The Doctor's Office

Satsuma Tree - First Year's Crop

Good Saturday afternoon and come on in and watch the football games with us. We are watching Florida State beat NC State but waiting with great anticipation for Georgia (The Dawgs) to beat Univ. of Florida (The Gators). This is the site of the largest cocktail party in the South - Jacksonville, FL - so I am told. My friends say it is a grand ole party but I will take their word for it since I have not been. That is Saturday afternoon in the South - football, food and drinks.

Have you been to a doctor's office lately?  We are going twice a week to Roy's doctor and I am hearing some really interesting information about lots of patients.  The office is quite open with the receptionists located almost in the waiting room and they are very friendly and helpful.  We feel like we are greeting old friends after about a month of weekly visits and appreciate the personal care we get.  They are helpful and courteous and most attentive to the "old folks" who come in.

Recently a new patient - an elderly man - came in and was having difficulty filling out the 4 pages of information needed for new patients.  The nice young man in the office came out and sat beside him and read all the questions to him and filled out all the forms.   It was interesting to hear the answers and we had no problem hearing for the gentleman spoke loudly.

One of the questions was if he was married, single, divorced, etc.  Instead of saying "married", he said that and began the long story of telling all about this wife, her illnesses, and that she lives in a nursing home.  We then were told which nursing home and how often he visited her.  This pattern went on of brief questions and looong answers.  Then the question came, "Are you pregnant?"  This was asked with a smile and the little man smiled back and said. "I hope not." 

Everyone laughed with the gentleman except for one lady.  She was sitting there with a sour look on her face and she turned to the man and said very sternly, "You are a man you can't be pregnant."  Well, we all just looked at her and he said, "You are right but you never can tell" and we all about rolled in the floor.  She huffed and puffed and didn't  have any other comments.  That Southern Gentleman shut her up very politely and I wanted to applaud but being a Southern Lady I just thought, "Bless her heart."

This last week we had "Miss Chatty Cathy" come in.  I always have knitting with me or a book to read and don't talk a whole lot with other patients but she wanted to talk.  She breezed in and spoke to everyone in the room and we all spoke back and went back to our reading, knitting or waiting for the doctor.  All was quiet and peaceful and she looked at me and said, "Are those shoes Sketchers?"  I didn't realize she was talking to me so she called me "Dearie" and asked again at which time I looked up and then looked at my shoes. 

Now our good Southern Mama taught us not to ask people personal questions unless they were close friends so I was a little taken aback.  I didn't answer her immediately and she asked again a little louder as if I was deaf.  I finally looked at her and held back the answer I really wanted to say and said, "No, Walmart special."  She immediately began to tell me that she sure thought they were Sketchers and how much she liked them and wanted to know where, when, and how much - all questions a polite lady would not have asked a perfect stranger.  I continued knitting and politely ignored her but she impolitely asked again and I told here I didn't remember the price, when I bought them or which store. 

I thought this would end the conversation but no way.  She just kept on rattling on about this, that and the other as if I was interested or cared.  After a few minutes, I politely excused myself and retired to the restroom hoping she would be in an exam room when I returned.  I was blessed for she was gone when I returned and several looked at me with smiles and total understanding of the situation.  Bless her heart, she was surely not raised by a good, Southern Mama or she would have known not to ask a total stranger personal questions about their wardrobe in a public place.  Bless her heart.

These are just a couple of incidences I have had and I am sure there will be many more for we have several more trips to make.  People in doctor's offices are kind of like customers in a beauty salon, some of them have to talk and talk and talk and tell you details you just as soon not know. It is intersting though and you get a chuckle every now and then.

Now ya'll be careful going home and I am about ready for a good SEC football game to begin.  I have my snacks, my Diet Coke and a comfortable seat - all I need to enjoy my favorite sport.

Nuff said,

The Georgia Peach

Friday's Memories

Ya'll come on in for a hot cup of coffee. I have my coffee and my cat in my lap and ready to go. We are having a lot of sickness around here and thank goodness we have avoided it. One of my friend's little girl was so proud that she had strep, flu, and sinus infections. Her daddy only had 1 illness and she had 3. Kids are hilarious sometimes, but her mama wasn't laughing.

With all this flu, cold, sore throat and coughing, I remembered a country doctor, Dr. Dixon, who was our doctor. He lived in a really small place named Alberta, AL and his office was a small 4 room, white, wooden building in front of his home. There was a little front porch, 2 rooms on the front and a large and small room behind.

One of these small rooms was his apothecary where he mixed all his medicines. I don't remember him ever giving us a written prescription. He would take down his mortar and pestle his "magic" bottles and mix up, pour or put in a tin, and give it to us. Most people say you can't cure a cold, but he could. One of his magic elixirs would cure your cold within 2 or 3 days. Don't know what was in it, but it worked.

Every spring we always had to make a visit for we would have boils on our knees from playing under the house, crawling around on our knees (That is another posting). Now if you have never had a boil, you are lucky, fortunate and blessed. It is like a huge zit that hurts. Mama would put hot compresses on them and try to "draw" the puss out - I know it is gross - but if she couldn't succeed, we went to Dr. Dixon.

