Medicine Man

Reason 13: Knowledge of Medical Stuff

One thing I love about my dad is his medical background. He has been working in the medical field ever since he enlisted in the Army soooo many years ago.

Being sworn in

This has proved beneficial on many occasions. Sometimes his advice would be from the farm and sometimes it would be what you would get from the doctors office. Whichever it was, you could be sure it was good advice and following it would usually help out. Except for that time when my dad rubbed some transdermal cream on Michelle Donley's

Michelle (we met the day of her 30th birthday)

 forehead to get rid of a headache maybe...the result has been years of Michelle giving my dad a hard time about his meds because she claims instead of taking away whatever it was supposed to cure, it did something else bad, like burn her or something like that...it happened several years ago so for the details of the story you need to ask them, but that event still gets brought up every now and then when we get on the topic of medicines.
One example of his non traditional solutions came out when we would get stung by a bee. He would take the dip out of his mouth and slap it on the bee sting. Maybe it sounds gross to you, and it probably actually was, but it was also very practical since the tobacco would make the sting go away and once that went away, the tears would go as well.
Another random story I recall where his knowledge was sought after was one night real late when we lived in Kansas some neighbors we weren't great friends with but knew came over with a problem for my dad to fix. Their young daughter had gotten a splinter stuck in her foot and was screaming like her life depended on it. The splinter was not some little prickler that commonly gets stuck our fingers from time to time. This splinter was huge and in the bottom of her foot...must have hurt bad. I would guess it was a good 2 inches long at least (for a really accurate estimation you should ask my dad).
Also when most people get sick they have to go to the doctor's office, wait, get checked out, get the prescription and then finally you can go back home to start getting well again. Well not so in my house (maybe I already mentioned this) when we were sick he would do whatever tests needed to be done in the morning, throat swabs and all that, then bring back medicine for us at night. Of course there were times when he couldn't help us out at home, like Luke getting his appendix out or my broken arm, and in those cases we would go to the hospital just like everyone else, but the times when he could take care of us from home was such a blessing for everyone.

Right before I moved to Mexico, I had to get a bunch of tests and shots before I could get cleared to go. I remember on 2 occasions not having to go for followup appointments because my dad was able to do the necessary things from home.

Ask him about this photo...it is probably Donnah or some baby he delivered along the way

I love having a father who has the medical background that he has. The amount of time, money, worry, and whatever else that comes from being sick, needing a doctor and the likes that was and is saved because of his knowledge and willingness to share it can not even begin to be counted it is so much.