If you had a toothache, it had to be removed by your dentist. No medication was given to you to stop the pain. The drills they used were slow and painful. We take Novocain for granted. But back then; Novocain was still in the making. This was during the war, so doctors were rare. You brushed your teeth with tooth powder, because toothpaste wasn’t invented.If you had a toothache, it had to be removed by your dentist. No medication was given to you to stop the pain. The drills they used were slow and painful. We take Novocain for granted. But back then; Novocain was still in the making. This was during the war, so doctors were rare. You brushed your teeth with tooth powder, because toothpaste wasn’t invented. Now if we have a toothache, the dentist gives us Novocain. We don’t feel a thing. Scariest of all, we get our teeth pulled. Imagine if that was common! You would have very painful gums. Ouch!!!!
Speaking of pain…. One time my Nana fell down the stairs and broke all the bones in her foot. She didn’t get a cast; instead, her foot was wrapped in bandages. There weren’t a lot of doctors in the wartime. She got no antibiotics, seeing as they were not invented yet. No cortisone either. Just bed rest, aspirin and liquid for her. Imagine having to stay in bed for 6 weeks. I’d be bored out of my mind! An other time, Nan had to have her tonsils out. She wad such a sore throat after it, she was in the hospital for a few weeks. Unable to eat anything else, she lived on ice, Popsicles and aspirin. What a diet!
Ever heard of rheumatic fever? It’s an infection of the muscles around your heart. With limited medication, treatment for this is not an option. You have to be really careful with this infection. It leaves your heart weak and injured. If you got this and you were a kid, you had to get approved by the school nurse. If she gave you the O.K., you were in school. If not, see ya in a few weeks! Same with prickly heat. Except you had to take baths with baking soda. Anyone for a Pepsi?
You know how you dread the thick pink medicine? Well, in my Nana’s time, some of the “Dreaded” methods were; iodine, tooth pulling, shots, shots in rump, cod liver oil, and, of course, nasal spray. {Squirt. Squirt} She had to get a shot in her arm once, and she got a 102 degree temperature a sore arm. Yeesh! Basically, if you haven’t read the whole thing yet, Nana’s time or maybe it was that she lived in Pennsylvania, was and still is very different than ours. Did you ever have to take Cod liver oil? I don’t! But WE have vitamins. Lucky us!
Update: 2003/02/28 00:05:17
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