Waiting for the Doctor

I remember the time when there was such a thing as a "House Call".When,I or one of my brothers or sister was sick,the procedure was always the same.Mom would come into the room with a jar of petroleum jelly and her reliable rectal thermometer."Turn over and lift up" she would order and our pajama bottoms and underpants would come down together.The air felt cool on my exposed bottom.I would watch mom shake down and then smear the bulb with a blob of the white jelly.Moments later,Mom's fingers parted my buttocks and the thermometer was slowly inserted.It always felt extra cold with a high fever.My bottom tingled as we waited for the thermometer to register.Mom had a habit of "adjusting and twirling" the thermometer as she waited.When it was finally removed and read,Mom would announce "You have a fever.Stay under the covers while I call the doctor." Mom would dial the doctor."Hello doctor,Tommy has a rectal temp of 101.2-can you come over and look at him?-Thank you -I'll keep him covered up." Mom would hang up and tell me the doctor was on his way.

Once the doctor arrived,he was led upstairs to my bedroom.The doctor would put his bag down and ask my mother to "Take his temperature" and she would sit down on the bed next to me and insert the rectal thermometer once again.The doctor would question my mother this time while the thermometer was inserted,about my symptoms,bowel movements and if I was eating or not.This time the doctor bent over and removed and read the thermometer.My throat was checked and my heart listened to."He has a sore throat" the doctor would say as he prepared a penicillin shot for me.My butt would be injected and my pajamas pulled up.The doctor would ask about the "other kids" and Mom would march them in to "Get looked at".Sometimes this meant nothing more then a look at their throat.Other times it meant a rectal temp,if the child was "acting up" and probably coming down with something according to mom.The unhappy child would find themselves with a rectal thermometer up their bottom for a long three minutes"just to be on the safe side."

Makes ya wonder bout some of those doctors in them days

I remember all this....lol...everyone who was raised in the 60's feared

that house calls!

I remember doctor's house calls. We lived in a small colony where the houses were all close together. Whenever someone was ill, everyone else knew it. The parent would say "We've called the doctor". The doctor had a small blue Fiat (one of the two or three cars available in my country then).The car entering the colony, or parked in the lane was a sign that someone was surely getting an injection. That was a standard procedure. I guess the doctor figured that if the patient was ill enough for him to be called, then he may as well give an injection to prove it. Also, many older generation people firmly believed that unless the doctor gave an injection, he hadnt done his duty, and the patient would not be cured. I do believe that such a belief exists even today in some quarters. Those doctor visits generated a sense of fear and pleasure. It was not uncommon for the doctor to also visit other houses and even more often some unsuspecting kid would get called in or dragged home for an injection!

Waiting for the doctor's house call was always traumatic for me, especially as he rarely arrived before late afternoon, giving me all day to worry about it. The only thing I really feared was the inevitable penicillin shot. Every time he reached into his bag, I watched closely and was always relieved to see him fetch anything other than a syringe but my concern was in vain because I always had to roll over before the shot was prepared and, therefore, I never saw it. At last came the dread instruction to roll over, after which my bottom was bared and I had to wait that way for several minutes in apprehension while he prepared the injection. Eventually I felt the needle plunge deep into my naked cheek and then the searing burn of the serum being injected, which seemed to take an eternity.

When I was younger my temperature was taken rectally, but then at about age 10 I suddenly graduated to the oral thermometer which made me pretty happy. If the doctor was making a house call one of the other things the nurse would usually ask on the phone was about my bowel habits. It was almost a sure thing that my mom would be told to give me an enema. When the doctor arrived he would also ask about my temperature, but also if I had gotten the enema and if so what kind. My mom would provide the details as I just laid there waiting for the inevitable penicillin shot.

Oh the good old days

I am one who does remember house calls. The last one I had was when I was in college. My uncle was a surgeon and I was having symptoms reminiscent of appendicitis. He came over and did an exam. Fortunately, no appendicitis (and no penicillin either). Phew!!! When I was younger, though... I do remember a time when both my father and I were sick and we both had a visit from our respective doctors. We both got the penicillin shot and I remember watching the glass syringe being assembled and the white milky medicine being drawn into it, while I was trying to hide under the covers.

I am to young to have ever had a house call from a doctor. I would think it would be almost more erotic than going to the clinic.

I do remember doctor house calls. By the time I was 8 or 9 I had gotten past the rectal temperature stage, but certainly wasn't past the enema one. Most of the time the doctor's nurse would tell my mom to give me an enema, but even if she didn't I wound up getting one. In our house enemas were all the same, a bag of warm water and Ivory soap. By the time the doctor arrived I was most assuredly cleaned out, wearing clean pajamas or nightie, and the bed linen had been changed.

I know what you mean Colddisk.

Doctors do not do house calls any more.

The economics of their profession has kicked in - at least in my country in the big city I live in.

If a doctor has to make a house call, they are unable to look at patients in their clinic - thus losing out on their fees.

They have to earn their fee, or else they won't be able to repay their education loan they took to pay for their medical training.

So, no more house calls!

Sigh...

Yes house calls was embarassing. most of time was nude waiting just with a little cloth with water in front