Another small world Iowa story

I wrote in a recent blog about being on the Cabinet of Shilling House - my 6th Floor Maple dorm floor sophomore year. Each floor had a cabinet to conduct business and social events. I served as Vice Pres (just like Biden baby - I had that doofie charm thing going). Our floor president was Pam (damn - I remembered her last name Saturday night and now it's GONE). I woke up in the wee hours with a headache, so I was pondering life again. Don't you just love aging? Now I'm trying to write about it and the last name is GONE. It will come to me, just give me time..... Winjum! There - I got it and it only took a few minutes. I'm not doing too badly today.

Pam Winjum was a serious, studious young women - a great deal like myself. Haha! I didn't know Pam very well, and I'm sure she thought my pals and I were a bunch of knuckleheads. She was right. But we were a bunch of fun-having knuckleheads! She seemed kind of like a fun-hater. I lost track of her when Sally, Jane, Vicki and I moved to our apartment at 239 Campus Avenue our Junior year.

Fast forward to 1987. Paul, Baby Amy and I had moved to Creston and I was meeting people around town - who do I come across? Pam Winjum Young is now an eye doctor married to a physician Dr. Mark Young. Dr. Young ended up being our fam physician and my ob/gyn guy. I'd already chosen the top eye doc in town, Dr. Donald Evans McKim for eye care at that point - so I didn't see her professionally. I believe she may have briefly joined our sorority, Beta Sigma Phi - the group that helped me meet most of the peeps who still claim me as a friend (I think that's the case...)today. Small world!

After I finished that whole thought process...I started thinking about doctors through the years in Creston. Like it or not, when you go to physicians and other health care professionals, you become pretty intimate with those folks! Mark Young was one - and he was a great guy. He saw me through two pregnancies - Jud and Patrick and actually was the doc who delivered Judson David, all 9 lb. 4 ounces (his 24th birthday is coming up on the 30th of this month). Mark had a great bedside manner and was a very caring person.

Patrick was breach, so had to be delivered by C-Section. When he collapsed with heart problems Mark followed up and he felt so bad that he hadn't caught anything earlier. Today's ultrasounds do catch things like hypoplastic left ventricle, but back then - nope. Mark did research to try to find out if the defect was genetic, or if the fact that he was breach could have tipped us off. But he didn't come up with anything. Paul did find out later that a cousin's baby had a similar problem, so we do think there are some genetic origins.

About that time, Mark and Pam Young announced they were moving to the Indianola area - where they were from originally. I was so very sad. You depend on doctors so much! But I'd met a new doc in town - more about him later.

When we first moved to town, Creston actually had a pediatrician! The clinic was in the old location back then - across from Jack Davis's "Corner of Savings" where my pal Linda sells marvelous campers today. Dr. Martin Meindl's (it took me until morning to come up with his last name) office was down on the end - they also gave allergy shots there. I spent lots of time hanging out in the mini waiting area reading kid's books and playing with the toys. The rooms were also set up for kids - I liked that. My kids probably picked up lots of good germs from all those previous patients! Dr. Meindl wasn't great with kids, but not bad. I was sad when he moved away - headed for Mason City I believe?

The new doc, just out of Med School when Dr. Young left town was Dr. Chuck Hoyt - a local boy. But he was no spring chicken. The son of a Creston doc, Chuck had been a pharmacist when he decided his calling was really to be a physician - so he went med school. He must have been in his mid 30's when he graduated and came home to Creston. I'm glad he did. I grew to trust and enjoy this compassionate man a great deal, as does Paul. He was the kids' doc too. He really "got" Jud, and that was important through those years when we didn't know how do deal with tantrums. We got valuable advice and he's turned out to be a well-adjusted young man thank you very much!

Creston Medical Clinic brought in a wonderful Nurse Practitioner, Sheryl Young, later. She had gone back to school to achieve this level of education and we were so glad! We could get in to see her for stuff like ear aches and sore throats. When Sheryl and husband Bob relocated to DSM, I began seeing her here!

Creston has some other good medical folks - but just like us, they're getting up there in age. Dr. Bob Kuhl, longtime surgeon took out Jud's tonsils and did both Paul and my colonoscopies. We saw Bob and wife Denise at the Rusty Duck in Dexter Saturday night when we met Bobbie and Jeff there. Dr. Jim Mansour just retired from his practice as a general practitioner in Creston. He and wife Kris are wonderful community members and I know his retirement left a lot of people in town scrambling to find another provider. He was always kind and caring when we saw him when our doc wasn't available.

Good health care is important! Although I wasn't always happy with the administration part of Creston's system. (Sometimes I felt like Nurse Ratched was in charge of the books at CMC, and the lab...). From dental to eyes to medical care, for a smaller town, Creston is very blessed in that area. All those problems solved - my meds kicked in, and I went back to sleep...