we decided to have a relatively quiet weekend in accra, as we're heading north to tamale for the next week. although we're in the wet season the weather is typically quite warm around 29 Celsius or 85 Fahrenheit and the sky tends to be a little gray. this weekend the sun was out and it was a rare opportunity to sit by the pool in the sun and really slum it in our apartment complex. sunday morning we ran some errands, had a quick bite to eat, and then i went to change into swimmers to go lie by the pool.
as i was changing i noticed a couple of black marks on my body, particularly on my stomach. i started to pick at them, and they came off but seemed to leave a black spot on/in the skin. i was in shock. i asked nicola to help me examine my back and neck, and sure enough she found even more spots on me. did i have ticks? did the 'ants in my pants' from last week have a lasting affect?
we picked off a few more of the little guys and tried to find something bug like or tick like. we couldn't see anything and couldn't find anything on the internet that resembled these symptoms so i decided to take a shower to try and soften the skin and remove the spots. unfortunately all the scratching and scrubbing in the shower only seemed create more and more spots. had the water helped them to multiply? was i dying?
i started to form the basis of my will in my mind as we walked up to reception to ask for a doctor or hospital. they directed us to the ghana-canada hospital not far from our complex. we walked towards the junction to 'pick a taxi'. nicola managed to strike the perfect balance between alarm at my illness and cynicism over hypochondria. we found a taxi who asked for 8 to get us there, i gave him my 'i'm dying' stare and said 'can we just do 5 i need to get there is a hurry'... fortunately he obliged.
the hospital staff were really nice and professional. they took my vitals, weighed me (i have gained weight but i am pretty sure it's muscle mass) and sent nicola and i to see the doctor. we made awkward small talk before he asked examined my life threatening spots, asked me where we'd been, what we'd been doing and how i'd been feeling. he also threw in 'what are your worst fears about these spots' for good measure.
he then took cotton buds dipped in alcohol and cleaned the spots. it took a little bit of elbow grease, but they seemed to be coming off without leaving anything in/under the skin. it was a miracle. with a cotton bud and alcohol he was curing me of my life threatening disease that would land me on an episode of house. this was followed by lots of relief, bad jokes and laughter as the doctor proceeded to clean me. i sat in a chair, shirt off, with the doctor going spot by spot for 5 minutes and wiping me down. i used this time to politely (if not awkwardly) stare up at the posters on his wall. this is where i found my favorite medical poster of all time - an ad for Voltaren Retard... what a brilliant marketing campaign.
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