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From Polio to Purpose: Navigating Life's Deadly Obstacles

• Brodda Mike • Season 2 • Episode 8

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What happens when life throws you a curveball before you even understand the game? In this deeply personal episode, I peel back the layers of my life story. Polio is an illness caused by a virus that mainly affects nerves in the spinal cord or brain stem. In its most severe form, polio can lead to a person being unable to move certain limbs, also called paralysis. It can also lead to trouble breathing and sometimes death. The disease also is called poliomyelitis. My story demonstrates that while all difficult situations aren't created equal, our response to them shapes who we become. This episode is just part one of my journey.

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Speaker 1:

Turn it up. I told you nah-ah, ah, please. No, you are worse than me. I know that you ain't saying this, but you ain't saying this. Hey, welcome to another episode of the Battlebox Podcast. And of course you know they call me Brother K and as usual, I'm here to share another exciting topic. Of course you know, on the Battlebox podcast I talk pretty much about everything, but today I just want to, you know, probably go a different route, and that is sharing another story of mine, my personal story, my journey in life. Now a lot of people know me as Baba K, but before Baba K there was Kingsley, which is the name my parents gave me when I was born. Kingsley is the name that I am known by Now.

Speaker 1:

A lot of people really don't know that I am physically challenged. I work with the aid of crutches right now. But I wasn't born physically challenged. I was born just normal, like every child was born. But then I was born during the era when polio dermic or polio was serious and at that time, because of the lack of exposure of my family, my parents were not aware, or probably they didn't take it serious to um take me for immunization, and so somehow I contacted polio and it cost me my right leg. Now I'm not saying that my right leg was amputated I still have my right leg but if you know how polio victims are, you know that if it affects any of the leg, that leg looks a little bit tinier than the other leg. In most cases it affects the leg, but in my own case it was just my right leg. My right leg is smaller, it has shrunk over time, time, and the vein is steep. I'm just taking time to create, uh, the visual, uh picture of how my right leg is, but anyway, that's a side now. So what that means is that I've had to struggle, you know, over the years, from my time as a kid growing up, I've had various struggles, various challenges, uh, and you know, for me, I think, I think those challenges kind of, you know, shaped me to the man that I am today.

Speaker 1:

But then, um, this is how my story started my mom and dad, you know, fell in love. Like every normal, uh, young man and young girl or young boy, young girl will fall in love, and my dad being, um, a man trying to provide for his family, after he found out that my mom was pregnant, he had to leave Delta State or Bendel State at that time and come to Lagos to get a job. And while he was running around trying to get a job, somehow he got a job with the SSS. Uh, nso back then, but now called, um, now called. If you hear that creak, uh, that's my neighbor opening his gate. So, um, normally I would edit it, but today I just want everything around so that I just want to. You know, I just want to feel myself and I do not want anything to distract me. So that creak you're hearing is my neighbor opening his gate and going into his apartment. But anyway, that's a side. And so my dad got a job with NSO now currently DSS and you know he started working with the DSS at that time. He got promoted while my mom was still in the village after she had given birth to me.

Speaker 1:

So a whole lot happened while my dad was in Lagos working with the DSS and my mom taking care of me together with my grandmom. And one of those days they just discovered that I couldn't walk again. You know it was like I was walking tonight and the next morning I woke up, couldn't walk. First of all my mom thought maybe I was not just ready to walk that night but she tried playing with me or tried carrying me up and they noticed that I couldn't stand and first they just thought it was nothing, but the entire day they noticed I couldn't work. At that time the polio has started kicking in. What they didn't know is that, um, over the few months and when this story was around, when I was almost a year, I think a year or going to two years, so two years as a kid I couldn't work again and my mom, I know at that time there was no phone, there was no email and most times if you write a letter you have to look for a bus or a car traveling all the way down to Lagos and send a letter through other driver. The driver would have to get to Lagos and try to locate where the person is before they could deliver the letter.

Speaker 1:

So for a very long time my dad was not in the village. He was in Lagos for like six months and then one day he came back to the village you know it was supposed to be the week of my birthday. He had bought a lot of things for me gifts and all those things bicycle and he came down from the cab that brought him all the way from the park into the compound in the village. And normally when my dad comes, if I fight him from afar, I would run to him. He would pick me up, play with me, drop me on the floor and the play continues.

