Reminisces From a Hospital Bed.

(From The Nation (Kenya) - AAGM)

Byline: John Fox

Sorry, but the only place I have gone to these last few days is a hospital. Nairobi Hospital. So there were plenty of comforts to offset the pain of having what the "daktaris" here call "minor surgery."

Minor enough for me to be out of my bed and writing this in the ridiculously early hours of the morning following the trip along the long corridors to the operating theatre.

Why do they wake you up so early in hospitals? It's just one aspect of the most upsetting condition of being hospitalised - the loss of control and the loss of dignity.

Apart from being able to choose items from the daily menu chitty or from the channels of the TV, all other decisions are taken by the doctors and the nurses. What pills to take and when to take them. …