Surgery

At this time I was 54 years old. One night I had severe pains across my chest and my back. Our regular doctor, Dr. Kemezis, was on vacation. A Dr. Franklin from the next town was covering for him. We called Dr. Franklin. When he got to our place I explained everything to him; how when I had my hysterectomy, the surgeon thought he had seen gallstones. We knew for sure I had them now. The doctor talked to me and said that I should have them taken out.

I said, “I have lived with them all these years. I'm getting too old to have them taken out.”

He answered, “You are not too old. You have many years ahead of you.” He gave me a shot to stop the pain, then he called my husband and talked to him in the hall.

When Dr. Kemezis came back from his vacation, we went to see him and told him that I was ready to go for the gall bladder operation. We wanted him to make all the arrangements and we also wanted him to be at the operation. In October of 1959 I went for my gall bladder operation. My doctor said that he also wanted to have a specialist present to make sure that everything went well. We thought that was a good idea too.

I was in the hospital nine days. One morning, about four days after the operation, I had gone to the bathroom, washed myself, combed my hair and had a pretty pink bathrobe on. The heart specialist walked in. He looked me over and asked how I felt. I said I felt pretty good. “You're the doctor,” I said, “How am I supposed to feel?”

He answered and said, “I don't know if you realize what a sick girl you have been. I'm happy to see you recuperating so fast.” Well, I was surprised to hear that.

My doctor, who assisted the operation, went down to my husband and said, “Tony, I did not want to frighten you. I was afraid that the gallstones had affected Mary's liver. But, thank Goodness, even though she was full of stones, the liver is fine.”

I am very happy I had the operation. I can now eat a lot of different foods that I couldn't touch before. When I went home, everyone in the family chose certain days to come and help me get better. I stopped driving after the operation. My husband was very good to me, helping in any way possible. He was a very busy man trying to keep the business going.

After three weeks I felt much better. I cleaned my own house, cooked, washed, and even helped at the business a few hours a day. By helping with the business, I also helped myself. It was good for me to make a change and talk to people. I always had done a full day's work at the end of the day.