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what & when was your first visit to Doctors that you remember ?

(88 Posts)
bunic Wed 17-Aug-11 08:21:35

My first (I think) visit was at three ,chicken pox ,thats what MUM told me in 1949.

shysal Wed 17-Aug-11 08:56:26

Measles with the complication of pneumonia when I was about 7 years old. I still can't stand anything with cherry flavouring, which reminds me of the penicillin I had to take. My mother used to embarrass me by telling everyone that I was 'chesty'. I suffered from bronchitis every winter, but fortunately grew out of my chestiness. I remember enjoying my father reading to me when I was bed-ridden. I loved the Noddy books except the scary one where he was stripped by a baddie. ( it may have been the Golly - wouldn't be allowed now!)shock

Annobel Wed 17-Aug-11 09:00:33

Whooping cough and measles in quick succession when I was five. That's what came of starting school. In those days (65 years ago), the doctor always came to us. My mum thought the surgery would be a breeding ground for germs and when TB was still a major risk, she was probably right, though she also thought the same about the public library!

jangly Wed 17-Aug-11 09:05:51

My mother was always trotting me off to the doctor's - because I was thin! hmm We always came home via the local chemist shop with a vile tasting, smelling and looking bottle of jollop. I cannot imagine what was in that stuff.

jangly Wed 17-Aug-11 09:07:52

I remember bringing the stuff home once on my own. I had it in my mother's hand knitted shopping bag and it bounced along the pavement and, of course, broke. I thought, Good! But I had to go back and get another bottle.

shysal Wed 17-Aug-11 09:24:46

We always had to take a tonic, and Virol - revolting malty sticky stuff - anyone alse remember it?
annobel yes the doctor did usually visit. I remember him picking up our new puppy which promptly weed down the front of his suit!

greenmossgiel Wed 17-Aug-11 09:58:38

I remember Virol! I quite liked that, but hated the Minadex that my mother used to force down me (after puberty for some reason, or perhaps for no reason!) It was foul, strong stuff with an orange flavour - probably an iron tonic? Yuck!
First visit to the GP I remember, was having my polio immunisation. I was horrified because the doctor had to see my bum when he gave me the injection! blush

Granny23 Wed 17-Aug-11 10:18:07

Living in a village with a distillery meant that we were all spoon fed malt (it is a by-product). No added cod liver oil though, just pure malt, delicious.

My first memory of the Doctor? I was 5 on the Friday, home from Holiday on the Saturday, Sunday split my head on a doorstep, Monday started school with bald bit and big black stiches on front of head. Doctor came to the house, threaded a big needle with black thread and sewed up my head. My father left the room suddenly and could be heard loudly throwing up in the bathroom.

Joan Wed 17-Aug-11 11:37:13

My first memory is getting a whooping cough jab when I was 3 in early 1948. I was just 3. Mum had to pay for it, I believe.

My second visit was a week or two later for the booster jab, and was much more dramatic. The moment I saw the needle I was up on a chair and trying to climb out of the window. That is as much as I remember, but Mum told me it took her and the nurse to hold me down, screaming my head off at the Doc, and yelling "You're not putting that thing in me".

But they did, of course.

artygran Wed 17-Aug-11 13:16:18

Tonsillitis when I was four (sixty years ago!) - remember the bent wood chairs in the waiting room and the hissing old fashioned gas fire. Doc had a mirror thing on his forehead and what seemed then like an enormous wooden tongue depressor (for depressing wooden tongues?). He was very posh (or seemed very posh because we were anything but!). Later sent me to have tonsils out.
I remember my mother giving me malt and cod liver oil regularly and I loved it. She also gave me something called Scotts Emulsion which had halibut oil in it and tasted foul. I gave my children malt and cod liver oil when they were young, but tried GS with it a year or so ago and he spat it out! I finished the jar myself!

Annobel Wed 17-Aug-11 16:30:59

Oh, yes, shysal, I remember Virol which I had to take after I'd had pneumonia at the age of 6. I loathed it, but rather liked Minadex. We wartime children should have been fighting fit with all the orange juice and cod-liver-oil they poured down us!

absentgrana Wed 17-Aug-11 16:47:54

Probably a polio vaccination – in my arm not my bottom – in the early 1950s. My mother used shovel cod liver oil into me every morning – no capsules in those days, just a teaspoon – and I hated it.

