Misdiagnosis left me broke

Michael Maina Wanguku who suffers from multiple Scierosis condition during the interview at his home in Kahawa West. ON 11/04/2019(Jenipher Wachie, Standard)

I started having problems with my memory in 1978 when I was only five. Actions wouldn’t register in my mind. For example, being the last child, I was responsible for locking the door to our house before I went to school. When I got to school, I wouldn’t be too sure if I had actually locked the door and I would run many kilometres back home just to confirm if I had. This happened in so many other scenarios and it posed a challenge to my school work. I would forget everything the teacher taught when I sat exams and though I left most of my examination answers blank, I still managed to score a C+ in KCSE.

At the same time, I couldn’t effectively control my bladder and that coupled with my speech difficulties made my childhood very difficult. Consequently, I had self esteem issues. Treatment for whatever condition was ailing me wasn’t even an option because my family could not afford it. I dealt with my problems by finding a way to get through them in the hope that someday I could get money to get treated.