Chapter 26

We were up at first light and getting ready for the trip home. I was starting to get a little fed up with the way my women were fussing over me, and treating me like I was an invalid. I could take just so much! Finally I went outside, to see about getting things ready to move. That's when the shit really hit the fan. They all came over and started raising hell with me, that I was going to injure myself worse.

Finally I yelled, "That's enough! I'm not some two-year-old child you can boss around. If I think I might hurt myself, I'll stop."

I could see this was a big mistake, because all four of them started tearing up. I was really starting to feel like a heel, so I pulled them all close, and cuddled them. I let them know that I still loved them, but that I was not a total invalid. I was capable of doing, and thinking, for myself.

After finally getting them settled down, I got into my medical wagon and grabbed one of the extra bottles of penicillin. I headed back towards the house.

Doc Williams met me at the door. He said that his sister Liz had breakfast almost ready, and that we should come in and wash up. I gave him the bottle of penicillin. Once more I cautioned him to use a small amount, at first, and to keep an eye on the patient for any allergic reaction.

"What kind of reaction should I watch for?" He asked.

"Well, the most common allergic reactions are going into shock, shortness of breath, stopping breathing, and/or convulsions."

He got a scared look on his face and said, "Those sound pretty serious what do I do if they have one of those reactions?"

I explained, "If they start going into shock you treat them by keeping them warm and elevating their legs just like any other shock patient. Convulsions, just make sure that they are safe and do not bite or swallowed their tongue. If they stop breathing, or their heart stops, you can perform artificial respiration and CPR."

Judging by the confused look on his face, I could tell he didn't understand much of anything I had just told him. Rather than confuse him even more I told him.

"Maybe we should wait another day before we leave. I will teach you how to do all these things."

That brought a look of relief to his face. I told him that maybe after breakfast he could round up some of the others who might be interested. I would hold a general first aid class. He got so excited that he was ready to rush off and start gathering the others, right then. I told him there would be plenty of time after breakfast to get a class going, and if we didn't get it all today, an extra day wouldn't hurt anything. It would even give me an extra day to heal.

After we finished eating Doc Williams rushed off to gather the others who might be interested in learning a little first aid. While he was gone, I had my ladies help me assemble some supplies from the medical wagon. I would need them to teach the 'students' some basic first aid, and CPR.

As soon as we finished gathering the supplies, we went into both of the wagons, to see what we could do about making them more comfortable.

At first we rigged a hammock, of a sort, to make it more comfortable for the long ride home. That didn't work. As soon as I lay down in it, it felt like I was being folded in half. This caused a lot of pain. It took both Dawn and Running Deer, to help me get out of it. We tried using two mattresses. This didn't seem to help much, either. Little Doe had the idea of trying a couple of feather mattresses, which she could get from the general store. That helped some, but I could tell it was going to be awful warm lying on feather mattresses that tended to conform all around me, as I settled into them. Once again, I had to have help getting back out and was wondering how much cushioning they would provide once we started going down the road and the mattress started settling in upon itself. This was getting very frustrating.

Finally I said, "This is becoming more of a hassle than I think it's worth. I think I'll be more comfortable riding up on the front seat most of the time. If all else fails, I can get out and walk beside the wagon. If we get an early enough start we should be able to make it before it gets dark.

While we were trying to decide all this Doc Williams returned with two older women, and one teenage girl. Next a man I had never met, showed up. Doc Williams turned to the man and introduced him as the town's barber, explaining that the barber had been known to have to sew up wounds, and set broken bones, when he (Doc Williams) wasn't available. He thought some of the training would be beneficial for him, also.

I welcomed them all. I said I would be teaching them some basic first aid. My wife Moon would be teaching them some of the uses of homeopathic medicines: such as Willow bark tea as a mild pain reliever, fever root to help bring down a fever, and other natural medicines.

We started with some of the basic first aid such as how to set a broken bone, and splint it, so it would not move. Then we went on to bandaging a wound, and applying pressure to help slow down or stop bleeding. I also showed them how to tie a tourniquet, and when to loosen the tourniquet so that the blood flow would not be cut off for too long, because the loss of circulation may cause the patient to lose that limb where the tourniquet was applied.

We worked on this for most of the rest of the morning. There were questions asked about what to do in specific cases, which I tried to answer as best I could, explaining that this was just basic first aid. For the more complicated cases, they would need more advanced training.

We broke for lunch, while the midwives questioned me on complications regarding helping with birthing a baby. I explained that while most births were straightforward, there were some (such as a breach birth) where there really wasn't much that they could do besides trying to turn the baby and making sure that the cord wasn't wrapped around its neck. There were other ways to remove the baby, such as an operation called Caesarean section, though this was a 'last resort' option.

After lunch we carried on teaching artificial respiration, which was basically breathing for the patient, if necessary. Basic treatment for shock intensified after I explained that if a patient went into shock, it could kill the patient just as easily as the wound itself. It was something to be watched for, in almost every case. The thing that shocked them the most, was teaching them how to perform CPR (cardio pulmonary resuscitation). Basically, that is restarting the heart, which is performed in conjunction with artificial respiration, to keep them breathing.

This shook them up when one of the midwives claimed it was against the Bible bringing someone back from the dead. I explained that they weren't really dead, yet. The human body could go three to five minutes without a heartbeat or breathing, before it was truly dead. Any time much more than a few minutes would cause brain damage, or death. But CPR, or artificial respiration, could help save their lives, whereas by doing nothing they would surely die.