Andy's Health Concerns

Most of us don't think much about our health until we don't have it.

I've been lucky with mine. I had appendicitis when I was young and I was in the hospital for about a week. I don't know exactly how old I was but I couldn't have been real young because I remember being moved by how pretty the nurse was who took care of me.

Nurses all wore those cute little nurse hats then, and I think nurses have lost something since they stopped wearing them.

It used to be easier to tell who was who in a hospital than it is now. A doctor usually wore a short white coat and walked around with a stethoscope hanging around his neck. A lot of people who aren't doctors or nurses wear stethoscopes now.

When I was young, doctors came to a sick patient at home and that doesn't happen much anymore. No matter how sick you are, you've got to get yourself to where the doctor is. I hate to give you an idea of how old I am, but when Doctor Traver came to see me at my house when I was sick when I was young, he charged $4.00 for the visit.

Margie's father was a doctor and I saw a lot of him over the years. He was an orthopedic surgeon and he replaced a lot of hips in people. I always admired him, but I never forgot the day I saw him trying to replace the lock on the kitchen door. He fumbled around with it, dropped it, lost the screws and had a terrible time getting it back together. I suppose he was better with hips. I always hoped so.

I'm always amused - or "annoyed" I guess is what I am - when I hear someone in a radio or television commercial say, "See your doctor?" or "Ask your doctor." They make it sound as though you could just pick up your telephone anytime and get your doctor. Doctors are busy. They don't want people calling them all the time asking dumb questions.

I do think doctors should be more careful about time than they are. They act as though their time is the only time that matters. Most of us who go to a doctor's office wait an hour to get in to see him or her. By the time we do get in to see them, we're really sick - we're sick of sitting there.