Doctor, No!

Miriam over at AnceStories 2: Stories of Me for My Descendants has another scary prompt this week - The Doctor!

Who was your doctor or health practitioner when you were growing up?

For pediatrics, most people in Sullivan County went to see Dr. Fried and Dr. Denman in Livingston Manor. I have memories of my vaccinations and the oral polio vaccination there. And I was absolutely floored when I was reviewing nursing homes for my mother and guess who was the chief doctor at one of them - and I don't mean a patient - Dr. Denman! He must be about 85 years old now.

How often did you go to the doctor? Every year for a check-up, or just when you were ill?

As a child I did not go to the doctor unless necessary - there were physicals and vaccinations as required for school, of course.

Did you have a lot of illnesses as a child? Or were you fairly healthy?

I was fairly healthy but plagued with many ENT (ear, nose & throat) problems. I had my tonsils out at age 10 and my ears operated on at the same time. I do remember that my brother and I had scarlet fever - this was unusual at that time since most people remember it as a disease from the 19th and early 20th centuries. I remember we were pretty sick.

Did you have any injuries (broken bones) or surgeries? Have you ever had to be hospitalized?

No injuries as a child - my brother was the accident-prone one, from broken arm, to rose bush through the palm to curtain rod into the elbow.

What specialists did you have to see?

No real specialists as a child.

Did you have to see an optometrist and/or wear glasses?

Fortunately, I did not need glasses until I was 35 and that was due to years of computer work (I am near-sighted in one eye and far-sighted in the other).

Was going to the doctor a pleasant or unpleasant experience? Share both your most unpleasant and your favorite medical memories.

It wasn't exactly pleasant but it was not dreaded like the dentist. As I got older my doctor was the same as my mother's doctor - Dr. Schiff in Liberty. He was what I call an "old timer" - very gruff, no nonsense, and he and his nurse still smoked like chimneys.

As an adult, how do your current medical experiences compared with those of your childhood?

Hah! Where do I begin? Well I have been pretty fortunate to have reached my mid-40s without much damage except for severe arthritis in both hips. Despite being accused of "shaking it" too much, the cause is years of hardcore weightlifting, running and ballroom dancing in the 1980s and 1990s. While the exercise is/was great, it has worn down my joints significantly to the point where some days I can only walk with the assistance of a cane.

Do you still see the same doctor?

I am now in Chicago and have a new doctor who is absolutely wonderful! He takes time to listen, doesn't rush me, and can often squeeze me in on the same day when I call.

What kinds of health problems are prevalent in your family? Are there any genetic diseases of which your relatives should be made aware? How have you attempted to avoid these risks or diseases?

Readers know that Alzheimer's Disease, the genetic form which comprises about 15% of all cases, runs in my family, mainly among the women on my maternal side. While I do worry about Alzheimer's Disease (and panic when I can't remember where my keys are), as I wrote here, I would welcome a test that could determine whether or not you are likely to get the disease.

Are there any doctors, surgeons, specialists, nurses or other health practitioners in your family, or in your ancestry?

The medical arts are not prevelant in my family - even going far back. I am not sure why this is the case.

Are there any stories about certain medical problems or injuries, or about interactions with medical practitioners that have been handed down through the generations?

There are many lines of "healthy stock" among my family, which means quite a bit of longevity both among men and women. And this is even among people who avoid seeing doctors at all costs. So the stories and tales are very few.

Illness Part 2: How are Things Different Now?

If you've been reading this blog, you know that I look at my research and family history a little bit differently than most. Every day when I read the news or experience something, I try to link it to my ancestors and if they ever went through the same experience or how certain issues were dealt with 50, 100 or 200 years ago. My family history really serves as a bridge between me and my current experiences and those of my ancestors.

I'm finally over my cold, but as I made dinner tonite I had some new thoughts: what are the illnesses that we look at today and say "big deal" whereas our ancestors would have looked at them and hoped for a miracle? And also, what new illnesses do we see today that our ancestors could never have imagined?

One example is strept throat. Most of us have probably had it at one time and we know the standard treatment is a throat culture and then a prescription for anti-biotics. But 100 or more years ago, there were no anti-biotics with penicillin having been discovered in 1928. If the patient was not able to overcome the infection through his or her own immune system, then scarlet fever or rheumatic fever would set in leading to congestive heart failure or kidney failure. These were common maladies of the 19th century and along with typhoid fever the cause of death for many of my ancestors.

Today we take anti-biotics for granted to the point where the excessive use has spawned "super bugs" such as MERSA which is making its way around the schools in suburban Chicago these past few weeks. My ancestors would probably see MERSA as they saw typhoid fever: something that swept into a small town every few years and ran rampant among the population. I don't mean to seem so blase about it, but 100 years ago it was probably just seen as a fact of life for some people.