Speaker 1:

But that day my dad came down from the car Some is seated far away in front of the house. I didn't stand up, I didn't move, you know, but he just felt like maybe he's tired, he doesn't really want to stress himself and as he got closer to where I was seated, he noticed that I still wasn't standing up and I'm sure at that time he was wondering what's going on with my son, how he's not getting up, what's the problem? And so by the time he got closer to where I was, he called my name, my native name. I looked at him, he picked me up, played with me and dropped me on the floor. Normally, as he dropped me on the floor, I would stand, but I fell right back on my butt and when he turned he saw my mom and my grandma sitting at one corner of the compound crying, and he was asking what's going on? Why is he not standing up? And my mom was full of tears, even my grandmother, that's my mother's own mother. My dad kept on asking and they just didn't know how to tell him that I woke up one morning and I couldn't walk again.

Speaker 1:

And that was how the journey started. They started taking me from one hospital to another hospital, one medical doctor to another medical doctor, and it just continued. That's the siren. Anytime big you know, the power comes back. You hear that siren. That's how we know that the light is back. So, like I said, this episode I'm really not going to edit anything. I just want it to be raw, as natural as possible. Everything around me needs to be part of the story that I'm telling today.

Speaker 1:

So, and the journey started. It took me from one pastor to another native doctor and everybody was conculting, everybody was praying, the doctors were treating. At the particular time, I spent almost like 6 to 7 years at Ibubi Orthopedic Hospital here in Lagos. They were looking for different ways to find a solution to the problem of my leg, but the polio had already eaten deep and there was no reversal of this problem, anyway. So at the age of five, I had already known that this is the reality and it might seem like how do you know? But that's the truth. Somehow I think I'm one of those kids at that age who really knew or who really understood life.

Speaker 1:

How that happened, I did not know, but there were a lot of things that I understood when I was very, very young, and so I'd known that this problem, I just have to accept it how it is, without you know, thinking or feeling bad. I just had to start, you know, with the help of my and now the issue was that I wasn't even working, so I was creeping on my butt now, I'm not saying creeping on my knees, I was moving with my butt on the floor. I could not walk. I'm usually stuck in one place and if I need to move I just keep moving on my butt. Now imagine a child who could not work, moving on his butt and most times I'll see kids my age playing football and because I was always fascinated by football while they're running around kicking the round letter ball, running with my butt on the floor, you know, trying to also enjoy the football game the way they are enjoying the game. And it happened went on for so many years. That was the life I knew. That was the life I couldn't avoid. But I just had to find a way to accept it and just embrace it rather than sulk over it or feel depressed. I continued In most cases, my mom would come back from the market after warning me not to go out and play football with my friends or with other kids.

Speaker 1:

But because I always love football, the moment she steps out of the house, the moment she steps out of the house, you see me creep out with my butt and I'm creeping around, running around with every other kid. You know please ignore the sound you're hearing in the background Just said it earlier that this episode is just going to be as raw as possible and as natural as possible, and it continued over the years. Most times my mom would come back and see me playing football while other kids are running around on their legs. I'm just doing the same thing with my butt on the front. My entire body is messed up. My, my, my shorts has patches all over, you know, because of the friction from just running around, being on the floor.

Speaker 1:

But I was the life that was given to me. I had no choice. But I needed to also enjoy the life because, you know, I feel like because of this situation, I shouldn't be confined to one spot or not be happy with my life. I was always happy. Now I'm sure it's experienced, because most times I see a lot of people who complain about their current situation. But the thing is, you will never know how lucky you are in your own bad situation compared to another person's bad situation. All bad situations are not the same thing. They are not. No matter how bad you think yours is, all bad situations are not the same thing. And so over the years I've learned to you know, find a way to give myself peace. I found a way to, you know, cope with every situation around me. So it continued over the years.

Speaker 1:

Now this is one thing that, um, at some point, because I could not walk, I was on the floor. My grandmother took her time to teach me. First she had to teach me how to stand on my feet again Because I was walking earlier. You remember around seven, nine months I was already walking, but then a year, and now probably almost two years, I couldn't walk again. So that means I actually walked before with my two legs. Then, until the polio finally set in, I couldn't walk again.

