The Nigerian-Nordic Girl's guide to Lady Problems-Response

Throughout the audio book The Nordic-Nogerian girl’s guide to Lady Problems we see a portrayal of our main character having to deal with inadequate doctors. There seems to be a trick to dealing with doctors. You have to stroke their ego first and make them think they came up with the idea for your illness even when you have already figured it out. I believe it’s safe to say that I felt our main character’s pain with doctors who are ready to misdiagnose you with all the confidence in the World. What I thought was provoking about her book was the title. It identifies the intersection she lays at and the different identities that make up who she is. What I liked about it was that these identities painted her experience with her doctors because it was a real life portrayal of what it’s like to experience discrimination and racism. Our main character is Nigerian but adopted in America by white people who became her family. It seems to be a part of the reason her illness is getting to her like it does. It seems that there was more than what western medicine could solve based off of a deeper spiritual disconnection she was experiencing. This was difficult for our main character to have to swallow because she wants these fibroids to be gone and one day bear children even though she is past the age considered to have children healthily. Throughout her book I was wondering why they always said it was common for black women to have more complications later on in life. And I connect that directly to not having the same generational resources and wealth the white people in America have because of their own privilege. Just by speaking about her life, she has illuminated a social scene and demographic that is struggling because of low resources for healthy food and quality hospital care.

            What became illuminated for me was the insufficiency of doctors. I personally have always believed that doctors, along with their important studies, need to take a Women’s studies class and an ethnic studies or African-American studies course. Because without these classes and without this knowledge doctors in America, who are mostly white men, will not have the perspective necessary to do an effective job. I think we truly see this with our main character. She seems to be suffering from a system of health that is not prepared to heal her properly. That sees the body in too much of a biological light than a human wellness light to be effective. The main character even has a line in the audio book where she references western medicine to be in its hay day of grey days. And I agree. I also liked how the author went into detail about the issues facing women in the health field when they are needing appointments. She breaks down the etymology of the word hystera which means womb to the variations of that word in English which apply only to women when they’re acting “crazy” especially in earlier times. The word crazy just like the word hysteria is just dismissive though, and does not even account for the actual problem that is going on.

Eventually, our main character decides to go under the knife, meaning that she will no longer be able to have children. One woman doctor tells her that women have to make the choice to have kids earlier or suffer the possible consequences of later. Another unfair thing the doctors in this piece mandated to our main character. The main character often thought of the tumors in her womb as her children, she nursed them as if she was pregnant, trying not to suffer through anything too awful as to trigger pain. But she eventually is triggered during a play of For Colored Girls…which admittedly is very poignant before deciding to go through with a surgery. I believe it’s hard to fight the healthcare system in America, especially when you find yourself at intersections that are already not given enough humanity in the first place.