Surgery

A couple of weeks after I turned 14, in 1969, I was looking forward to going on a two-week vacation when I woke up with horrible nausea, stomach pains and also diarrhea.

When Dad (a doctor) came home for lunch, and I was not better, he asked me to take my temperature. He took a look and then asked to take the temp again rectally to determine a distal temp. After that reading, he told me that there was a good chance I had acute appendicitis and made a call to order some lab work.

Then he started calling some surgeons to find one who was available on short notice.

To make a long story short, the best surgeon he found available at the time was a renowned gynecologist, throughout Argentina and most of South America. I am sure there were other surgeons available, but Dad wanted someone he truly trusted! The doctor he chose operated on me a couple of hours later. Dad kept teasing him that the operation took much longer than necessary due to the fact that he got disoriented when he could not find the ovaries!