Finally, this is the issue that I've been trying to deal with lately: why do so many people these days gave food allergies? It seems that many children in developed nations have peanut or some form of nut allergy but children in undeveloped countries in Africa are known not to have these types of allergies? Again, it may very well trace back to antibiotics and their overuse. One theory is that children in developed countries are not exposed to dirt and germs at an early age and thus don't have systems challenged to fight toxins so the body turns on itself and targets certain food proteins like nuts, milk or eggs. I'm not sure I necessarily believe that, but what I do know is I've never read any newspaper account from 100 years ago of someone dying of a food allergy!

One hundred years later we think we know so much about illnesses and how to treat them. But the very treatments that cure the plagues of our ancestors could very well be the ones causing new illnesses for us today.

Photo: obituary of Wilhelmina Heidenreich Austin, wife of Ira John Austin my 2nd great-granduncle, from the Lowville Journal-Republican, January 31, 1907. She died of pneumonia barely a week after Ira John's parents, Ira H. Austin and Hannah Dence Austin, both died several days apart. [Note: I have confirmed Wilhelmina's maiden name as Heidenreich even though the obituary uses Heinreich.]

Family Deaths on Same Day or Close to Each Other

Apple of Apple's Tree made a comment on yesterday's post about illness that got me to thinking: are there any instances in my family history where family deaths occurred on the same day or very close to each other? So, I worked my way back and really didn't have to go too far.

Deaths that occur in the same family on or around the same date are good indicators of either a common illness such as measles, scarlet fever, cholera, typhoid fever. Or it could be an accident such as a fire or car accident. Or it could be a broken heart.

We've often heard of a husband and wife being together for many years and then dying within a day or a week or a month of each other. I've found two instances of this in my family history that I'd like to relate.

Ira H. Austin was my 3rd great-grandfather and was born in Denmark, Lewis County, New York in 1831. He ran a saddle-shop in Lowville, New York - I know this through a copy of an advertisement for the shop, print ads that ran in the Lowville Journal-Republican in the 1870s, and the D.G. DeBeers print of Lowville from 1875 (I used the great new Historic Land Ownership and Reference Atlases, 1507-2000 database on Ancestry).

Ira Austin married Hannah Dence on July 4, 1862 in Lowville. Hannah Dence is my ancestor that links me to the Pootman/Putman line going all the way back to 1661 in New York.

Ira and Hannah were married for almost 45 years when Hannah died on January 15, 1907. Ira followed three days later on January 18, 1907. In addition, their daughter Margaret Austin was married to George H. VanDeusen at the Austin home on January 14, 1907 in what the Lowville Journal-Republican called "a quiet affair." Ira Austin's obituary states ". . . passed away . . . the day following the funeral of his life companion."

The second instance of a husband and wife dying within a short period of each other is more recent. My great grand-aunt Elizabeth McGinnes McCrickert was married to John B. McCrickert. John died on December 15, 1955 and Beth, as she was known, followed six weeks later on January 23, 1956.

I think the best way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.

Illness

While I sit here nursing a cold that started on Thursday, I was looking back through my family history and asked myself this question: were any of my ancestors affected by some of the great pandemics of the 20th century? These would include the Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1918/1919, the panic surrounding Polio in the 1950s and the AIDS crisis which began in the 1980s and still plagues us to this day.

After reviewing the data I have in hand, I have to say my family has been very fortunate. I can find no victims or people affected by these pandemics in my database of over 6,000 people. Of course, this doesn't mean there haven't been sufferers of these diseases in my family. With some maladies, especially AIDS, there is a stigma attached to the diagnosis. So very often the death certificate will read pneumonia or some other cause of death which can be directly attributed to AIDS.

This topic also got me to thinking about medical advances and the way we treat certain diseases and medical problems. One example: I had an accident back in 2001 where I fell and severed my quadricep tendon. It was actually worse than it sounds - the doctors had to put two holes in the knee and thread the tendon back through. The quadricep keeps the bottom part of the leg below the knee attached to the thigh. I will spare you the photos from the surgery.

I know that if this had happened 100 years ago, I basically would have been bed-ridden. And if there was a surgical attempt at fixing this, there were no anti-biotics to combat infection. I consider myself very lucky to live in a time where this and other medical issues can be dealt with.

One medical mystery that I am trying to deal with, and I'd love to hear from readers, concerns my great-great grandmother Bridget Farren McGinnes. I posted her picture from about 1900 in a previous post. I've come cross a photo that I date to approximately 20 years later, 1920, given the age of the young girl, Evelyn Mehl who was born in 1913. In the photo, Bridget Farren McGinnes is shown with what appears to be heavy bruising over and around her right eye. I don't think this is temporary since I can see it in later photos as well - photos from 1923 and 1925. It can't be a birth mark since it would have appeared in the 1900 photo. I am wondering if it is a burn or a result of something such as Bell's Palsy or another neurological disease?