Off to his little room he went and brought out a little tin of black salve which smelled like tar. Now that may have been what was in it, but mama would start putting that stuff on us and low and behold, it would draw that stuff, the redness would go away and we were healed! Amen and hallelujah! It was almost like a miracle or voodoo and Dr. Dixon was the magician. Sort of like Harry Potter - a wizard,

The next medicine was not the one we liked for unlike a salve, it was a tonic. This magical tonic was to cleanse our systems and had lots and lots of iron. It was to cleanse, heal and make us strong! However, it tasted terrible and we hated to take it. But again, it worked and we could crawl around under the house playing with our cars and trucks and not have those horrible boils.

We loved Dr. Dixon, for he was a short, pudgy, jolly little man who always gave us a sucker, especially if had to give us shot. Once we all had sore throats, coughs, etc. and we were told we were going to see Dr. Dixon. Now my middle brother, Arvin, had an unholy fear of needles and began to beg not to go. Mama and daddy assured him shots were not involved in this trip so he hushed the racket. But, not true when he looked down our throats and saw infections in all our throats.

You can guess what came next. Out came the long, big, thick needle to inject penicillin which took forever to be injected. You tried not to cry, but that needle was huge and it took at least 5 minutes for it to get inside your body. Sam and I took our shots with only big tears trickling down our faces, but brother Arvin set up a howl during his shot and when he was handed his sucker, he threw it across the room.

Now my daddy was a calm man, but when he saw that, his blue eyes turned steely, the teeth were gritted and the mouth was awfully tight. He looked at our brother and with gritted teeth told him to get in the car. Now we knew what was coming and our long ride home took forever and not a word was said.

Our mama was usually a jolly, talkative, sweet lady, but that ride she was speechless and she kept looking a daddy with daggers in her eyes for she knew what was coming and we did too. When we got home we went straight in the house, but daddy took my brother out behind the house and he got a SPANKING. Our mama was furious and she, for the first time in my life, gave our daddy a sermon while she hugged and loved on Arvin. I kinda remember things were not lovely in our house for a few days, but mama never could stay mad with daddy for too long.

Needless to say, Arvin's, fat little bottom was sore for awhile and he got lots of special attention from mama and us for we all felt very sorry for him. After that, he NEVER threw a sucker or anything else at any adult.

Dr. Dixon was our healer, our magician, our pharmacist and our friend and I fondly remember that little man who helped raise us up.

Nuff said,

The Georgia Peach

Thursday's Memories

Good afternoon to ya'll. Come on in and have a cup of coffee with me. It has been a long day for Roy does not feel well and has slept most of the day. Picked up a "bug" I think and we didn't sleep too well last night.

As I was thinking about going to the doctor, I remembered what mama gave us when our stomach was not well. It was a concoction given to us by one of our doctors whose parents had been missionaries to Cuba long time ago. It was water she boiled to sterilize, fresh orange juice, and Karo syrup. I don't remember the amounts of each but it was somewhat watered down and we got a tablespoon at a time. It worked too! Sure wish I had the recipe but if she wrote it down I can't find it.

Dr. Moseley was our family doctor whose office was in Selma, AL and we went to him if it was serious. He was a jolly, irreverent, pudgy man whom we loved. He would sit at his desk with his cigar in his mouth and talk and talk irregardless of how many patients were waiting. I don't remember him ever being in a hurry. Once he told mama she needed to go on a diet and lose some weight. Mama just looked him in the eye and said, " Well Sam, when you go on one, I'll go on one." Needless to say, neither one lost a lot of weight. Mama could always send as good as she got.

I thought he was almost magical for he would always have half-dollars to give us if we didn't cry and that was a lot of money to kids in the olden days. He would also tell me if I would come and give him a kiss on his cheek he would take ten dollars of the bill and I would. I wonder if they really took the money off the bill, but somehow I don't think his bookkeeper would be thrilled with that suggestion. Of course if a doctor did that today he would be called a child molester and be sued. Oh for the simpler days!!

He also had a statue on his desk which fascinated us and we would examine it closely each time we visited him. It was about 10 inches tall and was a cow with a most pained expression on her face. One of the back hoofs was standing on one of her tits and the pain was showing. On the base of the statue was the saying, "And you think you've got problems!" We all three thought this was the funniest thing we had ever seen. Of course since we had cows we could just see one of ours in this sad shape. Sure wish I could find one of those statues.

Dr. Mosely was a good man who helped birth Arvin and Sam, operated on our parents, took care of all three of us children and was our friend also. His son, who we called Dr. Sam, followed in his footsteps and took care of all our ills.

Thank goodness there are still compassionate, caring doctors like the Drs. Moselys who still can take care of us through all phases of our lives. We have a Dr. Tom who is like that. Thank you for caring for us.

That's about it for today and so,
Nuff said,

The Georgia Peach