Speaker 1:

So now learning how to stand was a whole new thing again to me. It was a whole new experience thing again to me. It was a whole new experience and so my grandmom took her time to teach me, and it was a very painful and excruciating time of my life because my the vein in my right leg was already seriously stiff. And what I mean stiff, you know? Um, think of it this way. Um, the vein is something that expands while you are working, you're juggling, if you're jogging, if you're running to exercising that there's this flexibility the vein has. But I lost the capacity for my vein to do those things. It became very stiff, it could not expand and so somehow it looked like my right leg was shrinking because the vein became very, very stiff now. So most times when my grandmom was trying to teach me how to stand, she would massage my leg, stretch it, and the more she's stretching it it means like the vein is almost going to, you know, cut it into two and gradually I learned how to stand.

Speaker 1:

Now, standing was just the first phase and I had to learn how to gain balance while standing. That took another one year. Balance while standing that took another one year, if not two years, to learn that. When I learned that one. She has to teach me how to work again. Now, working was I wasn't going to work like every normal kid because my leg or my vein was already, you know, stiff. It means that for me to move around I would have to hurry my right leg with my right hand, holding the knee and moving around. I don't know how to paint that picture for you, but that was my situation at that time and I started moving. But when moving I'm bending over, it's almost like I'm tumbling. But then I wasn't, I was just the way I was walking. And that continued for several years until primary, nursery school, primary school. Now this was the um.

Speaker 1:

One of the most difficult times of my life was when I was in, uh, primary school. Um, don't forget, I mentioned that my dad got a job with the dss or sss at that time. After several years, something happened. He lost that job, we moved from the sss quarters and life became difficult. We moved to a smaller, face me, a facing kind of apartment, and so for us it was a new life, new life at that time. So we're living in more like a ghetto, like area, the kind of life that I and my sisters were not used to now. I had to jump a lot of other things just to thank you, you know, because I'm trying as much as possible to cover a lot of ground while telling you the story.

Speaker 1:

And so most times, um, especially when I was in primary school, you know, I attended a private nursery school at that time. Then things got bad. My dad could not afford to send us, as I and my siblings, to a private nursery school. Then we started going to public schools. So public schools meant that we could no longer go to school with school bus, meaning we had to now walk from our house down to the bus stop, take a public bus, and that was a totally different experience for us.

Speaker 1:

So, for every time I was going to school, all the kids in my area because they had never seen a child walk the way I was walking, which seemed funny to them. Yes, if I was them I think I would also laugh at me, but it seemed funny to them. So, because every time I'm walking I'm bending over, it was strange to them. So they were always singing and laughing behind me. So it's like imagine this I'm going to school as a kid, an 8-year or 10-year-old kid at that time going to school and as I'm going, we have a crowd of kids behind me, singing behind me, and they're clapping their heads, they're mocking me, and they were doing this in Yoruba language.

Speaker 1:

You hear something like the boy that has one leg, the boy that has one leg, and they're singing this behind me and it was really sad, it was demoralizing, it was heartbreaking and I couldn't do anything. And so it was so bad that anytime I wanted to go to school in the morning, as my mom would bring me out of the compound, I would peep to see if the kids were around. And once I noticed they're hanging around because they used to hang around waiting for me to come outside so that they could repeat the same song and mock me and so I would come outside, peep, and if I see them, I would tell my mom I'm not going to school. My mom would tell me you're joking, you have to go to school, you're not going to allow this thing. You see, become a discouragement for you, and somehow I will summon the courage, come out, hire my school back, bag walking the funny way I'm walking again going to school, and the chants and the songs, the mockery begins. These kids will all be behind me singing, laughing, mocking, and it was a terrible experience, terrible experience for me.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, this is just the part one of the story. The next episode is the part two and I'm just going to continue there. But don't forget, this is the Battlebox Podcast and you can follow us on all our various social media platforms and, as well you know, stream the Butterbox Podcast on all streaming platforms. Don't forget, the matter does not matter until it begins to matter Bata, bata, bata, bata, bata Box.