Why my life-threatening illness was a blessing in disguise

Everlyn Wanjiru found love as she was battling a life-threatening illness. Daniel stuck by her side, offering encouragement and support, which helped her get through the lonely period in her recovery journey. PHOTO| CHARLES KAMAU

What you need to know:

  • I reached for my phone and called a neighbour who was a medical doctor.
  • He came, gave me some medication and prepared some tea. He urged me to go to hospital saying it was a serious headache.
  • By quitting employment, I had given up my medical cover.
  • The most affordable option for me seemed Kikuyu Mission Hospital since it was not far from where I was lived along Waiyaki Way.
  • Do you have feedback on this story? Please e-mail: [email protected]

In Christian weddings, couples vow to love each other for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death does them part.

For Daniel and me, our love and commitment to each other was tested long before we walked down the aisle to say those words.

But our love story did not begin as one as he found me dejected and in pain. He was simply extending a hand of kindness.

It all started in 2014 when I quit employment to start a business but even then I knew I was plunging into an unknown world where success was not guaranteed.

I had been doing interior design and thought I could make it work. In the same week that I quit my job, I also gave my life to Christ.

The following Tuesday, I woke up with a severe headache. I assumed it was anxiety because of leaving employment without a stable economic plan. I took painkillers and rested.

The headache went subsided and I managed to deliver the orders I had. Later that evening when I went back to my house, the headache started once more. I took painkillers again and slept.

The following day, the headache was still there. I took more painkillers but that headache would just not leave me. I slept and woke up at 4pm and I warmed some food from the fridge and prayed to

God to take control.

I needed to wake up, go out there and make money, since I was now self-employed. Instead, I slept and woke up at 2am with a headache that was attacking from the back of my head to the front.

CALLED NEIGHBOUR

I reached for my phone and called a neighbour who was a medical doctor.

He came, gave me some medication and prepared some tea. He urged me to go to hospital saying it was a serious headache.

By quitting employment, I had given up my medical cover.

The most affordable option for me seemed to be Kikuyu Mission Hospital since it was not far from where I was lived along Waiyaki Way.

I dragged my feet there that Thursday morning and a series of tests were done until 2pm. I was still in pain and very tired of the persistent headache.

They diagnosed me with Brucella and gave medication for one week. They asked me to go back for a review after the dose. .

I went back home and took the medicine as I had been told. The following day, I could not get out of bed. It was on a Friday and I started calling friends to come take care of me.

In the evening, I was still quite ill and couldn’t even hear my phone ring when my family called. I had informed my father and brother and they over my brother’s wife who came and took me to her house.

I had violent vomits that night. The headaches were sharp and very painful. I did not sleep a wink.

That Saturday morning, they called my father. He came for me and took me to Mariakani Hospital in Ongata Rongai, which was not far from home. I had drastically lost weight , about 10kg, and it was noticeable.

The doctor admitted me since I was very dehydrated. They took blood samples and cerebral spinal fluid. They then did an MRI and a CT scan.

Three days later, they informed me that I had meningitis. I did not take it seriously, until my entire family and extended family started flocking to see me in a panic.

This made me Google it on my phone. It was scary and I couldn’t believe it. My denial might just have saved me.

BEGAN TO LOSE SIGHT

I was given intra-venous medication and shots for pain on the neck and back for seven days. I began to lose sight. My eyes became very sensitive to light and I was not seeing clearly.

I started losing my hearing and was  vomiting excessively.

Then I began to hallucinate and became violent. I would shout ‘Kwa nini mnanichapa?’ (why are you beating me?) and try fighting back some people that those around me couldn’t see. Then I lost the ability to walk, even to the toilet. I was now using a bowl under my bed.

After eight days, I was discharged because of financial constraints but I went home with so much medication in a plastic bag. I was now on homecare.

My sister had a small baby to take care of and still took care of me. I was under tight surveillance since I was still hallucinating. Three days later, the pain on my back and neck wouldn’t leave me.

My family started looking for a hospital. We found a doctor who asked us to look for a specialist.

At Nairobi West Hospital, a doctor admitted me and the tests began immediately.

They did further MRI and CT scans of my back and gave me a new regime of medication. It was already in September. I began losing vision in my right eye and my hearing got worse.

On the second week, another specialist came in as the doctor who had admitted me was travelling.

He continued with the medication but after observing me for three days, he said that I did not have meningitis. I so much wanted to hear this.

ZERO APPETITE

My appetite had gone to zero. My brother came and got confrontational with the doctor as I was not improving.

But my spirit was still upbeat since I believed that I had no meningitis and with the right diagnosis, I would still get out of that bed.

On the third week, I began to loose skin pigmentation and my face was beginning to swell. The doctor insisted on keeping me one more week but he later discharged me.

My father came for me from hospital but I couldn’t walk properly, instead I was swinging sideways. I remember him asking if I was okay. But I could sense that he was scared of what I had become.

I went home and the real homecare began. My family members cared for me in shifts. I was still quite hostile. In one month, I had lost a lot of weight, became more hostile and hallucinated further.

A friend, Vickie, came to see me and promised to research and see if I could see a better practitioner. By her second visit, I was getting seizures and my knees were stiff.

ALREADY UNCONSIOUS

She gave me a contact, Dr Wanyama, and by the time my parents took me to see him, I was already unconscious. The doctor referred us to another specialist, Dr Ndege.

It was now in November, and I was literally shutting down slowly by slowly.

