So, when I was in Mercy Hospital I was helped the most psychologically by other men who certainly understood my predicament. We are taught as boys (at least I was in the 1950s) to be a man by age 4 to 6 years old in regard to anything. I was just expected for example, to take a dentist pulling literally all of my front and bottom teeth out with my mouth full of blood without complaint at age 4 while my father watched the dentist pull out rotten teeth before they affected m permanent teeth.
My father encouraged me to "Buck up" without novacaine and take the pain like a man so I did as was expected of me at age 4. I didn't whimper or cry at all. I was a little man at age 4 rinsing the blood from my mouth without complaint and dealing with all my front top and bottom teeth being gone without complaint.
After all weren't my grandmothers and mother competing for my attention and affections by feeding me and incredible amount of lovely candy over the previous few years now? So, now as a young man at 4 I was paying the consequences for letting them fawn over me. I was a man taking my punishment for being spoiled by the women in my life.
And the dentist and my father and I all expected this to be exactly like it was. Because this was the 1950s. 1952 to be precise. I was 4.
This time I'm almost 67 in late April. I'm at Mercy Hospital recovering from a burst appendix and an operation upon it about 7 or 8 days after my appendix burst on Friday night the 27th of March.
So, my operation was April 4th starting at 8pm at Mercy Medical in Mt. Shasta California. I think it was now Monday or Tuesday. Remember I never have been anything but an outpatient in any hospital since I was born in 1948 in Seattle. So, if this Monday or Tuesday it is April 6th or April 7th.
The first one I met who understood me called himself a gentle Giant. His classification was UT.
When he walked in I immediately identified with him because he was 6 foot 5 inches like me. He immediately understood the predicament of a fellow "Gentle Giant" who was compassionate to people like he was. Like myself his life is based upon "helping and protecting others" and in this case being paid quite well for it likely.
He showed me the trick of putting the electric hospital bed all the way down and because of our excessive height grabbing handles on the wall behind the bed to pull myself away from the bottom bar which was always so close my feet often hung over the end and were uncomfortable. Once I learned this trick and how to operate the machinery, grab the wall handles and pull myself along towards the wall I was many times more comfortable than before staying as a patient there. He also taught me other things because of my size there in the hospital to make my stay more bearable there.
Next, a Student LVN who was a snowboarder too said he had moved north to Mt. Shasta around 2009.
His enthusiasm was catching. He loved becoming an LVN and I could see he obviously would be an A student at this and very bright. So, I didn't deny him the right to treat me as a student LVN volunteer from COS. His instructor was also part of the deal since she was a nurse with a master's degree who taught at COS LVNs.
When he wanted to remove my venting tube he wanted to help the doctor do this. However, this was quite painful so I asked if I could remove my drain tube myself and did because I could regulate my pain. Whereas when someone else did it it was going to be bad. But, when I did it myself it was still bad enough but bearable for me. My lady doctor had never seen anyone do this before. I told her I also had delivered my first two children as well; the first one being just my wife and I at home and no one else with us at all during the delivery in 1974. We had taken a Lamaze course before we delivered our son at home in 1974. I was 26 and my wife was only 21; it was her idea. I couldn't talk her out of it so I went along with her. Luckilyour son now has a degree, a B.S. in Nursing from San Bernadino State University and graduated as an member of every honors group there as well. He had so many honor cords at graduation I thought he would trip on one walking up to receive his college diploma.
He was the one my wife and I delivered by ourselves using the Lamaze technique as we were shown in class.
He will now be 41 in May and is married and teaching and has a son himself that will be 1 year old in June.
as a reference if you don't know about the Lamaze technique here is a word button about it:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamaze Cached
The Lamaze technique, often referred to simply as Lamaze, is a prepared childbirth technique popularized in the 1940s by French obstetrician Dr. Fernand Lamaze based ...
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