SHORES OF THE LONG LAKE

"Shores of the Long Lake" has been a constant pm on my BBM. Now friends are puzzled about what this means and have often asked me what it meant. But really, I haven't been to any lake, how much more to determine it's length, or even consider looking around for shores
" Shores of the Long Lake" is one of the soundtracks to "the Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies". An esoteric classical piece by Howard Shore. One of the music masterminds to epic, suspense filled moments in great movies, from "Lord of the ring" to "Titanic".

When I say esoteric, I mean a soundtrack capable of taking your mind and soul into any realm of your choosing, "goose pimpling" you into auditory orgasms.
But I wasn't going into orgasms of auditory origin this time. This time the classical piece cast my mind to the river behind Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, where I served as a medical intern. Separating the full length of the hospital from the river was a little land on which the Long fence was built. Sometimes during morning reviews in the seminar room upstairs, I sometimes trail off and stare over the early morning stillness of the river over the fence, thinking about something unrelated, sometimes my thoughts would double back and I would think in relation to the medical cases being presented.

Like a regular church bell jingling at the background on an early Sunday morning, I heard the words, "he had a similar episode 3 months ago, but was said to have had massages at home". Those word, like cold hands seized my raw flesh and dragged my back to real time. Turned out that he was an elderly man who was rushed into the accident and emergency ward on account of a sudden fall, lost consciousness and woke up with loss of function of the right hand and leg.

The attending doctor, taking a jigsaw walk through three month earlier in this elderly life, began placing puzzles together to arrive at a diagnosis. Mr Tari is a farmer, elderly, and lives in a remote part of Bayelsa State, quite a distance from Yenagoa. When he had his first attack 3 months ago, he still was able to move his right arm and leg. His relatives had consulted a traditional doctors who mixed some herbal stuff and placed in both eyes, gave him some palm oil to lick on, onions and garlic to chew on. Over the next few weeks following, he had series of rigorous massages. Meanwhile, a local drug store was consulted too and was thus given a cocktail of grinded drugs. Stroke among other brain illnesses​ were placed on the 'most wanted' list of diseases being suspected

Hypertension and stroke are a strongly related pair and since he has never been to a clinic, it was impossible to note a hypertensive history. and considering the cocktail of medicine he's been on, and coming into emergency with a normal blood pressure, antihypertensive drugs were strong suspects in the concoction. A Repeat Stroke was therefore a tentative diagnosis. The rest they say, is history.

Stroke in simple terms is largely a physical manifestation of something wrong going on in a part of the brain. majorly either due to lack of blood supply, or a burst of a blood vessel supplying that part of the brain. And of course, there are other causes of stroke.

After Cancer and Ischaemic heart disease, it is the 3rd commonest cause of death. In the part of the world from where I'm writing,  it is on the rise due to adoption of less healthy lifestyle, ranging from the food we eat, to the type of jobs we take on and even to our social life which includes smoking and heavy alcohol intake.

How do you recognize a stroke? Perhaps, let me rephrase. What are the symptoms of stroke?

A headache perhaps, but this doesn't really mean every headache is a stroke. Hence vomiting, visual disturbances, paralysis of one side of the body. Usually seen​ as being unable to move the upper or lower limb of the same side usually, speech difficulty. A combination of these or more may give a clue to the type of stroke.

Now, what do you do when a friend or a relative strokes? Sure as hell ain't gonna give onions or garlic or palm oil.... c'mon! You'll only give the physician a bad breath to deal with. I mean, like seriously? Nor would you traumatize poor Mr Tari with rigorous massages. But the best thing to do is bring him to the hospital as soon as IMMEDIATELY sounds. You just might be saving your loved one and yourself a lifelong disability to deal with... I mean, it won't be funny buying and changing adult Pampers.

But why are we even talking about stroke in the first place? Is it avoidable? Of course yes.

1) Ever considered going to the hospital for no reason at all? Sounds funny right? Like, "I'll just be too full of myself and just go to a hospital?". Well, it's not funny and it is called "going for a check up". How about twice a year, or three times a year or 4times a year? I'm pretty sure 4 days spread out into 365 days isn't that bad. Besides here are the benefits;

You are going to be screened for possible risk factors that predisposes you having certain conditions. For example I mentioned earlier that Mr Tari could have been hypertensive, but it was impossible to know since he never went to a hospital in his life. Might I mention that hypertension and stroke are like siblings, strongly related. Other possible risk factors that could be placed in perspective include, blood sugar to screen for diabetes, and even age.

2) food! Food! Food! Food! They say, we are what we eat... I couldn't have agreed more. More of natural and less of processed or oily food seem like a fair deal right?

3) with great food comes great obesity. I'll just end on that.

4) adequate exercise... probably a 30 minute early morning cardio. From a simple walk to jogging exercise

So what do you do for your loved one after a stroke
Your doctor would most likely tell you what to do. But to mention but a few

1. regular check up is key
2. stick to medications religiously
3. physiotherapy, with emphasis​ on the now weaker or paralyzed limb
4. Presence of a loved one most times for emotional and mental support. And also for nursing care

Stroke is a serious illness in our society to be taken seriously, I mean the way the Americans would see terrorism as threat to national security. It is a major cause of death and is on the rise in our 3rd world society. the Aftermath of an event can be debilitating to individual and can cause high dependence on relatives, which could be quite frustrating to them (considering having to clean up after them, everyday for the rest of their lives). And it could be prevented.

P.S. the topic has been highly watered down for better understanding, and the name used was made up.