New straw poll for us: Would you have lived or not

[Martie]

Donna has a real Cosmo magazine that she wrote about on another thread. In the thread she mentioned that many diseases that are curable today were not in 1904 and hence, the magazine is full of bogus "cures" for just about everything.

Here is the latest CD "straw poll"?

If you had been born in 1904, would you have survived to age 10--or as a child did you have a condition/disease that would have been fatal back then?

I would have died for sure because I had pneumonia every winter from ages 1 to 5 (but never had it since.) Surely, I would not have made it through at least one of those winters without penicillin shots.

Martie

 

[tiredmommy]

I had a very complicated breach birth and most likely wouldn't have survived. I probably would have eventually taken my mother with me. Duckie may have survived her birth, but I hemorrhaged badly and would have bled out.

 

[mstang67chic]

I was also a difficult birth (one leg first, the other one up above my head. doctor had to push my leg back in and turn me) plus my mom's milk was bad and apparently I had some type of reflux. Probably would have been a goner.

 

[Fran]

Other than measles and a bad case of chicken pox I was pretty healthy. I don't think I missed more than one day of school until jr. high. My sisters and brothers were all and still are pretty healthy. Hopefully it will continue on into our golden years.

 

[Hound dog]

Ummmm, I was a preemie. So, no. I doubt I'd have made it. (I was lucky to have made it in the 60's)

If that didn't do me in, I had a really severe case of scarlet fever when I was 6.

Mustang, OUCH! for your dear ol Mom! :nonono: :surprise: :smile:

 

[timer lady]

I'm a lot like Fran, the measles, & whatnot. Other than my younger sister we were a pretty healthy lot as children.

 

[Suz]

Let's see. I was allergic to cow's milk when I was born. I don't know if that would have been life-threatening except my Mom probably wanted to kill me because she said I cried for 3 months straight until they put me on goat's milk.

I do remember having to go to the doctor at the military base at least once a month for a penicillin shot when I was 4-5 because I seemed to have chronic tonsilitis. They wouldn't remove my tonsils because they said I was too young. Since penicillin wasn't around in 1904 I expect I wouldn't have survived all of those infections. Ironically, when I got older and could have had my tonsils removed I didn't need it anymore and I still have them!

Suz

 

[JJJ]

I would have made it but one of my younger sister's wouldn't have and she would have taken my mom with her. Both of my sister's (that have given birth) would have died in childbirth. My mom would have died at least 3 times!

 

[Martie]

Me, too, SUZ! I kept on getting strep but they wouldn't remove my tonsils in "polio season" in the summer and "pneumonia season" in the winter. I outgrew this problem and still have my tonsils, too.

Martie

 

[mstang67chic]

Mustang, OUCH! for your dear ol Mom!

Yeah........but I don't get reminded of it..............often.

 

[donna723]

I don't know if I would have made it or not. I probably would have, I think. I was the one with all the ear infections and kidney problems though. This was back when doctors actually made house calls! I don't remember having anything really serious, just coming down with things, one ailment after the other. I was sick constantly from the time I was about four until I started school, and so skinny I must have looked a starving famine victim. My brother was a few years older ... he caught everything in school and then brought it all home and I got it! We got a lot of things that kids are vaccinated for now. We got mumps and chicken pox, and back then, kids got both kinds of measles so we had both of those too! And none of us ever got it, but I remember kids getting whooping cough when I was a child! When I was little, parents were terrified that their children would get polio ... I don't remember how old I was when they came out with the immunizations but I remember getting them.

 

[Marguerite]

Suz, I had a problem with cows milk too, when I was a kid. My mother was unable to feed me herself (I was the only one she didn't breastfeed past the first few days) because a nasty staph infection went through the ward. A bloke cam in to visit his wife - he had boils all over his arms. because his arms were painful he rested them on his wife's bed. The mothers changed the babies on the beds and the infection went through the nursery. I had infection under my fingernails and my mother then got nasty boils on her from my fingernails. My older sister said that she had wicks in them, draining them.
Then I "failed to thrive" on cows milk, so my parents bought a goat. Several. We lived on a quarter acre block and had a small farm packed into that space. So in a lot of ways, we lived like it was 1904 anyway.
So I'd have survived to 10. But not much past 20. That's when my kidney infections started up, due to a congenital defect which needed surgery before my kidney 'blew out'. I don't think IVPs were around in 1904, Roentgen had barely discovered X-rays (1895). And without the IVP they would not have known until the autopsy.

Interesting thought.

Marg

 

[LittleDudesMom]

While I was very healthy as a child, I was very premature. I don't believe I would have survived as even in 1959 it was "ify".

Sharon

 

[ScentofCedar]

Interesting thread!

I had a very healthy infancy and childhood, though without antibiotics, I may have died from a kidney infection which developed when I was fourteen.

Healthy since then, and no difficulties with the births of either of my children.

Barbara

 

[Shari]

I don't remember a whole lot about my childhood, but I did have my tonsils removed when I was in kindergarten. While I don't recall being a sickly lot, apparently I had been, cause they don't just jump in and yank out tonsils at the first sign of a cold. I've always struggled with allergies.

 

[muttmeister]

I wouldn't be here. I had a bad case of bronchitis when I was about 3 and they weren't sure I was going to make it even then. But I did and have been disgustingly healthy ever since. But one bad bout would do you in back then. difficult child 2 wouldn't be here either because of his burn injuries when he was in 3rd grade. But difficult child 1 probably would have made it.

 

[judi]

Oh yes, I would have survived. I was and still am (at 48) still very healthy.

 

[busywend]

I would have made it to 12. Came down with a very bad pnemonia right smack during final exams AND my mom was out of town for the first time leaving my sister and step brother in charge. I do not think I would have survived in 1904 as it was ify in 1981 since I did not get quick enough care due to my mom being out of town.

 

[mstang67chic]

Daisylover, I told my mom about this thread tonight. Her first words were "Did you remember to mention the DOUBLE EPISIOTOMY?"

**hangs head** No mom I didn't but one of the gals sent her sympathy to you anyway. That seemed to satisfy her a bit! lol