The Diary Game. My Day at the Hospital || [02-09-2026]

Hello great community. How are you all doing? Hope your day was productive.

I was sick so I said let me visit the hospital. So I get to the hospital this morning with hope in my chest and a prescription paper clutched tightly in my hand. The sun has barely risen, and I have told myself, If I come early, I’ll be done before noon.
1000071357.png

My experience from the last time I visited was terrible so I promised myself to be there before 8am. By 7:30 something, the gate was already open and people were trooping in.

The compound was quiet at first, but the silence doesn’t last. Within an hour, the benches in the waiting area was full. Mothers with babies on their backs, old men and women leaning on walking sticks, students in uniform cause it's a university teaching hospital, workers, and people like me.

1000071353.png

The first few hours go by in a blur of numbers being called. Next, The nurse’s voice is sharp, routine. I watched vthe line move slowly. Every time someone comes out of the doctor’s room with a paper, my heart lifts a little. Maybe this is my turn. But the line keeps crawling.

1000070814.jpg

By 11am, hunger starts to set in. I haven’t eaten because I think I’ll be out early. People around me were fanning themselves with folders. The fan in the corner is spinning, but it only pushes hot air around. Children were crying. Someone’s phone keeps ringing. Another person is arguing softly at the records desk about a missing file. Missing file? You will think they're joking if you've not experience it.

At 1pm, they announced a short break. My stomach drops. A break? Now?. The nurses disappeared for 30 minutes that feel like 2 hours. We sat there, shifting on hard plastic chairs, watching the clock.

When they returned, the energy in the room was changed. People were no longer hopeful. Wee were just enduring. The line moves even slower after the break.

1000070758.jpg

By 3pm, I am called in. The doctor is kind, but rushed. He looks at my file, asked two questions, signed the prescription, and that is it. I walked out thinking, finally it's drug time. But guess what? That is where the real wait begins. The pharmacy. The queue there is longer than the one at the doctor’s shade. People were standing, sitting on a long bench and some holding papers like me.

4pm comes, the announcement we all dread. We are closing in 10 minutes. If your name has not been called, please come back tomorrow. What! Like what! Just like that. After 8 hours. After sitting from morning till afternoon. After hunger, heat, and hope, I am walking out with the same prescription I came in with. No drugs?

I stepped out of the hospital gate exhausted. The sun was already going down. My body is tired, my head is heavy, and my heart is just empty. Not because I’m ungrateful for the care, but because I gave the whole day, and I leave with nothing to show for it except fatigue.

It’s a feeling I won’t forget. The waiting, the hoping, the disappointment. I keep telling myself that Oluwa will sustain me, but some days like this test that faith. Tomorrow, I have to go back again

1000071348.png

It will be me and the pharmacists tomorrow cause I must collect drugs😁.

Thank you for reading