Broadus XI - The Doc

Not much has been said about Rana, who was our only child when we lived in Broadus. Right from the onset Rana had colic. Many nights Audrey and I took turns getting up because Rana was crying. Not just crying, ...... it was a painful cry. About the only thing that would settle her down was to pick her up, lay her head on my shoulder, and pound her on the back. The harder we pounded the more she seemed to settle down. It was like patting a dog on the head.... the harder I patted my dog's head, the more he pushed his head into. There must have been some kind of pleasure in that. So we would pound Rana on the back until she would either pass a great big stinker or puke on our shoulder. Then she would be good for a while. 

Rana was like this when we went on the kids crusades and she was like this when we moved to Broadus. She would scream with such gaseous pain that we just about cried with her. We did cry a few times.

Well, Broadus had a doctor, so we took her to the doctor. He prescribed some kind of medicine that I can't remember the name of now. But the medicine seemed to do no good. In fact Rana seemed to get worse. We, of course had no insurance and very little money. I think we had no money. A lady in our church group asked who her doctor was (I can't remember his name now) and we told her it was the local doctor. She said that we shouldn't have taken her there because he was something like the town drunk.

So we carted her off to Miles City. Asked what prescription she had, we told him. The doctor told us that that was the wrong medicine for her condition. He said that the prescription was just the opposite of what she needed. The poor kid had to pass gas and the medicine was preventing her. So the new medicine seemed to help her a whole lot more.