This archive report was first published on 13 August 2019.
August 13, 2019, marks a significant date for many Kenyans, including those who suffered from the 1998 American Embassy bombing in Nairobi. The traumatic event left a lasting impact on the nation, with tens of thousands suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
A reader's question about knee surgery anniversary coinciding with cold weather raises interesting issues about the environment's effect on health. The reader's question is a simple one, but it now raises many other considerations.
June and July are some of the coldest months in the Kenyan Highlands. Without knowing the specifics of the reader's surgery, it is possible to speculate that the cold during the month of June is the cause of additional pain to the already damaged knee. Keeping warm and doing physiotherapy might help relieve the pain.
However, the reader's question also raises the possibility of trauma experienced before, during, and after surgery. Such trauma could include great pain and possible threat to life or limbs. If there was perceived or real threat to the reader's life, then they might be experiencing some form of exacerbation of PTSD.
Many people who experienced life-threatening events, such as the 1998 American Embassy bombing, still mark the anniversary with great emotion. In addition to experiencing life-threatening events, the current diagnostic systems require that the person diagnosed with PTSD be showing certain basic symptoms of the condition.
A young man who was injured by a stray bullet during an attempted robbery at a bank where he worked as a teller is an example. He believed he would die and was able to go back to work six months after the incident. However, when time came for him to start work, he could not and his employer could not understand why he 'refused' to work.
He was sent to us for 'counselling on the subject of the merits of hard work'. On careful examination, we made a diagnosis of PTSD. He had the classical symptoms of re-experiencing the trauma, avoidance, and 'numbing' of emotions. It took three months of intensive care to treat the PTSD, and he went back to work, loved his family again, and is now well.
