DIY History | Transcribe | Iowa Women’s Lives: Letters and Diaries | Eve Drewelowe's journals, volumes II-III, 1950s

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Eve Drewelowe's journals, volumes II-III, 1950s

Page 142

Cheerily Dr Gray came in with "Well at last we are going to have party!"
And I could do no thing but agree. "So I hear. Do you finally have the goats stomach ready that you promised me years ago?" I reminded him, "We shall be needing it this morning." The assistant slyly winked at the nurse. 
"Yes it is ready. We have been grooming it for a long time in anticipation of this event," Dr Gray made reply.
"May not I be your first case this morning, Dr Gray," I begged. 
"Oh no, we are going to take you second" The first is only a gall-bladder case and it won't take long" he promised "Anyway we have to get under way and have to get warmed up first," he joked. 
Disappointed I remonstrated, "Yes but I wanted to be first.
"We will be ready for you very soon, " I was reassured. 
A few people drifted in to wish me well. Three grains of Nembutal were administered and - I think - a hypodermic injection although I can't exactly recall. Very shortly my nurse brought a wheel-chair; I was loaded and packed against drafts. This the eventful morning of the day I was to leave for New York to attend the opening of my show, I was taken instead to seventh to the operating room. My faculties were as clear and as alert as ever they are as I was placed upon the table.
Note was taken of my skin. Then the whole abdomen was painted with iodine and then washed off with alcohol so the skin wouldn't burn. Then I was locally anethesized. First the doctor used small needles to puncture the flesh and apply anestheic, then he bored more and more deeply into these smaller needle holes with larger and still larger needles. I was completely pain cushioned. The whole abdomen was thoroughly perforated with local anesthetic to

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Cheerily Dr Gray came in with "Well at last we are going to have party!" And I could do no thing but agree. "So I hear. Do you finally have the goats stomach ready that you promised me years ago?" I reminded him, "We shall be needing it this morning." The assistant slyly winked at the nurse. "Yes it is ready. We have been grooming it for a long time in anticipation of this event," Dr Gray made reply. "May not I be your first case this morning, Dr Gray," I begged. "Oh no, we are going to take you second" The first is only a gall-bladder case and it won't take long" he promised "Anyway we have to get under way and have to get warmed up first," he joked. Disappointed I remonstrated, "Yes but I wanted to be first. "We will be ready for you very soon, " I was reassured. A few people drifted in to wish me well. Three grains of Nembutal were administered and - I think - a hypodermic injection although I can't exactly recall. Very shortly my nurse brought a wheel-chair; I was loaded and packed against drafts. This the eventful morning of the day I was to leave for New York to attend the opening of my show, I was taken instead to seventh to the operating room. My faculties were as clear and as alert as ever they are as I was placed upon the table. Note was taken of my skin. Then the whole abdomen was painted with iodine and then washed off with alcohol so the skin wouldn't burn. Then I was locally anethesized. First the doctor used small needles to puncture the flesh and apply anestheic, then he bored more and more deeply into these smaller needle holes with larger and still larger needles. I was completely pain cushioned. The whole abdomen was thoroughly perforated with local anesthetic to