the end of the class and the start of clinical postings.

'Halima are you ready? I'm heading to A&E' I asked my group leader after I had gotten my logbook signed by the lecturer which was a way of noting who attended the lectures. Maryam was gathering her things and picking out which Jotter she needed for the day.

'Yeah Kamsi, let me call the others, but I don't think Aisha and Onyinye came to school today. You can go ahead if you want, Christopher, Onyeka and I will meet you there' she replied.

'Alright, cool'. I answered and made my way towards the exit door. It's not that I do not usually wait for my group members, but they always delayed and I disliked arriving at where I'm supposed to be late. Onyeka always had to go upstairs and retrieve something of his from his room before we left and sometimes we have to look for Christopher before we can finally leave to where we are supposed to be for the week. I love the clinical postings part of my training. It's the time that I actually feel like I'm a full time doctor. We are allowed to listen to the complaints of the patients, diagnose and offer treatment while under supervision of course. Although we are allowed to perform some procedures on our own provided you have performed them while under supervision.

So when I walked through the doors of the emergency department and got a whiff of that hospital smell that smelled too much of bleach and antiseptic, I knew it was a good idea I did not go back to sleep. There was already a bit of organized chaos going on and soon after I came, I jumped in to lend a hand where I could. I felt every bit of the nerves in my muscles awaken from excitement to be doing what I loved. But little did I know the excitement I felt was going to be turned into immense fear and horror as the day progressed.