Sunday, May 2, 2021

Chapter 16- memorable illness

Tell me about your most memorable illness.

Lorraine:  I had my appendix out years ago. George didn’t think I needed it.

John: I had to have a hernia operation when I was in high school.

Marcella: I had my appendix out in college.

Arlie: Asian flu in 1966. Worst headache I’ve ever had.

Denny: I had scarlet fever at about 10 or 11 and I didn’t go back to school for a month. Later I had to wear glasses. Found out later it can cause heart problems but I seem to have a strong heart. Had a shoulder injury caused by a bully in PE class. For years I had trouble sleeping at night and if I went swimming in Puget Sound, I always paid for it later. After years of suffering, I finally had surgery. I can also remember hitting that bully in the stomach as hard as I could and he never bothered me again.

Joyce: Had the London flu in January 1973. Gave birth during the worst of it and couldn’t even hold the baby, I got up in the night to write my will as the headaches were so severe, I thought I was dying.

Dale: I underwent an esophagostomy. I had a piece of stuck steak surgically removed from my swallow pipe. Found out later when my pee was red and everyone was in a panic that I was overdosed with a preoperative muscle relaxant that was injected into me. The doctor said that occasionally marathon runners who overtax their muscles will pee with a very light brownish hue. Considering the fact that the heart is a muscle, I probably really wasn’t all that far removed from death that day. I ended up staying in the hospital for a week.

Jimmy: My lung problems, of course.

Sue S: When I had a penicillin reaction. Every day another part of my body ached. Took a week to get over it. I was swollen from top to bottom and I lost five pounds.

Lill:  Tonsillitis when I was in 4th or 5th grade. Also last winter when I was sick with a very bad flu.

Marlee: I hardly ever get sick with “throw-up” flu or a cold but one year both kids and I got violently sick when Jeff was gone at work and it was a struggle.

Cindy:  When I was 5 I got really sick and never got better for a long time. The doctor told mother to take me to the hospital. She put on my good buckle shoes and carried me to the car. I had a mean nurse who told me to drink apple juice and I refused. When I told mother later, she got mad at the nurse. They wouldn’t let me wear my underpants. We always wore underpants at my house.  The nurse suggested that my own underpants had my unknown sick germs on them and when I went into a hospital bed I needed to be free of my own germs. Mom figured clean underpants would do so she called home and told Cheryl to put my clean underpants in a bag. Mom sent dad back home to get them and I was horrified as dad had nothing to do with little girls’ underpants!  Mom told the nurse she had clean/fresh underpants for me. The old battle ax told mom I could NOT wear them as they could be covered with germs from our house. I pitched a fit you wouldn’t believe. A girl surely couldn’t get spanked in a hospital. I was right but went without underpants for the days I was there, I was horrified the whole time. I still can’t stand to be without my underpants.

Bill: I was born with a congenital defect in my left kidney. It was not until I was 13 that the doctors were able to accurately diagnose the problem. On Dec. 10, 1974, I had a major reconstructive surgery (the first of 7). It was a horrible experience and very painful. I had to wear a bag for four months and that was certainly no fun for an 8th grader. Up until 1995, I was constantly in and out of the hospital and had to wear artificial stints periodically.

Sue W: I’m still experiencing my most memorable illness – clinical depression.

Mary: The flu in 1996 when mom had to come out to my house in Port Ludlow to stay with me. I couldn’t eat for four days.


No comments:

Post a Comment