My Medical Career

From: Colleen Stout <colleenestout@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 3:14 PM
Subject: Colleen's personal history
To: Colleen Stout <colleenestout@gmail.com>

 MY MEDICAL CAREER 

It was not my idea to go into medicine, but this is how it worked:

I was16 years old, living in California, I just graduated from San Pedro High School, and was working at my folk's Flower shop. World War 2 was still on, although Germany had just been defeated a month before this. 

One day my Bishop called me with an offer for a job. Dr. Harold L. Snow was also our friend and doctor. (Dr. Snow was an EENT and FACS.) We had other help at the Floral, and business was a little slow too. I talked with my parents, and they could see it might work, at least on a part time basis. 

Since it was hard to get good medical help during the war, as most nurses and many doctors were called on to serve the military. That is why Owen Stout, my future husband, had been working at two different hospitals in Salt Lake City. 

I showed up at work at a clinic on 9th St. , wondering what Dr. Snow had in mind for me to do-- clean, organize, or answer phones?  It soon became evident that it was none of those- primarily. I was to be put in charge of the Lab, and do blood work!

Dr. Snow gave me some  technical books to read, and I was to stay there and read them. I did, and reported back.Then he told me to read them again and take notes. I did that. Then he introduced me to the lab, the microscope, and centrifuge,chemicals, and outlines to be followed.

Then he showed me how to prick fingers and draw blood in pipettes, and make smears, counting the blood cells. I had learned how each blood cell looked under the microscope. Then I filled out squares or notes on what I had seen. I learned to count a representative number of cells. 

 After a couple of days, I had my first patient and pricked his finger. I was a lab technician--  I guess:)

When I wasn't doing that, I gave simple hearing tests with an audio meter, made swabs or cotton packs,made up beds, and anything else that they needed me to do. 

I worked with two nurses and one dietitian, and the Doctor himself.

I tried to pay attention and do my best to learn and do my job well. Dr Snow gave me other work too, like stool specimens to label and mail, and also help with the Dietitian, who worked part time. 

When I was not at the clinic, I was making sprays, bouquets, corsages and arrangements at the Floral shop.

I was finally earning real money too, $45.00 a month!! To me, that  was lot, as I only earned 5.00 a week at the family Floral.

Dr. Snow hired a man from NYC to come and do more technical blood work etc.. An arrogant, short Jewish fellow arrived, and he immediately resented me. He was a professional, and did not like me doing work there. That was  OK, so I set out to befriend him. It did take awhile, but I let him take the lead and show me what he knew. I learned some more. I don't know how long he stayed, as I left first and went away to college.

I never went back after college and marriage, but I was always grateful for what I had learned. Actually, Dr. Snow wanted me to come and bring my new baby and work there, but it was too hard. I especially enjoyed learning about diet, wholesome foods and an introduction to Yogurt-- for the first time. I made my own for years. 

Not only that, but Owen and I had a lot in common, and we had a great time talking medicine, and his duties, which were short of amazing the more I  think about it. He  too was called to do some very important things as the SL County Hospital or LDS Hospital. We all look back at the era of WW2 with awe at what we did then. It was a growing time for all of us, and we were old for our ages. 

Over the years Dr. Snow commented on how intelligent I was, and how I did so well. We all can do what we have to-- and grow with the experience.  We just need the challenge, and faith. 

 Colleen Engh Stout-- now age 87 

  

The Country Mouse and the City Mouse

In the children's story, there once was a City Mouse and a Country Mouse. 

  Once upon a time, there was a City Mouse. Her name was Teeny and she was not a mouse, but a 4 year old girl. She was so City that she lived on cement and asphalt. Not really lived, but she did spend a lot of time in that big place called Salt Lake City

-- because it was near a big Salt Lake, too salty to drink, but salty enough to float in.

Teeny would ride her tricycle around the sidewalks and visit the stores that lined them.  She wore a coverall with a logo, or name, on the back of it. It said " Wingfoot," so of course she was also called Wingfoot. It was a sign of the Goodyear Tire Co. which was across the street from her father's gas station. Mostly she was called Teeny. 

 There were no other houses around there in the city,and no friends. She had her armful of dolls and stuffed animals, but no friends! What to do? Teeny, or Wingfoot, had a make believe friend though, which she named Margaret Jean. 

They played together often. 

 One day, Teeny's father decided to plant some flowers around the curb of his gas station so that it would look pretty.

