More Medical Matters

Later in the summer of the same year my mother had her operation for goiter. I think this condition was brought forcefully to her attention by Dr. Studebaker during one or more of the post-hospital visits to him to check on the healing of the cuts on my abdomen. Her convalescence was slower than mine and we had a “hired girl” for several months as I recall. Her name was Sigrid Anderson, she lived in with us, did pretty much everything from cooking to housework, and I suppose worked 12 to 14 hours each day. She had one day off — her boyfriend would come around late Saturday afternoon and she would return about the same time Sunday evening.

My mother also had an operation for gallstones, I think sometime during the war years. By then I was working in California so I don’t know the details, but I think the operation occurred during the summer. Anyway Vivian returned to help out during the post-operative period. Dr. Studebaker had retired by then. I don’t know who the surgeon was.

My appendicitis and my mother’s goiter operation came of course at a time of financial difficulties for the family. I really don’t know how these expenses were handled, except that the doctor’s (Studebaker’s) fees were delayed and he reduced the charges to half of his normal fees. How the hospital costs were handled I have no really good information but I have the faint recollection that my grandmother out of her own funds handled the costs of employing Sigrid Anderson — which were at the munificent level of $3/week. It is hard for me to credit that recollection but I am fairly certain it is correct.

Whereas my mother had at least four experiences in a hospital, Marold’s birth, her goiter and gall bladder operations and her final stay at the time of her death, my father had only one stay in a hospital. As in my mother’s case he died in the Lutheran hospital in Fort Dodge. My mother apparently died of a heart attack. She had just bathed and while no one was in attendance her heart just stopped. I don’t really know what my father died of. I do know that his death was preceded by a very high temperature that had he survived at the time might have made his mental capacities questionable afterward.