Gally Wed 17-Aug-11 17:30:46

Ooh yes, horrid cod liver oil off a spoon and Minadex which tasted orangey - do you remember concentrated orange juice in a small bottle with a blue top? I remember going to the Doc for stitches when I tripped over my toy wheel barrow aged about 2 and a half and split my forehead open - still have the scar to prove it! I also remember going to a dental hospital aged about 4 for an extraction and waking up sitting in a row with other kids, spitting blood out into a basin - no wonder I was frightened of the dentist from there-on sad

glammanana Wed 17-Aug-11 22:25:16

Remembering being in bed with mump's when the street party was going on for the Coronation in 1953 and not being able to have any of the cake's and
goodies that all the other kid's and grownup's where enjoying,and of going
to have x-rays at the clinic every 6mths because my auntie had the dreaded
TB and I always had to wear a liberty vest in case I got a chest infection

glammanana Wed 17-Aug-11 22:28:04

Just remembered when I had the mumps mum used to put some horrible black tar type stuff all around my neck and cover it with a bandage sort of thing
UCKY

harrigran Wed 17-Aug-11 23:07:53

Virol and Minadex, yummy, I loved them both but not the bottle marked the tonic heaven only knows what was in that but it tasted of iron filings.
I had chickenpox, measles and scarlet fever in the year I started school so hardly was there. I was left with bad ears after measles so was a regular at the doctors where the waiting room had hard wooden benches and a hissing gas fire.

Annobel Thu 18-Aug-11 08:41:28

glam, I think that black stuff might have been Iodex. My mum put it on me when I had swollen glands for some reason or other. As far as I know I have never had mumps, despite exposure to it from my sister and both DSs.

shysal Thu 18-Aug-11 08:48:56

glammanana My mother insisted on my wearing a liberty bodice to keep my chest warm - Oh the shame in the changing rooms at secondary school! To this day I refuse to wear a vest, would rather add another top layer.

gotthetshirt Thu 18-Aug-11 08:58:06

Glammanana - you have reminded me of the liberty bodice I used to have to wear with a flannelette underskirt over it! Nothing to do with doctors I know, but it just reminded me. Cold where we lived on the Lancashire moors!

goldengirl Thu 18-Aug-11 16:50:18

My first visit to the doctor that I remember was when I was 6 and cut my chin on a metal milk crate. I remember seeing blood on my dress and putting my finger to my chin and it disappeared inside - gross!!!! I screamed the place down and a sticky plaster was applied and my dad piggybacked me down to the doctor's surgery where it was stitched. Boy did it hurt! I went home and mum gave me a jiffy jelly but my jaw was so stiff I could hardly eat it. I was determined to go on a school visit to Chessington Zoo the next day though but kept my head down in the photos so you couldn't see the plaster. I wouldn't let my mum dress it. We used to go to her friend who was a nurse and I let her dress it!

I loved Virol but hated the weekly Milk of Magnesia or Syrup of Figs! I'm sure that's why I have bowel problems now!!!

Woody Thu 18-Aug-11 17:12:45

I fell out of the seat at the back of my Mum's bike!! Had to go to the doctors because the cut on my knee turned septic had to put some horrible thick brown ointment on it. There was no appointment system, you just sat on the next available chair in the queue and then the doctor put his head round the door and called "next"

glammanana Thu 18-Aug-11 17:26:31

gotthetshirt + shysal remember when the button's of your liberty bodice
used to go sticky after you had them for a while ?

Annobel Thu 18-Aug-11 18:02:19

goldengirl, you have roused some horrible memories the worst of which is syrup of figs. To this day, although everyone assures me that fresh figs are delicious, I simply cannot bring myself even to try them! Our doctor used to call prunes 'black coated workers' and I can't face them either!

harrigran Thu 18-Aug-11 22:31:53

I like prunes but the memory of Californian syrup of figs still stays fresh in the mind. Every friday night without fail, a great spoonful. I have never had constipation in my life but that never stopped my mother from dosing us. I too wonder if it re-educated the bowel to perform differently.

glammanana Thu 18-Aug-11 22:52:31

My nanna used to have us drinking the cabbage water on Sunday,it was
horrible but she would alway's make sure we drank it and then say to my
lovely mum"that will keep them regular"