My name is Shittu, I am a Military Officer Serving in the Nigerian Army. Back then in 2013, I was among the shortlisted Officers that are to go for peace Keeping Mission Outside the shores of this Country. In Order To complete the selection/appointment Process, we were told to do some medical tests such as HIV, HEPATITIS and other series of test at a federal hospital/ Military Hospital.

Few hours After Our Blood Samples has been collected , we all receive our test results but the Doctor Invited me into his office due to the fact that he knew me somehow and wanted to have a one on one chat with me , I was scared and so anxious to know what the issue is , I asked him immediately that am I positive for HIV, He said NO, I became calm a bit but still a little bit restless , Not Until he told me that I was reactive to HEPATITIS B and Liver Issues, Meaning Hepatitis B was found in my blood also with some other liver issues.

I became very Sad that i had to think of Ending it all Because my Selection for the Peace keeping mission will not be confirmed and I Might even loose my job at that very Moment

Later on getting back to the Barracks, I discovered my name and some other officers names Has already been removed from the shortlisted Mission List because the hospital had forwarded the test results to them which shows am positive to Hepatitis and Other Liver issues.

I was advised to go for treatment. At this point I was convinced and worried and had sleepless night, thinking how and when I contacted the disease, because I am the kind of person who is always very Cautious of my Health and never had unprotected sex with any lady Because i have made up my mind until i get married before having it raw.

After so many Thoughts and Bad Moods , Later I realized knowing how I contacted it was not as important as getting solution to it So that i don’t get disqualified again in the future.

I never knew nothing about HEPATITIS, It was totally new to me, so i just ignored

Little did I know that a slight contact with the disease could change my life permanently?

After 5 months, I started feeling pains around the upper area of my stomach not consistently though but I felt it was just a slight ache from work. In my place of work I had reasons to always to be on the move for long hours so I assumed it was just a random pain. But that was the biggest mistake i made in my life , I regretted not going for immediate medical checkup.

About 2 Months later or thereabout of the stomach pains it started taking me up to 40 minutes to get up from the bed because of the pain around my stomach area.

I could not carry out simple activities like Fatigue (cleaning the house or even bathing ) myself because i was feeling very weak. For about a week of the reoccurring pain, it suddenly went away.

This was the first stage of hepatitis which I didn’t know about. Other symptoms were pains around my joints and loss of appetite. I could not eat solid nor liquid.

I started becoming very lean and I threw up every little thing I managed to eat or drink thinking.

After the early stages of severe pain and loss of appetite, I started vomiting and feeling fatigued even after long hours of rest.

I immediately went to a Nurse she told me it was probably food poisoning and gave me some bottles of Drugs to use. These bottles included pain relievers which I took morning, afternoon and night. I was also given gastric juice which I took morning and night.

The Drugs only worked for Two weeks, After the pains and fatigue came back almost twice more the previous times, I started to feel swellings around my legs and Stomach, It was then I began to get more scared and worried that I almost gave up about life, I had to apply for an emergency sick leave So I Came Back to Lagos, Because I was getting useless to myself and my Family.

After I have spent a Lot of Money on Drugs, My Parents came to visit me from the village, Brought some blackish medicine from the village for me to use, But all to no Avail. 

Even after this, I didn’t see any improvements.  I still continued using the Drug then later started visiting hospital.

 I started visiting the Hospital Almost Every week for more than two months with so much pains and my conditions getting more worsen, The doctor broke the news of hepatitis B and recommend an immediate operation on my liver because a large portion of it had injuries. This meant I was close to having liver cancer.