Page 97 - REALLY What A time Book IX

REALLY SO WHAT
What A Time

DOCTORS AND BROKEN THINGS

Vaccinations were common in those days and I had as many as
there were. Later after Jonas Salk discovered a vaccination for
Polio I would also get it. Boys usually got their vaccinations
on their arms, while girls on their leg. Usually these were small
pin pricks that grow fester, and die leaving a small scab and
later a scar. My multi vaccination, (Tetanus, Diphtheria, and
Whooping Cough) didn’t take and I was given another. The
outcome was a much larger scar.

During this time with my arm there was an outbreak of several
contagious diseases. I caught the mumps first. It was pretty
bad as I had both sides at once. I was so miserable, and
isolated from everyone except Mom. Well that was bad
enough, except lucky me, just as my cheeks deflated I caught
the measles. With red spots all over me everything itched.
All this time, over six weeks my arm was in the cast. Much,
much too long. The cast was finally taken off and I recovered
from the diseases. Of all things a week later I was wrestling
with some neighbors and broke it all over again.

This time Mom didn’t call Dr Mitchell. We’d seen a lot of him
in the last month. She piled me into the car and drove all the
way over to Maryland to Sibley Hospital. There I waited in the
hall on my mother’s lap. When the famous ‘Button Hole’ Cox
came down the corridor he greeted Mom and said. ‘Let’s take
a look at that arm.’ He took it in one hand and with the other
gave it twist and pulled. ‘Snap’ I screamed and began crying.
He said ‘Now let’s put that in a splint.’ I wasn’t keeping count,

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