Being Sick
Today I have a cold and am losing my voice. So it seems a good time to write about staying healthy and about being sick when I was a child. I was fortunate that I never was very sick.
The first thing I remember is that we took cod liver oil every day. (Real fish oil). It was supposed to contain lots of vitamins and be good for you . Even though it sounds nasty, I liked it when I was very little. It came in a bottle and had a dropper. Mommy would squeeze the top of the dropper in the bottle till it held a few drops, and then put it over our mouths and let go so that the cod liver oil went into our mouths. When my brother was born, the doctor prescribed a different kind of cod liver oil because he was a baby. To avoid having to have two different kinds of oil, Mommy gave me the new kind too. P.U. I didn't like it at all!
I also remember that even when I didn't feel like drinking milk, I had to have 3 glasses every day because milk would make me healthy. I didn't like it very much, but now I think Mommy was right--my bones are stronger than they would have been if I hadn't drunk my milk.
One time Doctor L. came to our house because somoeone was sick. He gave us lollipops because we were good. My brother ran around with his lollipop and got it stuck in his throat. The doctor pulled it out again!
When I was 6 years old, I got scarlet fever. I didn't feel sick at all, but it is a contagious disease, so I wasn't allowed to play with anyone except Bonnie, who lived nearby and had just had scarlet fever herself. I think the health department even put a sign on our door that said "Quarantine". When I was almost well, the skin on my hands and feet started peeling off. That was something that happened after scarlet fever--it wasn't dangerous but it was icky. I missed the last week of kindergarten because of the scarlet fever.
When we first moved to our house, Dr. B., the son of the next-door neighbors was just starting his practice as a pediatrician. We became his patients. He would come to our house if we were sick. I don't think he charged very much money at all. But one time I said to him "Doctors are expensive, like plumbers". My parents were embarrassed but Dr. B. wasn't mad at me.
Sometimes when we were sick, Dr. B's mother would tell my mother what to do for us. If we had sore throats, she said we could have ice cream, and if we had stomach aches we could have Seven-Up. These were supposed to make us feel better. The trouble was that if you have a sore throat, even ice cream makes it feel worse, and if you have a tummy ache, soft drinks just make it ache more. So you were allowed to have things that you would like if you were healthy because you were sick, but because you were sick you didn't want them. What a waste!
Now children get shots so they don't get chicken pox or measles or mumps. We got sick with all of those. Chicken pox make little nasty sores all over you, and they itch a lot but you aren't allowed to scratch. We were quite miserable.
I remember having measles and feeling ok, Someetimes measles hurt people's eyes. For that reason, when you had measles, you weren't allowed to read or do any close work, and you weren't supposed to be in bright light. So, feeling good and having time off from school, you had to lie around in a dark room without anything to do. Very boring!!!
You would only get mumps once in your life. Your jaws would get VERY puffed up and hurt a lot. And then sometimes even though you had had your one-time mumps, you would get something called "swollen glands" --they weren't mumps and didn't last as long, but felt and looked just the same.
Another very bad contagious disease was called polio. People who got it sometimes couldn't walk or breathe on their own. So of course, all the mothers and fathers worried that their children would catch it. People were more likely to catch it in the summer, and our parents were afraid we might catch it at the swimming pool. So even when it was very hot they didn't want us to go swimming. When I was 9 or 10 years old, some very wonderful doctors named Dr. Salk and Dr. Sabin invented vaccinations for polio. We all got vaccinated and so did everyone else in the United States. Now everyone gets vaccinated when they are little babies, and no one has to worry about polio anymore.
Children still get strep throat and ear infections and coughs and tummy aches. But fortunately most of the bad diseases are now prevented. It is still important to wash your hands carefully when you are sick and not sneeze or cough on other people, but we can all feel happy that most of the sicknesses don't happen any more.
The first thing I remember is that we took cod liver oil every day. (Real fish oil). It was supposed to contain lots of vitamins and be good for you . Even though it sounds nasty, I liked it when I was very little. It came in a bottle and had a dropper. Mommy would squeeze the top of the dropper in the bottle till it held a few drops, and then put it over our mouths and let go so that the cod liver oil went into our mouths. When my brother was born, the doctor prescribed a different kind of cod liver oil because he was a baby. To avoid having to have two different kinds of oil, Mommy gave me the new kind too. P.U. I didn't like it at all!
I also remember that even when I didn't feel like drinking milk, I had to have 3 glasses every day because milk would make me healthy. I didn't like it very much, but now I think Mommy was right--my bones are stronger than they would have been if I hadn't drunk my milk.
One time Doctor L. came to our house because somoeone was sick. He gave us lollipops because we were good. My brother ran around with his lollipop and got it stuck in his throat. The doctor pulled it out again!
When I was 6 years old, I got scarlet fever. I didn't feel sick at all, but it is a contagious disease, so I wasn't allowed to play with anyone except Bonnie, who lived nearby and had just had scarlet fever herself. I think the health department even put a sign on our door that said "Quarantine". When I was almost well, the skin on my hands and feet started peeling off. That was something that happened after scarlet fever--it wasn't dangerous but it was icky. I missed the last week of kindergarten because of the scarlet fever.
When we first moved to our house, Dr. B., the son of the next-door neighbors was just starting his practice as a pediatrician. We became his patients. He would come to our house if we were sick. I don't think he charged very much money at all. But one time I said to him "Doctors are expensive, like plumbers". My parents were embarrassed but Dr. B. wasn't mad at me.
Sometimes when we were sick, Dr. B's mother would tell my mother what to do for us. If we had sore throats, she said we could have ice cream, and if we had stomach aches we could have Seven-Up. These were supposed to make us feel better. The trouble was that if you have a sore throat, even ice cream makes it feel worse, and if you have a tummy ache, soft drinks just make it ache more. So you were allowed to have things that you would like if you were healthy because you were sick, but because you were sick you didn't want them. What a waste!
Now children get shots so they don't get chicken pox or measles or mumps. We got sick with all of those. Chicken pox make little nasty sores all over you, and they itch a lot but you aren't allowed to scratch. We were quite miserable.
I remember having measles and feeling ok, Someetimes measles hurt people's eyes. For that reason, when you had measles, you weren't allowed to read or do any close work, and you weren't supposed to be in bright light. So, feeling good and having time off from school, you had to lie around in a dark room without anything to do. Very boring!!!
You would only get mumps once in your life. Your jaws would get VERY puffed up and hurt a lot. And then sometimes even though you had had your one-time mumps, you would get something called "swollen glands" --they weren't mumps and didn't last as long, but felt and looked just the same.
Another very bad contagious disease was called polio. People who got it sometimes couldn't walk or breathe on their own. So of course, all the mothers and fathers worried that their children would catch it. People were more likely to catch it in the summer, and our parents were afraid we might catch it at the swimming pool. So even when it was very hot they didn't want us to go swimming. When I was 9 or 10 years old, some very wonderful doctors named Dr. Salk and Dr. Sabin invented vaccinations for polio. We all got vaccinated and so did everyone else in the United States. Now everyone gets vaccinated when they are little babies, and no one has to worry about polio anymore.
Children still get strep throat and ear infections and coughs and tummy aches. But fortunately most of the bad diseases are now prevented. It is still important to wash your hands carefully when you are sick and not sneeze or cough on other people, but we can all feel happy that most of the sicknesses don't happen any more.
posted by Story Time at 6:37 PM
<< Home