Story by Brian Swagerty
My dad was proud of the fact that he worked with the College of Pacific football team as a trainer. After his football injury, he spent some time with this trainer and picked up some helpful medical tricks. I remember a couple of instances where he got to practice directly on me. One morning, I woke up with a bad kink in my neck. After walking around with my head to one side for most of the morning, Dad said he could help. My mom was not too excited about what my dad was about to do. This neck kink was keeping me from going out and playing. My dad sat me down in a chair and stood behind me. He told me to relax. He put one hand on my chin and the other on the top of my head. He rocked my head from side to side, telling me to relax. He then quickly snapped my neck. This sent an immediate shooting sensation up into my head. He then reversed his hands and told me he had to do the other side. I told him there was no way this was going to happen and went off with my head bent to the side.
Another time Dad played doctor, was at a Thanksgiving on the dairy farm. I was walking on a fence that surrounded a Weeping Willow tree. I lost my balance and fell, hitting my chin on the top of the fence. This put a nice cut on the bottom of my chin. At the house, with all of the uncles looking on, Dad told me that it was deep enough to get stitches, but he could fix it up by cauterizing it. I knew I didn’t want stitches, so I agreed to the cauterization, not knowing what that was. I had no idea what that involved. Well, I don’t remember all of the details, but I do remember it involved matches and a knife. I probably would have done better with the stitches.
Another time Dad had a chance to practice his craft was with Donna. She had a boil on her leg that was getting pretty bothersome. Dad told Donna that she had a choice (he always liked to give us a choice when it came to his practicing medicine)…she could go to the doctor, who would surely have to give her a shot, or she could have Dad take care of it. Well Donna didn’t want a shot, so she decided to let Dad take care of it. I remember I had to hold Donna’s hands down while Dad cut open and the boil with a knife he disinfected with a match. He cleaned it out with mecurichrome and put a bandage on it. Donna has a scar on her leg to this day, but she didn’t have to get a shot.
Dad would also love to pull your baby teeth out, once they started to be loose. I remember him actually tying string to the tooth and the other end to a door that he slammed shut. I think it took a few times for it to work. I don’t know how he got me to try it more than once.
Swagerty-Aldrich Family Web Site 