It did. In fact it looked  so pretty that Teeny thought that some of those flowers would be a nice gift for her mother. 

 As  she was picking the flowers, she noticed that they seemed to stick to the dirt. She tugged and tugged and pulled them up! Teeny shook off the dirt and took them in the house and put them in a bottle of water-- like she had seen her mother do. She was so happy that she had done a good deed, and would make her mama happy. 

 Later that day, Teeny's daddy saw her out on her tricycle and asked her if she knew who pulled up his beautiful flowers? Oh yes, she said, it was Margaret Jean. Seeing the look on his face had somehow warned her that maybe it had not been such a good idea. Margaret Jean had been known to be a trouble maker, or at least she could be naughty.

  "Well' said her daddy, " would you please tell Margaret Jean that she did something very bad, and she should never do that again?"  Teeny was only too happy to tell him that she would give the message to her naughty friend. 

 Teen was sorry for what her friend had done, and she felt bad. She decided that Margaret Jean would have to go, as she was a bad influence.

 

 Teeny never played with  Margaret Jean again. She didn't need to, because now she had a new friend-- Kathleen! She was a very nice girl, and always  tried to do what was right.

 Remember, always tell the truth, even if it gets your friends in trouble. 

 The End

She was a paranoid cat

Homeless, penniless and afraid of the law. You might say she was catatonic. I guess she did the best she could under the circumstances.

  Apparently she had been abandoned after an abusive relationship. and had taken to the streets. Who knows what a sordid life she lived, alone and unwanted. I guess she could have been even beautiful once, but time had ravaged her appearance. 

Cat-- we called her, scrounged for garbage and lived in the shadows.

 We had tried to encourage her to  " come out" but she would have none of our pleading. Mostly she hid under an assumed name ( we did not know her real one, and Kitty did not fit her). 

 If we left food for her, she would not touch it until we left, and we assumed she had been given old mice at one time, and she had her scruples.

 Time went on, and we thought she had moved on to easier pickings with shady characters, but one day we spied her on the roof of the house. Actually it was under the roof in a cranny there. We were not about to entice her down. She figured she had moved up in the world, and who were we to deny her?

One day Martha, or was it Andrea, Kari, or  maybe Janna, came to me with the disturbing news that they heard noises in the wall of the stairs. They said it sounded like kittens

mewing. Oh my! What to do? I listened too, and they were right. How did kittens get in a wall, and how could we get them out? We could not bear to let them die in there. 

 Throwing caution to the  winds, or ignoring repercussions, I got a crowbar from the garage, and along with knives and hammers, I managed to pry the knotty- pine boards from the stair wall. We got a flashlight and looked down between the studs,and about three or so feet down at the bottom, were several tiny kittens!! 

 How to get them out without injury was a big problem.  Finally I threw away the rest of the " caution," and got on my hands and knees in the bathroom, on the reverse side, and knocked a hole in the plaster!

The kittens were saved!!

 That old biddy of a cat, had produced the sweetest, cutest kittens. We cared for them and they grew into nice cats. 

 Somehow the new born kittens had fallen from the rafters and landed in the house-- or the wall of the house. As for Cat, we never saw her again.

 Maybe Cat had repaid us for her temporary lodging.

 You never know about cats--  and repentance, and forgiveness.

Scary "DownUnder"

   Matt and Mike were very nice brothers who lived down under. Under the house. We will call it a basement.  They were quiet, and put up with a lot. When they came up, they liked to eat cinnamon toast. 

Then they would go to school…
They studied hard and loved to read difficult books. 

 One day, Mike said  (in his quiet voice) " I think that there is someone, or something, down under" " Under where" I said?(not underwear)   

" How can you tell? " I said. Mike said he heard spooky noises at night, and then swishing noises, and scurrying noises too. He said he tried to find out who was there, but he could not do it---because he had to study. 

 Mike and Matt were so brave. They kept hearing the noises.  They put up with a lot!

 One night they got braver and went in the food storage room, just in time to see someone leave!! Then they saw something that really alarmed them-- a broken food package on the floor, with crumbs scattered all over!!  

 Mike came upstairs and told me the awful truth--"Someone is stealing your food!!!" 

 About this time wise father heard about the mystery, but he was not scared. He said he would bet it was an animal, maybe a raccoon! 

But how would a raccoon get in the food storage room? 
Room- Coon! That is it-- they rhyme! 

So wise father got an animal cage from the city (they had one ready) and he put it in the food room.

