Shriners Hospital Memories

I remember.....When I was 5 my mom realized I was limping badly.  She decided to see if I was "putting on" so she went quickly across the busy Gravois street.  I could not keep up and dropped to the ground in the middle of the street.  Grandma Rose took me to her orthopedic doctor, Dr. Shott.  He took Xrays and found I had Legg Perthes Disease when part of the hip socket dies because of no circulation.  I got special shoes (saddle ozfords) with a ring on the sole on the back of the shoe.  I was fitted for a sling that went over my shoulder with a hook that attatched to my shoe ring making me walk only on my left leg and using crutches. A friend of my step father, Bob Novotny, was a shriner and got me into the Shriner's Clinic in St. Louis.  It was then located on Euclid near Forest Park.  After a whole day having Xrays they decided I should be admitted.  Now this was in the 50's so hospital routines were so different.  They took me away from my mom while I was screaming and took me to the ward.  I remember that there were babies also being admitter and they were in cribs like cages which covered the top with bars also.  I tried to reason with the nurses that we were having company at home and I was needed to help cook (mind you, I was 5 years old)  We all received a large bag of toys that was ours to keep and we had to wear starched dresses like house dresses with G-strings for underwear.  I was put in tractions which was having my legs taped with a board covering my feet and a pulley going from my feet to 20 pounds of sand hanging from each.  I was bedbound for 2 months like this.  I remember that milk made me sick but you had to drink milk for calcium.  If I didn't drink my milk I was put in isolation which was a glassed enclosed room smaller than a bathroom.  I would cry and no one heard me.  My mom started to bring me straws with flavor pellets in them.  That's where I'll stop for now and continue another time.  mom