Blog, throwback thursday

Throwback Thursday #38 – Medical Care

Maggie


Welcome back to Throwback Thursday. Lauren is hosting this week and asking about early visits to doctors and dentists!  Head over to her blog to get the details, and then join in!

This week’s prompt is: Doctors and Dentists

My post follows.

Back to answering the questions Lauren posed.

1) Where doctor/dentist appointments a regular part of your childhood?
 
We rarely went to the doctor or the dentist. Most of our care consisted of home remedies. My aunt was a nurse and she always gave us shots of some kind. We had regular doses of cod liver oil followed by a small piece of maple sugar broken off a piece that was hard as a rock.

2) Did you go for well-checks or just when you were ill or in pain?

Only if ill or in pain. Being rural we did have a rescue squad you could call for dire emergencies.

3) Were you frightened by the medical professionals? If so, were there specific reasons?

Not of doctors. All my dental visits seemed to involve pain so I was not a big fan of dentists.

4) Were your parents afraid of medical professionals?

No.

5) Was waiting in the exam room stressful to you?

Not unless I had worried myself into a tizzy thinking I had some deadly disease or illness. I was good as long as there was an unspoiled copy of Highlights magazine to read. 

6) Did your early visits result in your being afraid of needles?

No. My grandmother was a nurse and I was fascinated by her needles.

7) Does the sight of your own blood bother you?

Nope.

8) Did you ever have the need to go to an emergency room?

My parents were taking me once for a bad nosebleed, but as we pulled into town, the bleeding stopped so I never went in. I was in the hospital once as a child for some gastrointestinal thing. All I remember about it was I was high up and had to wave at my siblings on the street below. And also, they wrote on my arm with a purple pen.

9) Did your early experiences impact your current attitudes about medical care?

No. I think care was better then at least from the perspective of being able to find a doctor and see them quickly.

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22 thoughts on “Throwback Thursday #38 – Medical Care”

  1. It sounds like your youth was spent without much severe illness or injury. I agree totally that getting in to see a doc quickly nowadays almost takes an act of G-d.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. So you were like Jeff Foxworthy, with two medicines in the cabinet, aspirin and Campho-Phenique? Must be handy having an aunt who’s a nurse. I had an uncle that was always at our house when he was doing his residency, fixing up various self-inflicted maladies, One of my brothers stuck a piece of a Casper the Friendly Ghost talking doll up his nose…

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    1. My grandmother was also a nurse but her answer to everything was an enema so we kept our complaints to ourselves. The only nursing our aunt gave us was some shot in the rear. Vitamins I suppose? So many kids end up with toy parts up their nose. Yikes.

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      1. Reminds me of Alan King’s joke about the actor who suddenly drops dead in the middle of a play. One of the other actors says, “Is there a doctor in the house?” Someone in the audience shouts out “GIVE ‘IM AN ENEMA!” The actor says “but he might be dead.” The guy in the audience shouts “Couldn’t hurt!”

        I guess you had to be there…

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  4. Here are my answers, Maggie.

    1) I was taken to the dentist every six months, but only taken to the doctor if I was ill.
    (All free of charge here on the NHS.)
    2) Only if I was very ill.
    3) I was always frightened of them, as they were stern. Especially the dentist.
    4) No, but they were very deferential to them.
    5) Yes, in a dentist’s waiting room, listening to the drills!
    6) Yes, I was terrified of them. (Until I became an EMT in my twenties.)
    7) No, never has done.
    8) I was taken to one as a baby, when I had scarlet fever. Then at five years old, when I drowned in a river and was resuscitated. Then not again until I was 33, and involved in a serious car crash. I broke most of my fingers, but my first wife nearly died from a skull fracture. We were taken separately, in two ambulances. (I was an EMT in London at the time, so used to the procedures.)
    9) No, because I became an EMT, I gained a complete understanding of how it all works.

    Best wishes, Pete.

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  5. Pingback: Throwback Thursday – #38 Visits to Doctors and/or Dentists. | willowdot21

  7. Well Maggie I have had a few enemas in my time so I empathize with your sentiments about asking nurse Granny for advice.
    Health care was much better when I was a child the NHS was at it best… Nowadays not so much to be honest it’s on its knees! It’s almost impossible to see a Dr face to face these days, hospital waiting lists are legion and E.R. is a place for dire ploblems you can honestly have to wait up to 10hrs for an ambulance to arrive. Why? Because they are all ququeing up outside ER trying to get their patients even in the building let alone seen .
    Hard times agrevated by the pandemic. Keep well 💜💜

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    1. That is so sad to realize how taxed Covid has left all our health care systems. That is why it is imperative to stay as healthy as possible in hopes of not needing emergency care.

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