Friday, August 26, 2016

My Visit To The Doctor 8-25-2016

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe
 
I went to an orthopedist today, because I have "trigger thumb" on my left hand. I had surgery on my right thumb several years ago.
When the doctor came in, he talked about what trigger thumb is. He squeezed my thumb really hard (and it hurt really bad) and told me how the trigger thumb worked (as if I didn't know). He pressed the top of my thumb and explained all the parts of the thumb. I thought I might be in an anatomy class.
He said he thought I should not have surgery right now but should first have a shot of a steroid first. He just happened to have brought a needle with him.
He asked me to place my left hand face up on the stretcher (bed), which I did. Then he said, "I will explain each thing that I will do before I do it," and he did.
He said, "I am now going to wash your thumb with some antibiotic stuff to make it clean, which he did. Then he told me to relax my hand so he could give me the shot. I was all ready for the shot when he said, "Now, this is the smallest needle in the world so that it will not hurt so much." I didn't believe him.He said he would stick the needle in my thumb and that I would feel a little stick. Why didn't he just do it? He said, "The pain will be short, but the pressure will go up into the upper part of your thumb and hurt pretty bad, but it won't hurt but just about three seconds.
Before I could process all that information, he surprised me by sticking the needle in my thumb and shooting the medicine in the thumb. I groaned really loud, and he said, "I knew you would do that." Then he said, "It's all over." Well, it was not over. My thumb really hurt until the Novocain took effect.
That was the longest 10 minutes I ever spent in a doctor's office. When I got to my car, I reached for the keys and almost dropped them, because now my thumb is numb, and I cannot feel anything with my thumb.
He encouraged me by saying that I must wait four weeks; and, if the thumb is not better, we can do it all again (maybe three times total).
I am home now surviving, my thumb feels better, but it still clicks every time I bend it. I am not sure that four weeks will do the job, but at least the doctor is not here to describe those four weeks to me.
 
 

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Misty Night Sunset

By Ronnie Wolfe -- 8/11/2016


I settled in for the misty night
And watched the sun go down.
My peaceful heart, exhausted self
Gave in to the silent sound.

My heart slowed down its altered beat
And soon the dreams would come.
But soon awakened I will be
With the dawn of morning sun.

More brilliant than the day before,
Each day brings godly peace,
Since God is in each sunset, 
And His wonders never cease.

Monday, August 8, 2016

Hot Milk Before Bed

By Pastor Ronnie Wolfe --August 8, 2016 
 
I don't know if you have ever heard anyone speak of drinking hot milk, or warm milk, before going to bed; but I have heard about it nearly all of my life.

Once, when we in the quartet were visiting a home on one of our trips (I cannot remember whose house it was), Bro. Bob Jones was in one of his kidding moods. He, as usual, began to harass me. He said "Well, you know that Ronnie needs to have his warm milk before he goes to bed." It was a nice "putdown," and we all laughed a little.

When the time came for us to start thinking about going to bed, the woman of the house wandered into the kitchen without my noticing. Shortly, she came out with a small glass of milk. She brought it over to me and handed it to me. I said, "What is that for?" She said, "Don't you want your warm milk before you go to bed?" I said, "Well, I'll drink it, but Bob was just harassing me."

Then we all had a good laugh, although I was a little fearful of drinking warm milk before bed, because I had been told that it causes constipation. After I worried for a couple of minutes, I went on to bed, and all is well.

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Jumping From The Hay Loft

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe

When I was a youngster (probably around early teens), I remember how that the boys would climb up in our barn and jump from a rafter down on loose hay below.

Well, it would not do for me NOT to do the same thing, although many things they did I could not do; so I climbed with my arms only up into the barn on the same height from which the others jumped. I took off my leg braces, leaving only my shoes on, and jumped (or fell) down from the top of the barn into the loose hay.

While I am falling, let me tell you one little thing, which I had forgotten in all the business of getting ready to jump down into the hay. I had forgotten (or at least did not think about) the little metal fittings on each side of my shoes where the braces fit back into my shoe.

Then I hit the hay, the soft hay; but the fall was not so soft. You see, I sat down directly on top of one of those little metal fittings on my shoes, and it hurt so bad that I could have cursed. However, we did not curse, so I did not curse; but I sure did feel that hurt.

I suppose you can guess the rest of this story. The end of the story is:  I have never and I will never jump out of the top of a barn onto loose hay again. It takes only one lesson of that kind to make a believer out of me. Happy jumping!

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Sorry, I Never Knew You

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe

In the early years of the traveling and singing of The Bluegrass Boys, we made a few music albums. In Lexington there was a recording studio called Jimmy Price Music Studio with a label called Sun-Ray Records.  Our singing group recorded there a few times.

On one such occasion (I think it was about 1966), we were in the studio recording, and we gave the next song title to the engineer each time before we recorded a song. On one of the tracts we had forgotten to tell them the title of the next song, and we were in a separate booth inside the studio when we sang. As we went through the door to this little room, Demas Brubacher remembered that we had not given the name of the next song to the engineer; so he opened the door again and simply said, "Sorry, I Never Knew You." The engineer looked at him like he was crazy. He thought that Demas had said that he was sorry that he ever knew the engineer, but it was just the name of the next song. After a few minutes, it became funny; but it was not so at first.

If you want to see something interesting, search Sun-Ray Records on the internet and see what you find.