One Thing I'm Glad I Didn't Do

1954

One Thing I'm Glad I Didn't Do

I moaned into my pillow when the dull pain woke me up again. I slept on a roll-away bed in the hallway between the living room and the one bedroom where my parents and brother slept. Mom must have heard me thrashing in my bed because she was already rubbing my legs with rubbing alcohol.

Equipment by Tyler  Creative Commons   www.flickr.com

Old Dr. Dauche wore a black dress, a grey bun, a stethoscope, and wire spectacles. Her wiry grey hair stuck every which way but Sunday. She told me to open my mouth wide and say, “aw”, while she pushed my tongue down with a big popsickle stick. She was frowning.

On the way home Mom was quiet. I enjoyed the city sights on the bus ride back to Oakley. That night my legs hurt worse and Mommy gave me a baby aspirin before she rubbed them. She said the poison dripping from my infected tonsils was causing my legs to ache. A few days later Mommy and Daddy took me to the hospital.

Surgery Waiting Room by Paul Swansen   Creative Commons   www.flickr.com

At the hospital I read books and colored with five other children who were also having tonsillectomies. Every thirty minutes a nurse came for the next child. I would go last because my last name was Wilcox. After the last kid left and thirty minutes passed nobody came for me. After another thirty minutes my mother asked someone what was taking so long. We found out they forgot me.

 Waiting so long I became thirsty but I still wasn't allowed to drink. The nurse finally came and walked me down a long, winding hall. My gown flapped open behind me making me cold so Mommy closed the gap with bobby pins. The people and the operating room were all in white. I climbed the step up to the white table and they told me to lie down. Somebody covered my mouth with a cup and I soon saw stars swirling from a black hole before everything went black.

Hospital Hallway  by Mike   Creative Commons   www.flickr.com

A few hours after surgery my eyes fluttered open. My throat was on fire! Mommy held out a spoon with ice chips but the coldness made my throat hurt more. My one night in the hospital seemed like a week. The food service lady offered me ice-cream but I couldn’t bare anything on my throat.

My leg aches never came back. It took longer for my throat to feel better.For some reason I was having trouble breathing through my nose. Mommy said they had to remove my adenoids and the healing process would take longer. I heard that my older cousin, Janet, had the same operation with the same doctor and she couldn’t breathe through her nose either.

Automatically, I became a mouth breather because my nasal passage stayed swollen all the time except outside in the frosty winter. Years later after I was married a blind girl asked me why I snorted so much. I didn't realize I was snorting at all.  I finally set up an appointment with a nasal doctor. Maybe scar tissue was left from the tonsillectomy but the doctor said he saw very little scar tissue. That was on a Friday so he set me up for an X-ray on Monday.

The next morning on Saturday I woke up feeling nauseous. Every time I tried to vacuum I got dizzy. I thought I had the flu. While I  rested on the couch I heard the Lord tell me in my mind to take a pregnancy test. It didn't matter I was 45 years old. I sent my hubby to Kroger’s to get one.

Actual Kroger pregnancy test showing I was pregnant.   1993

This was my second or third time to test myself in 20 yrs. so I was shaking like a leaf. When I read positive on the pregnancy test I almost fell off the toilet. My hubby said to get a true test with my gynecologist. I agreed and called Dr. Aarom and he said to come in right away that day. He did not want me to get a X-ray on Monday if I was pregnant.

My excited sister, Kim, and her daughter, Jackie, met me at the doctor’s office. We waited and when five smiling nurses lined up we knew something was up. Together they said, “Mrs. Storrie, you are going to have a baby!” We hugged and cried and laughed. I took the pregnancy test home to show my "doubting Thomas" husband. He couldn't stop smiling.

 That afternoon I happily canceled the X-ray test. I was so thankful I obeyed the Lord. The destroyer was up to no good as usual but greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. I love you, Jesus; our son is twenty now and such a blessing. Yeah, I'm still breathing through my mouth and snorting.

I'm glad God still speaks to His children today in a still small voice.

1Sam.3

1. [9] Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

Tom (Sandy), Bryce (BJ) and Kathy Storrie in 1997