GROWING UP--LAST EXPERIENCES IN THE PEDIATRIC WARD

She peeked out and saw two nurses wheeling what looked like a stretcher but it was actually a wicker basket on wheels.  It was the same height as a stretcher but the wicker basket was light tan and because of the semi-light in the hallways at night, she could see what looked like a rug wrapped in white sheets rolled up inside.  

Someone had died.   This little girl learned many things about life here in this foreign setting.  Many painful things and many mysterious things and many sweet and terrible things.  

Once she heard a child's terrible, screaming.  When she went to the hallway, a naked child ran from one of the surgical suites screaming and screaming and screaming.  A couple of interns and nurses were on the chase and trying to speak calmly.  The child was all red and her skin was blistered.  I later found out she had suffered terrible burns and they were trying to debride' the burned flesh.  I  felt shock and pain again when    Time Magazine  ran  a  cover photo of a little girl running with burns from Napalm during the Vietnam War  . My heart still beats too hard with those visions and memories of her screams in the corridor .

My  introduction  regarding the difference between males and females.  It was common for children with broken legs and arms to have their casted limbs raised on some sort of pulley to keep limbs from swelling.  Since I was well enough to go out of my room, I would go and 'socialize' with other kids.  I was 5 or 6 when I walked into a room where a little boy was yelling he had to go to the bathroom.  Usually the nurses were quick and efficient but this one time I came in as the boy called desperately.  

"Give me the urinal!"

Knowing what it is now, I think that's what he said  but I don't remember.  At any rate, I asked what it was, and he pointed "there" and it was like a tea pot with a spout thing.  He grabbed it from me and put it on his penis.  It was all such a natural need completed, I never thought anything more about it.  Just another new knowledge put away without any fan fare.  

At the age of 13 or when I was 5 feet tall, my admission was switched to the 5th floor or the adult ward.  Most of my memories here were in an adult world.  Most of my physical difficulties in my life started at age 14 with a bowel obstruction.  This is still the worst pain I ever endured until another bowel obstruction during a pregnancy.

Next blog:  LIFE AS A TEEN AGE DIABETIC.

My next blog will begin my life as A TEEN WITH DIABETES.