TheRogueBludger

It's hard to tell, because there were so many fun things! I loved the airplane rescue with Tuffy Edgington, it was the most exciting and rewarding. He was a gold miner, he didn't check his plane well when he took off, and so he crashed shortly after. He and his 5-month pregnant wife, and an older Native Alaskan lady (she was 50... but I was 28 so she seemed old!) crashed off the Yukon. So the wife and the Native lady dragged him up a steep hill to a cabin, which was good because it was -50 degrees out, they got a fire started so it was warm. He had so many fractures and lacerations! The next morning the old lady walked 8 miles to the Swenson cabin who got on his dog sled and got up to Tanana to the hospital I was working at. Basco, the hospital boy, gathered supplies and a dog sled team and we went up the Yukon (which doesn't freeze smoothly!). Halfway there Basco fell into a crevice and we were worried he broke his leg but luckily it was just a sprain. After 6 hours on dogsled, with me holding the IV fluids between my knees to keep it from freezing, we got to the cabin. By this time there were 30 more people in the cabin because this was a big exciting event. I cleaned Tuffy's wounds and bandaged him best I could, then we cut down branches from the trees to make splints for his legs and wrists. We used a blanket and make a stretcher. We got on a rescue plane with Tuffy, me holding the IV bag and morphine drip, and made the trip to the hospital in Anchorage where he fully recovered.

What a fun experience for me!

When I was in Tanana they were stuck with me! But after I left Tanana they sent a male doctor there. But he ended up getting sick so I had to go back up there and he was not happy having me treat him! Some of the children were so used to having me that they didn't want to go to him. They believed he wasn't a doctor because he didn't wear a skirt! I thought that was funny.

When I was in medical school there was a lot of chauvanistic tendencies. In fact, when you applied to medical school the board would look at all the photos of the applicants. If they thought the woman was too pretty they would say "she'll just get married" and toss out the application. But I got in!

1. No, moved to down to Oregon 5 years ago to be closer to my daughters because my husband was too sick for me to take care of him. I never planned to leave!

2. Well, it was back in the 50s so the biggest change was with tuberculosis. I had been in Tanana for 2 years and they had come out with the INH treatment for TB. TB was rampant in Alaska at that time, all over... with infections in the lungs, brain, bones... everywhere. I had one woman, all her kids had TB. She came to the hospital with a mass in her neck. It took us 6 weeks to get cultures done but it was TB in her neck, which had gone to her kids. The CDC started INH treatments up there, and we had amazing results. It was curing people of terrible TB! It was a wonder drug. I took it too because I got a lot of blood on me from these patients. One pregnant lady said she wouldn't take it because she was pregnant and I said "hey look, I'm pregnant and I'm taking it!". It was good that our babies turned out ok! Before INH we had only Streptomycin and it wasn't as fast or as good. That was the most amazing drug!

That I'm still having to tell people the same thing... vaccinate and eat well! That surprises me!

Well, I figured early on that you have to keep the nurses happy. So everytime I went to a village or to Fairbanks, if I found any eligible men I would invite them to Tanana to the Saturday Night Dance, which was held in the nurses hall. And boy, they came and were fascinated! We had lots of fun, the nurses and me, with those boys. The head nurse was supposed to chaperone but I found I (at 28 to 30) had to take over the chaperone duties as the head nurse was sleeping with some of the men! And we would dance until 4 AM, and then I would sit on the sofa and cut all the men's hair-but all I knew was a crew cut so they would all go home with a crew cut!

Oh! And they would all come to Tanana on their planes. It was an event!

I used to go to the pot lucks with the natives in the village, and they wouldn't let me eat bear meat. According to them, if I had eaten bear meat before I was married I would never had children!

(This is her granddaughter right now... I asked my grandma if that was 4 PM or 4 AM and she looked at me and said "oh 4 AM , obviously").