TAKE TWO ASPIRIN AND A LONG, LONG DRIVE

Blog number seventy-three                                 29 Jan. 2007

One day back in late fifties, Teresa and I suffered cramps.  Something we ate, probably.  On the way to the base to see the doctor, we had to stop several times because of the severity of the cramps.  I would feel fine and then all of a sudden, this excruciating pain.  Teresa commented something about my being a sissy, that she had menstruating cramps every month and she didn't carry on like I did.

When I saw the doctor I didn't have the cramps, so he just gave me a prescriptions for "anti-cramp" medicine.  Driving away from the doctor, I had another severe attack, so we went back.  The doctor kinda looked at me and gave me a note excusing me from work.  I got the idea that this was what he thought I was after, because I obviously wasn't suffering no cramps.

Back towards the gate away from the doctor, and I got another one, so back I came.  This time the doctor said he wasn't going to mess around with it any more and was going to put me in the hospital.  Just at that moment I had an attack and doubled over, letting out a long, "uuhhhhhh."  The doctor looked up from his writing and said, "You're joking, right?"  Just then I got another attack, but was able to grunt out, "no," They put me on a moving bed - like a stretcher with wheels and took me to where I would be admitted into the hospital.  Here I got diarrhea and vomiting both at the same time.

I spent the weekend in the hospital and come Monday morning, the nurse rousted us from our beds in order to change the sheets.  This was a pleasant experience for me which I couldn't understand until many years later I happened to remember my mother making us get out of bed in order to change the sheets.  The pleasant part of this experience was being so cold and sleepy and being able to crawl into clean sheets and go back to sleep.  When the nurse did this to me, I was reverting to a pleasant experience in my childhood.
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One time we took our two month old baby to the doctor late at night - probably three in the morning because it seemed like something was wrong with him.  He stopped acting as if something was wrong with him by the time we reached the doctor and after the doctor examined him, he said, "Next time make sure he's sick before you bring him in."

I thought, "You mean take him to a doctor before we take him to a doctor?" but I didn't say that.  We woke the guy up for nothing after all.  He was entitled to be a little grumpy.