My first day of school in my teddy bear dress Mom made with my hero’s!
It’s not always easy growing up in the shadows of greatness. I say “shadows” because I have two older brothers who are grrrreat! For those of you that don’t know, my oldest brother is a doctor. Since tomorrow is Dr. Andy’s birthday I thought maybe all of his current patients would appreciate a little story of his first patient, ME! (Don’t worry Matt and Bek I will have a special story for your birthdays too. Scared? You should be. )
Andy was always a mature child so naturally when my parents would go on dates or had some sort of function they needed to attend Andy was often our baby sitter. Early this particular summer, Dad set up our pop-up camper to air it out and clean it for use. Since mom and dad had a prior engagement that evening, it was up to us kids to clean out the camper while they were gone. We were equipped with hot water in buckets and old rags that mom left out for us. It was Andy’s responsibility to keep us on task and get the camper cleaned out. We proceeded to open all the zipper windows and wash every surface in preparation for that weekend’s first camping trip of the summer.
Once all the cleaning was finished the four of us started to play around the camper. It was fun running in and out and all around in the beautiful summer evening. I remember standing in the doorway of the camper and Matt just outside. Matt reached to swing the door of the camper shut, and for some reason, I reached out to stop it from closing and… SLAM! My thumb was pinched in the door. I screamed and Andy came to my rescue.
Dr. Andy’s #1 fans at his Med-School Graduation. Yes… we were the loudest! And yes, we made our own foam fingers. 🙂
He grabbed my forearm of my injured extremity and tucked it under his elbow so he could examine the damage. I bent and strained to see it around his shoulder but he had me pinned down. “Whelp, there’s skin hanging off of your thumb and it’s bleeding. We need to wash this out or it will get infected.” And just like that, I was dragged out of the camper, across the front lawn, and came to a halt in front of the kitchen sink. Since my arm was pinned under his elbow I couldn’t see what he was planning to do. Then, he turned the water on, “Let me go! It’s fine! Let me go! Please don’t do this, it’s going to hurt!” I pleaded as I fought against his brute strength. “Joanna, hold still we have to wash it out or it will get infected.” “I don’t want to wash it out. I’m happy to have an infection! Ot’s ok, I’m fine, really. Pleeeeaaase let me go!” I fought as hard as I could. I kicked and hit with my free limbs, and I almost got loose. “Matt come help me,” Andy yelled. “Yes, Matt please come and free me!” I yelled after him. To my detriment, brothers stick together. As Matt came into the kitchen I was so happy. However, to my surprise, Matt wrapped his arms around me and held me down as Andy pulled my sore thumb closer to the running water. “WAHHHHHHHHHH!!!” I screamed as the sting of the water hit the open wound on my thumb.
My body went limp, from what can only be an extreme state of shock, and there was no more fight left in me. Matt let go and Andy proceeded to bandage my thumb with a band aid. I fell to the floor as I watched the boys make their way back outside the house. “See, now was that so bad?” Andy asked as he walked away.
Dr. Andy with his beautiful bride at his Med-School Graduation.
After 20+ years and extensive medical training, I can say with great confidence that Dr. Andy has learned more finesse and better bedside manner since that day. After all, it’s a big brothers job to torture his younger siblings. As I lay there on the kitchen floor for several minutes I began to plot my revenge. Then I looked down at my perfectly bandaged finger and realized it really wasn’t that bad. I may be a bit of a drama queen, but I won’t ever tell him that…. 🙂
Joanna's "King"-dom 