8 more days of ..... till my "procedure" ...

Say a prayer each night for my Urologist, Bodo Knudsen, M.D. .... give him good judgement and strong steady hands .... and a healing sympathetic attitude, and a tremendous knowledge of the Human Urinary system, and how it all works .... and how to fix, when it doesn't .... and, above all, how to turn BIG Kidney Stones in to little, sub microscopic ... minuscule, easy to pass ... reeeel small pieces ........... Amen.

Other than my Kidney Stones and the constant discomfort from them, which will continue until 3/3, the cord on my laptop has frayed, the battery is old and weak, so the laptop that I have used all these many years is .............. well ................ as Colonel Klink might say, "is Kaput." I am back on my wife's computer, took me almost 30 minutes to sign in, passwords were established many years ago.

I have not checked on the state of the country or the world for a few days, I really don't care. My discomfort supersedes all of that. What little sleep I get, a night, sitting on the couch, covered with three blankets .... however, every two hours .... yep, gotta go. I will not go into detail where the discomfort might be, a "private" matter, very private.

I do not do well during the day on so little sleep, I sit and stare, out the window, at the wall, or the TV. The wall and the TV are about the same, boring. Occasionally a car will go by while looking out the window, and even they are almost boring, they all look alike.

I have noticed on the news, a robbery or an escape of some kind, in a vehicle. It used to me, make, model and color. Now it is only the color, sometimes, your choice of perhaps 5 or 6 makes. "Well, gosh, I think it was a, well, it was blue of some kind, and, yeh, I remember it had tires, and it coulda been a .......... or a .......... or a ........... or a ........... or a .......... or a ............ or a .......... or a????? But, I think it was blue, dark blue, or maybe black .... I know it wasn't white."

I miss my laptop, the cord, just to plug it in is around $35 or so dollars, I refuse to pay that for a plug. It was a charger also, I guess, but that is way too much money for just a cord.

I unfortunately missed the Academy Awards last night, that's 50 or so I have missed. I think Bogart won it the last year I watched ... The African Queen .... great flick. Excuse me, I had to take a "potty" break, about every ten minutes while up and around, every two hours or less at night, while trying to sleep, sitting up in a chair, covered with blankets. One night, three house sleep, it was heavenly.

I am not a song writer, but I am in the process of composing one .... incorporating the word ..... "burning."

Fathers Day 2012

Was drinking coffee on the porch, then came the rain, now inside, back on the computer.

I have written about my Father a number of times, naturally think of him today, especially while listening to music from the 40's, memories take me back to old 319 South Brown Street in Dayton, where Dad had the home and office together. It was built for that purpose. Looking back, the office part was "off limits" to me, I think he did that on purpose so the office did not interfere with our home life. We often had friends or relatives who wanted to see "Doc" that waited for him in our living room rather than the waiting room, but those were exceptions.

His patients came by bus, or walked. I remember one little boy who had a large crock stuck on his head. His Mother brought him on the Brown Street Bus. Dad did a little checking, hit the crock with a hammer, and it came off. They got on the next bus and went home. In those days I think most neighborhoods had a doctor that took care of emergencies. I remember a couple of gunshot victims, and an assortment of other injuries that were brought or carried to his office.

Billy badger was choking on a peanut, a rap on the back and he went home. Mrs. Hess would call, complain of a certain ailment, we would tell her to take the blue pill, and she would get better. That busy office was run with the assistance of one nurse and a bookkeeper. Afternoon and evening office hours, many patients. Today it would take an army of help to run that busy an office.

Dad was an avid sports fan. I learned that in the early day of his practice, to get started and get his name around, he would go to a game, and a couple of times Mom would call and have him paged for some reason, "Doctor Dooley, please call your office."

I finally got to really know my Dad when he was in a nursing home and we had some uninterrupted time together, he was dependent on me. I used to take him breakfast on Sunday mornings. Don, at the Aladdin in Granville would fix me up with a dandy carry out and I would take it to the nursing home. We had some really great talks.

I doubt that a patient ever saw him in anything but a suit, shirt and tie, under his white smock. Doctors wore suits in those days, as did bankers, lawyers and ministers and others.

Right next to me is a table he made, glass top, with a drawer under the glass to display mementos. I have a picture of Mom and Dad, his medals from WWI and other items that have meaning for me. In the drawer is his cap from WWI.

Fathers Day best wishes to all Fathers, especially to Ralph Dean Dooley, M.D.

A beautiful reply to one of my Blogs

This is a response I got to a blog I did on my Father,  Ralph Dean Dooley, M.D. It brought me to tears, so many years, and such a nice memory. Thank  You Doctor for your reply to my blog .. notice, the writer was a Doctor, how fantastic is that.

Your dad Dr. R.Dean Dooley saved my life on February 21,1956 at Miami Valley Hospital. He had previously delivered three healthy sons to my parents but for months Mom was ill and having "female problems" that went on so long she consulted another physician who said Mom needed a hysterectomy. Since three boys were already more than she could handle; at age 28 she consented to the operation and checked into Miami Valley for surgery the following day. Dr, Dooley just so happened to be in the hospital and stopped by to see Mom and pray with her before surgery in the morning. But I was told by my aunt; who was in the hospital room; that Dr. Dooley seemed trouble and asked my Mom if he could perform and examine on her becuase he thought Mom looked ths same way when she was pregnant the other three times. Mom consented but was certain she could not be pregnant. At 11:26pm your Dad brought me into the world slightly premature but a healthy 6.15 lbs. I have always known he was my guardian angel.

I didn't get a chance to tell him in person but I know he hears me!

Thank you Dr. Dooley. You did the right thing. 

Sincerely

R. D. Dooley, M.D. - Part 1

Years ago, before my Father passed, he and I sat down and recorded some memories of his life. It is worth reading. I will periodically print some of it here. So check back often.

INTRODUCTION
As you will find out, my Father was a Doctor, and even though we had a close, nice, normal family life, being a Doctor, during my early years he was in General Practice, with home and office together, and then he went into Obstetrics, which takes even more time. I have many pleasant memories of my childhood.

Later on, after he had some health issues, he spent some time in a nursing home. Some of my most pleasant memories of him, oddly enough, were during this time.

A Doctor has people waiting on him, hand and foot. Nurses, secretaries, assistants and more, all at his call. But when he was in the nursing home, he was dependent upon me. I took him a nice breakfast every Sunday morning, visited him often during the week, and during much of this time, he was bedridden. So, we talked and talked, something that had not often happened because someone was always busy doing something.

Many of the incidents mention in this book, we talked about. Some I had heard before, but not in detail, and maybe being in a hurry, did not pay as much attention to the details.
That is when I suggested to him that he jot these things down, get them on paper, and inasmuch as I was in the printing business, I had the resources to do the typesetting, and ultimately print the book.

The first issues, was set on a pair of Freidan Justowriters, an early typesetting system, punched out on a 1” yellow tape, and then run through a reproducer, actually, old IBM typewriter type equipment. It was what we called “direct output” which meant no room for error. So, the first book had a number of errors, but still, the fifty or so first ones, went fast to family and friends.

This book, was set from a corrected copy, which had many scribbles and notes
I wanted to get recorded some of these incidents of his childhood, that would be unknown, after his passing. Thus this book. In many instances, he will refer to me, Joe, and Bud, my brother and perhaps other family members. He basically was writing this for my brother and I.

Dean Shannon Dooley and Joseph Bradford Dooley