August 28, 1014 Thursday "Mohawk"

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

August 8, 2014  Thursday

Note left on my desk one evening by the dear cleaning woman at the clinic.

Chief Complaint: (written on the chart before I go in the room)

Chikungunya Fever  (computer diagnosis when I looked up "malaise")

Interesting Name:

       Mohawk

Anecdote:

     I could barely get a word in edgewise, and it started as soon as I sauntered into the exam room.  Robbie was two and one-half years old, sitting on the exam table with his head leisurely propped on the lap of his mother, a book in his hands.  The book had a lot of text, I noticed.  He was diminutive, had glasses on (probably from excessive reading) and his observant eyes darted around the room after first taking me in with one quick glance. Nothing missed him and nothing went without comment.  Two and one-half years old?  They are usually just starting to put two words together.  
      Here before me was a toddler Dr. Johnson or perhaps Michel de Montaigne.  I’ve often wondered what their pediatricians experienced in England and France two hundred years ago during their two year old well child exams.  Know I knew. 
       His hair was dark and stood straight up, probably from all the brain activity going on underneath.  He spewed out a running, objective commentary for his Mother, who looked straight ahead, eyes dull and at half-a-mast.  “Here comes the doctor.  Is that Dr. Feole, Mom?  Hi doctor.  Are you going to exam me?”  He started lifting up his shirt and eying my stethoscope.  “Here you go.  You can examine me here.”  He pointed to the left side of his chest.  I thought he was going to tell me which intercostal space had the best chance of hearing the mitral valve.   
     He told me all about the story he was reading, a little about the plot, throwing in a little character development here and there, all in between answering my questions about his health.  He laughed and smiled the whole time.  He had some type of bright future in front of him: lawyer, politician, maitre d’, or an auctioneer perhaps.   
        I finished and went out to order his medicine.  When I came back in, he was leaning up against the doorframe eagerly waiting for me. I don’t remember if his foot was tapping, but it should have been.  
        He smiled up at me and asked excitedly, “Is that my prescription?”  
          South Carolina, 2007

          

Coup d'essai:

"…with hunger for sauce, they took their breakfast, lunch, dinner, and supper all in one…" Don Quixote, Part I, Ch. XIX, page 148.

    One of my favorite quotes from Don Quixote, …'hunger is the best sauce'...

Poetry:

When I Meet Them, by Seals and Crofts

I want to see everybody singing, everybody laughing
Everybody happy, everybody down home
When I meet them, when I meet them. Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah

I want to see everybody holding hands, everybody groovin'
Every sun a-shinin', everybody down home
When I meet them, when I meet them. Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah

In this tiny little world, people's all we got
Have we forgotten, have we forgotten how to love, how to love?

I want to shake everybody's hand now, talk about the good times
Make each minute count and, love my brothers and sisters
When I meet them, when I meet them. Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah
When I meet them, when I meet them. Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah

Favorite Musician/song:

Seals and Crofts, "When I Meet Them"

    A message from the dear 1960's.

Favorite Book/author:

G. K. Chesterton, Autobiography

    A great writing style, of course…witty, ironic, self-deprecating…a style that I fell in love with.  I recall the opening page stating that he was born in a village in England right next to the water tower that generated the power for the area…because it took that much power to turn him into a Christian.  Ha.

Favorite Movie/DVD:

Cinderfella, Jerry Lewis

    A comic epiphany for me and still one of my favorites.  Some many scenes that are hilarious and, to me, inspirational.  He was a hero to me during my youth…my goal: to be a comedian.  (My Italian Grandfather, Luigi, was uncomprehending and speechless when I told him this.)