Droozy
was thirteen years old when the doctor ordered a tonsillectomy for her. Mrs.
Abner made all arrangements to take the child to the hospital and to stay with
her throughout the ordeal. On
a Monday Droozy and her mother packed a small suitcase with such necessary items
as a nightgown, comb, toothbrush and toothpaste, as well as a pair of worn out
slippers. When it was time to leave, Mrs. Abner and her daughter got on the bus
to Steubenville, the town in which the hospital was located. Droozy was given
many reassurances by her mother that all would be well, but the girl detected
misgivings in her mother’s eyes. “The doctor will go snip, snip and then
your rotten tonsils will be out and you won’t have those horrible sore throats
any more.” Mama told her daughter about all the ice cream and soda pop she
would be getting, and Droozy smacked her lips in anticipation. The
hospital was a huge building with long corridors from which the smell of carbol
and ether could be detected. Off one of these corridors was a large room with
six children in it. The attendant led the Abners into this room. The sheets
looked snow-white on all the beds, and one little girl kept spitting up
something red into a receptacle. A very young boy was walking around in a short
white gown fastened at the back, and another little girl was listening to
stories read to her by a lady, probably her mother. Droozy
was asked to undress behind a curtain and also was given a short white linen
coat to put on. Then she was ordered to bed by the nurse. All this seemed very
strange to the girl, as she was not the least bit tired, nor were her tonsils to
be removed until the next morning. Hardly was Droozy comfortably settled in bed
when another white-robed lady appeared with a needle and some tubes and drew
some blood from her arm. A thermometer was placed in her mouth and she was asked
to hold very still. All this time her mother seemed terribly concerned with a
startled look in her eyes which When
the lights were turned off for the night, Mrs. Abner left as she had to go home
to her other two children. She promised faithfully to return the next day.
Droozy had a restless night listening to all of the unhappy sounds of the
children around her, as they moaned and groaned, sighing long sighs that never
seemed to stop. In her mind she imagined a doctor with a big scissors, reaching
into her open mouth, down her throat, cutting her two tonsils off. She even
imagined the blood spurting down her throat as she would be choking. At last
gentle sleep overtook her. In
the early hours of the morning she was awakened by a nurse who again drew blood
from her arm and took her temperature with a thermometer. She was given a pill
which made her mouth feel very dry, and her tongue almost stuck to the roof of
her mouth. The doctor in a white robe with a happy smile came in with a cheery
greeting:
“Good morning,” he said,
and patted Droozy on the arm, felt the outside of her throat, then asked her to
“open wide!” “You won’t cut them out now?” shuddered Droozy in a
parched voice. When the good doctor answered in the negative, Droozy was
relieved. Soon the child was lifted unto a stretcher by two white robed women,
and wheeled into the corridor, onto an elevator and into a large room which was
flooded with bright lights. From there she was lifted onto another table and
strapped to it so that she was unable to move her arms or legs. Droozy became
very frightened as she looked up at the ceiling into the bright lights. A
triangular piece of metal which was attached to a hose was placed over her mouth
and nose by a man clad in green. He asked her to take deep breaths and to count
to one hundred. The smell of the ether was very strong and unpleasant. Droozy
counted one, two, three, four, five, ten, struggling all the while to keep the
evil smelling air, out of her lungs. She counted with greater and greater
difficulty fearing that if she accidentally stopped without being unconscious,
the doctor would cut out her tonsils and When Droozy awoke she was
back in bed and felt very ill with a bad taste in her mouth and a sharp pain in
her throat. Next to her bed sat her mother and she was so happy to see her. She
reached out for her hand and looking up into the anxious hazel eyes of her
mother and gratefully said: “Small Mama, you are here, small Mama!” Within a week Droozy was
well again and enjoying all the attention she received from her family, but she
never forgot the welcome face of Small Mama as she was near her in the hospital. |
|