I am told that by the time I reached at the Meridian Equitorial Hospital to see Dr Ndege, I was literally shutting down and there was a lot of resuscitation. I woke up 24 hours later.

Everlyn Wanjiru found love as she was battling a life-threatening illness. PHOTO| CHARLES KAMAU

On the second day, Dr Ndege came and told me that I had no meningitis, but tuberculoma which is simply tuberculosis of the brain.

He explained that my brain scan had showed two things growing in my brain and that I will be put on medication for one week and I would start walking.

I couldn’t believe it, I laughed. I started on the treatment immediately.

In the next few days my headache and backache went away. My appetite started coming back, my vision too. It is like some miracle had happened.

I also found out that I could walk a little, and I folded that wheelchair and put it under the bed.

I didn’t want to see it. I could see some hope. Even my father started smiling and bringing his friends. In eight days, I was discharged with only two medications to take home; and I took myself to the car.

HOW I MET MY SWEETHEART

It is like I had started living again. I could sit down on myself, eat, use my phone to talk to people and light was no longer an issue.  Then in December, I realised that I was getting lonely.

I was still recovering. Recovery in the house was the loneliest phase. My friend and his friends came in to keep me company in shifts during the day as my family was at work.

I was still walking while holding on to the wall. That is how I met Daniel Ng’ang’a Njuguna, my sweetheart.

Daniel aided in my recovery. It is like God used him to bring me back to my feet, because he had the time to walk me around. Were it not for him, it would have taken me longer to walk again.

He would visit me and keep me company so often. The more he visited, the more I felt my heart soften and warm up to him.

With time, he won my trust. There is this day that he took me by matatu to a friend’s birthday in Nyayo estate. I left me there and went for some engagements in Buru Buru.

He later came to pick me in town as I alighted from the matatu he was on the same spot as we had agreed. He just won my trust.

He would walk supporting me to and from the bus whenever I was going anywhere. Curious onlookers thought that we were so much in love, yet we were in problems. However, this also brought us closer. We fell in love and he accepted me as I was. Even all the guys who were interested me took off when I got ill. But Daniel took me as I was.

BLESSING IN DISGUISE

I am now doing agency banking business and life is beginning to shape up. Besides bringing me the love of my life, the illness brought me towards my ministry, to spread hope.

I feel the pain of the needy in the society. I want to grow in the ministry to a point where I change the lives of the people in a sustainable manner.

It is a promise that I made to God while on my sick bed and I have to actualise it.

I will forever be grateful to my immediate family, friends, and extended family for not giving up on me, and for standing with me in my illness and recovery.

May God bless you all. To my sweetheart Daniel, you continue to make my days shine and in years to come, I would want us to have a stronger testimony in each other.

***

DANIEL’S STORY

One day, a friend who owned a cyber near Ciru’s (Wanjiru) home called me to go visit her at home. I was surprised to hear that the once very energetic girl we used to call Diva could not even walk without support.

By then, I was running a music school, the Don School of Music in Rongai. We organised a group of five guys to go see her and I took my guitar to go play for her.

We sang so many songs for her that afternoon. I could see her light up. I could sense that she had not had a normal interaction in a long time. As we left, I felt that I had a huge burden to take care of her and I had to obey.

Daniel fell in love with Wanjiru as she was recovering from tuberculosis of the brain and helped her through the journey. PHOTO| CHARLES KAMAU

Every Thursday, I would organise with a friend and go play the guitar for her. Within a few weeks, I started visiting her on my own, twice in a week.

I would buy her yoghurt, sit with her outside in the sun and later take her to the house.

It got a time when her parents were busy and she wanted to go for doctor’s appointment. I would accompany her to the doctor in a matatu. She couldn’t walk on her own, she used to stumble as she had lost her body balance. That is how our relationship grew, getting closer by the day.

Before we started dating, I went and told a friend about it, then he asked me ‘Ciru yule mgonjwa ama ni mwingine?’ (That sick girl or another one?) She is so sick and needs medical care. ‘Unajuaje kama atapona?’ (How do you know that she will well?). This really affected me. But I told him that God will strengthen me.

I proposed to Ciru on the eve of her birthday in March 2015. On her birthday and I only had Sh700 in my pockets.

The music school was struggling financially and I was expecting a student to pay me some money, but afternoon came and I still had the Sh700. Yet I had promised to take her out for dinner. I went into the supermarket and bought a marble cake and juice.

Then I took a cab to their gate where she was waiting. She was very beautiful. When I saw her I told the cab driver, Kama,mimi nimeisha! (Kama,I am finished!) The taxi man laughed.

From the way she was dressed, she deserved a proper a birthday party and I couldn’t afford it. I convinced her we first pass by my house so I could  change clothes. She agreed. When we got to the house, I had no choice but to tell her we will have our dinner there.

She was shocked and as she absorbed the reality, I played her my guitar. She told me not to worry, we will build our lives together. I sang her many songs, played the guitar and we had our cake and juice.

She then removed her jewellery and asked for a pair of socks. The floor was cold. That gesture really touched my heart. I sang her many songs and kept playing the guitar.

After a couple of hours, I called the cab and took her home.

CLOSED THE MUSIC SCHOOL

In December 2015, I closed the school and started getting private clients, one after another. I am now a freelance music teacher, offering personalised services.

I would say that Shiru is the strongest woman that I have ever met. She never lost hope in her sickness and recovery.

In October 2016, we got married. We both have a heart for charity and the orphaned. God has got a great assignment for us. Together, we will go far.  

***

Do you have feedback on this story? Please e-mail: [email protected]