Anomalies of the 80s

 

 

Today I am taking us back in time to the year 1984.  I was working the summer at a resort town in Central Idaho. 

I wasn't a large person then. If I recall, I was a size 11 or 12 and I had a healthy appetite.  I had a great group of friends and one of the things we liked to do was play tourist on our days off.  

On Sundays, the hotel would serve an amazing Sunday Brunch.  We would go to brunch and enjoy the atmosphere. There was often live music played during brunch (usually a piano player or a trio of instruments would do the entertaining).  On one occasion, during what was often referred to as ‘Slack Season’ meaning the resort was not as busy and in between busy seasons, we had a surprise guest just walk up to the piano and start playing. That guest was none other than Dustin Hoffman.

I somehow managed to develop an issue with eating over that summer.  It hit me out of the blue.  I was jaundiced and felt hungry. But after only 1 bite of food, I would have a choking feeling and would end up vomiting anything I ate.  My chest hurts and I felt a rapid heartbeat.  

My parents came to collect me to get medical care. At the time, I was afraid to get my care at the local hospital because it was a tourist town and I thought it would be costly.   The doctors ran all sorts of tests on me. One even gave me an enema.  The only thing they could come up with was that I may be experiencing pleurisy.  Whenever I would have an ‘attack’ I was to sit down and relax.  

Eventually the eating issue went away (mostly). It would show up if I was eating a carb and feeling anxious about anything. 

Fast forward to 1989.  I had left the resort and then returned. 

Fun fact: I started working for a guy in 1985. It was a 2 person office. Myself and the boss. He basically hired me off the street with me having no real knowledge of the job. The girl I was replacing was being fired. When I returned to the area, my boss no longer ran his business but was now supervisor of the computer department at the local hospital. I called him to see if he knew of anyone hiring. He said he was hiring and I should come in and go through the hiring process because he wanted me to work for him again. Turns out that the girl I was replacing was the same girl I replaced at the previous job.  Long story short - I replaced the same girl twice and she was fired from 2 different jobs with the same boss. 

Back to the anomalies topic… 

My boss had left for a month long vacation out of country.  I had been spending quite a bit of time with a certain young man. 

One weekend, I wasn't feeling well. I just felt fatigued and wiped out.  I stopped in to see a friend and she said I should seek the opinion of a doctor.  It turns out that her doctor just happened to be on call for the ER that day.  So I went to the ER thinking that I just had a case of good ol' mono.  He ran a bunch of tests (including HIV/Aids because that was being tested as often as Covid gets tested these days - you'll be happy to know the test was negative).  But he wanted to keep me overnight because my platelets were low (If I remember correctly, they were at 50,000). 

Now for this next part- keep in mind I worked at this small hospital (27 beds) and I was the only computer operator - meaning I processed all the billing, the admissions, cut the checks for invoices and most importantly I cut the payroll checks. Because it was a small hospital, I knew EVERYONE that worked there and they knew me.

So the next day after spending the night, the doc comes in the room and informs me he would like to do a bone marrow test. I give my consent and next thing I know my room is filled with the entire lab department. All 9 employees. Plus the assisting nurse (who just happened to be the doc’s ex wife) and the ward clerk (the doc’s new girlfriend) who had never seen the procedure done and wanted to watch. 

The doc had me roll onto my stomach and proceeded to do the test from my left hip. After a few moments he announces he needs to do it ‘old school’ because he was having difficulty getting a sample from the hip bone. (I don’t think he was trying to say I had a fatty behind, but one never really knows!)  So now that I have mooned the entire lab department (and did I mention that I knew everyone one of them by name?), he has me get on my back and undoes the top of my hospital gown so that he can access my sternum.  So now I’ve not only mooned everyone, but flashed them as well!

The sample was successfully taken, and off ran the lab department with their sample.  The ward clerk left the room. It’s now just the doc and his ex wife standing on either side of me - and they are having a heated conversation - about who would be picking up the kids from skating lessons that afternoon. After a few moments, I simply cleared my throat to remind them that I was there.  I was discharged the next day with instructions to have labwork done weekly until my platelets increased.  A week later, as I was walking down the corridor, the ward clerk approached me and asked if I had been diagnosed with leukemia yet.  Imagine my surprise as I didn’t even know that is what they were looking for. 2 weeks later we had a fill-in pharmacist who stopped by my office and gave me suggestions on natural ways to increase my platelet count - eating iron-rich food and lots of orange juice (ascorbic acid).

My platelets came up slowly and plateaued at 125,000. It was determined that I did not have leukemia, and that I had a regular low platelet count. 

Stay tuned as next time we meet up, I’ll be talking about the 90s and the early 2000s.

Until Next time…