 Next morning, Mike said, in his quiet voice --" it looks like we caught something." Sure enough-- the entire family went down under to see the snarling creature in the cage! It hissed and made threatening noises too.

What was it? 

One boy said," it is not a raccoon but a weasel!!!  

REALLY?  "Yes, we studied them in school, and they are vicious and clever. It looks just like the pictures of weasels."  WOW!

POP GOES THE WEASEL!

Raccoon #2

Hi boys and girls! 

Here is another of Grandma's bedtime stories. 

  Once upon a time there was a spooky noise in the ceiling of   the upstairs office. It could be heard in the daytime, or nighttime, and it was a great mystery to all who heard it.  It sounded a lot like people up there moving heavy trunks around, or shifting furniture. NO ONE LIVED UP THERE!! Who was living in the dark attic, making spooky noises? 

 Grandma Colleen would sometimes shout " who is up there? but no one answered. Sometimes she would take a broom and knock on the ceiling with the wooden handle-- and then it would stop. It was so scary!!

 It was about at this same time that Grandma noticed that the TV was not working right. " Hmm"-- she said. 

 Grandpa said “maybe Raccoons are up there. I read where they liked to chew on things!" Wow-- could that be it? What would they chew on? “Maybe the TV cable", said wise Grandpa Owen. 

 So, with that possibility in mind, Grandpa got a trap cage from the City and put it on the roof one Saturday evening. 

 Sunday morning, Grandma hurried out to see if indeed there was a trapped Raccoon on the roof. She looked and looked, but not only was there no animal, there was no cage!! She walked around the house, looking at all places on the roof- but no cage! What had happened? She called to Grandpa to come and see!! 

 It was then that Grandma saw something buried in the bushes. It was the CAGE! Looking out of it were two black eyes, from a live Raccoon so large that it barely fit in the wire cage! 

 Grandpa came and took it away, as it snarled at him in a most menacing way!! 

 What happened to it?  Someone said it drowned, but I don't see how. Maybe it ran away. Maybe there is another one in the ceiling!!

 Someday the old house will be torn down, and maybe then we will know. 

 The End of the Raccoon

PS… that was Raccoon the second. Stay tuned for the other story about Raccoon #1. More spooky!!!

What went wrong?

Her name was Udora Staley, and his name was Bob Adams. and their marriage was made in heaven. He had a house and acreage, and she had a big heart.

 They always wanted a large family, and they had five of their own, and adopted her sister's four kids when she and her husband were killed in a tragic accident. 

 When another tragedy occurred in their neighborhood, she insisted they take the kids in-- so now they had 12, but Bob was hard working and managed to support their large family. 

 They applied for and got food stamps and other benefits as needed.  Others helped a little, but some worried that the Adams family had taken on too much. Of course they loved Udora and her big heart.  They even helped her with other government programs, local and federal, so they could cope.

 All along, the idea was to keep the children busy on their small “farm", growing food and fruit etc. but it never seemed to work out. Some of the kids did try to work hard, but they felt it was not fair that the others did not help. 

 About that time there was a need for families to help out with abandoned kids from another country, so of course Udora was quick to respond, and they took in 10 children of various ages, and one older, and crippled woman. 

 Actually they were not children, but older teens and one was 22.  Poor Udora was caught in the middle of several very serious fights, and one 17 year old knocked her down and took her purse. There were other reports of " lost" money or items, but she never pressed charges, In fact she had such a big heart that she defended the culprits, knowing that all they needed was more love. 

 About this time Bob, who worked two jobs and tried to keep the house repaired ( and added on to), developed  a life threatening disease. He was optimistic and felt he could lick it, but eventually he died. 

 Udora was grief stricken, as he was the only real provider.Still, she carried on and even took in a foster child, and later a new born left on their doorstep. Everyone knew that Udora had a big heart and would take on more care. She was wonderful. 

 She was not that old when she died. Her big heart gave out.

 The funeral was large and many people came to pay tribute to the lady with the big heart.  They were generous in their praise of Udora and how she had taken on many burdens all by herself, and suffered quietly.

  There was one sour note however, as her family was very upset at her leaving. They were not used to caring for themselves, and there was a lot of infighting over property etc.  Everything fell in disrepair and fighting.  .Recrimination and bad feelings ensued.  

 There was an old tree on the property, and someone noticed that Udora's name was carved on it. USA it said, in big letters. 

 Udora had such a big heart. What went wrong?