Doctors know

When I was about four years old, Mama got sick. Her condition was bad enough that she couldn't cook and clean house so Daddy took her to a doctor. She was examined as many doctors did in the 1930's as an unfortunate distraught woman who thought she knew more about her body than 'medical science' did. He gave her some of the required medicine for hysterical women and sent her home. She collapsed almost immediately and Daddy carried her out. After all a doctor could only do so much.
To be honest the doctor was suffering more than Mama - suffering from lack of knowledge of the human body. The doctor also suffered from accepting the attitude that a woman didn't know anything about her body in particular. But most of all he suffered from the worshipful attitude society willingly bestowed upon the medical profession.
Mama recovered eventually. I surmise from stories by my sister, that when Mama got over her humilation of being discounted by a man who had to be paid for his social status not his knowledge, she relaxed in her own bed. She knew she had to rely on her own experience. She gave directions on how to make and apply a poultice to the hand that had sustained a broken needle point during a routine washboard laundry task.
Home life was disrupted to say the least. Her ten-year old daughter fed the diapered toddler and a four-year old and got herself off to school. She rushed home at noon to check on Mama, feed and clean the kids and get back to school. After school she cooked, did dishes, and put the kids to bed. Mama's poultice finally withdrew the broken needle that had been the problem which the doctor couldn't see and wouldn't believe.
Modern technology and multimillion dollar noninvasive equipment have improved our health conditions. I do not believe that the medical schools have entirely thrown out the attitude that women should not expect to understand their own bodies. I think our bodies are too complex to leave our health care completely to outsiders.
Naomi Sherer