First Words
…thoughts of an anachronistic, solo pediatrician
by Glenn Feole, M.D.
"Be careful too that the reading of your story makes the melancholy
laugh and the merry laugh louder," Cervantes, Prologue to Don Quixote
Contact: ishmaelish36@gmail.com
Blog site: ishmaelish36.blogspot.com
July 10, 2014 Thursday
Chief Complaint: (written on the chart before I go in the room)
“Tachypinic”
Interesting Name:
D Mious
Anecdote:
A four year old boy was very slight and his gentle grandmother was concerned. She informed me,
“You know he was a premie. He only weighed… (she paused to think)...3 oz when he was born.”
She then told me that he only ate junk food. In particular, he loved chicken McNuggets, milk shakes, and cheeseburgers.
He looked alarmed and interrupted her. “Grandma, that’s not right.”
She cooed, “It’s not, baby?”
“I eat French fries too.”
South Carolina, December, 2007
Poetry: ...
Coup d'essai:
PART XII of XX: Migrant Health Care Journal
Dr. William Owens was calmly sitting back in the office when I returned and I related this story to him. He gave me some ‘edication’ on the subject.
First of all, pigs are the same as hogs he gently informed me to my astonishment. The farmers raise pigs to about ten or fifteen pounds, and then ship them off to “hog parlors,” where they “top ‘em off.” That is, they feed them a special mixture of corn, wheat, etc to get them to “killen weight,” which is about 180 to 250 pounds. "Can you kill a small pig?" I asked. He looked slightly incredulous. "No. But you can raise them to about 80 pounds", a “barbecue size.” He laughed. “Those hogs have made many a farmer around here a millionaire. If you have some land and if you have a good reputation, the big hog companies will loan you money to build some hog parlors. That smell might be bad,” he laughed, “but it’s the smell of money.” The hog company, he explained, supplies the entire northeastern United States. It just merged with the largest Midwestern company and is now called Landon/Prize(?). That explained the insignia I saw on the driver’s shirt at the gas station. “Those hogs were going to slaughter.”
"How many do they slaughter?" I asked, trying to be nonchalant. “At the plant in Clinton, they do 10,000 a day. At their other plant, just 30 miles away, they do 30,000 a day.” I now realized that I had entered another universe, perhaps hitting a time warp or a black hole on those country roads. It explained everything.
He then went on to explain how the hog parlors are carefully run. "Once or twice a day, they let a huge flood of water rush through the long building." It rinses all the feces out into a “hog lagoon,” those notorious, foul smelling pools that all hog parlors have. They have engineers that carefully monitor their status and level. The buildings themselves are carefully controlled for temperature, with large curtains that go up and down depending on the thermostat readings. Quite an operation. Dr. Owens does a lot of hunting and has friends who own hog parlors. He has come across many of them in his treks through the woods. He said that he would be happy to show some to me some day.
Next time we meet, he said, he’ll tell me all about turkey farms. I sat there, laughing, pen in hand, as the anecdotes poured out of him. Mark Twain…Abe Lincoln…reincarnated. All this between the occasional interesting patient who seems to wander in from the surrounding farmlands as we both sit together in a single room with two desks at the back of the office.
Favorite Musician/song:
Van Morrison, "In the Afternoon"
Haunting voice and harmonica, exquisite backup piano, one of the most tender of love songs ever.
Favorite Book/author:
Michael Connelly, Void Moon
I have re-read this many times. The main character is so appealing - spunky, filled with longing, assertive. Connelly's voice in his novels grabs you and you don't even know you are reading a novel.
Favorite Movie/DVD:
I only like a handful of Westerns, but this has it all. Wayne's last film and a poignant portrayal of
making amends and fulfilling one's life. Lauren Bacall, James Stewart, et al…many actors and actresses volunteered to do this movie, knowing that it would probably be John Wayne's last. One of my favorites
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