My Doctors Over the Years

The first family doctor I remember was an osteopath, Dr. Reed. He was like a family friend and always came to the house to tend to whomever was sick. While he was there, he always played our piano. He saw the whole bunch of us through a bout of really bad flu, and took care of me when I had rheumatic fever. He took out my tonsils. The last time I saw him was at my cousin's wedding as he was her family's doc too. (He'd have come to mine too if I'd gotten married in L.A. He was a family friend as well as our doctor.)

Next came Dr. Hanks. He was my doc in Cambridge MD when I expected my first child. I think he might have been the only doctor in that town and was mightily revered. I waited hours for him sometimes, as it seemed he always had an emergency. He delivered my baby, and gave me this good advice, "Feed her when she's hungry."  I'd been trying to keep her on a schedule.

A Navy doc I'd never seen before delivered my second child in the Port Hueneme SeaBee base dispensary and I remember his name, "Dr. Affley," and he was from Point Mugu. I'd never seen him before or after. My newborn daughter and I both got an infection during this delivery. We moved back to L.A., and there I saw one of my classmates' father, Dr. Trotter,  whom I knew and he took care of our infection problems. Didn't charge me anything. 

We moved back to Oxnard, and my last three children were delivered by a civilian doctor, Dr. Huff. He was a tad on the crabby side and reminded me of my dad. Of course, once I had the kids, I had to take them to what had finally become a hospital on the base. Sometimes, whatever problem the kids had, and those docs didn't solve, I'd call Dr. Huff and he'd tell me what to do--usually an "old wive's remedy" and they always worked. When my last child was born at nearly 10 pounds, the doctor said, "Now that you know how to do this, I suppose you're going to quit." (He was right, I did.)

When we moved to Springville where we live now, I didn't have a doctor of my own for a while. I took the ladies I cared for to various docs--some good, some not so good. Then I got them started with Dr. Sidhu because so many providers took their individuals to him. Because we had a doctor living across the road, he came to the rescue several times for my ladies and my mom and dad. Often he came at night in his p.j's and riding his four-wheeler. I went to him as a patient until he moved away.

My mom stayed with us for a while after my dad died, and she somehow broke some bones in her back. Dr. Sidhu took care of her. He was so good with her, hubby and I started seeing him and have been with him ever since. The only drawback with him is he's popular too, so often we've had a long wait. Now, with the Covid going on, the wait has shortened as people don't really want to go to the doctor unless absolutely necessary. Besides being personable, he always remembers everything about us.

And I must mention one other doctor, Dr. Rao, who recently passed away. He was a much loved pediatrician, but I knew him as a member of our writing group. What a charming man, and funny too. We all loved him, and he will definitely be missed.

I know I've been blessed when it comes to doctors. So what about your doc?

Marilyn