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AI: Well, then, after, I think that was in 1947, something else that happened that year was, I understand, was quite traumatic, was that you, again, were having some health problems.

PB: Well, I was having trouble while I was in camp, and I did have surgery in camp, but they, the doctors thought I had a tumor. Some of the doctors thought I had a tumor, and they, there was sort of a disagreement as to exactly what was wrong. So anyhow, I had a famous Japanese woman doctor, and she said that I should have a coretma. But I kept putting it off in Chicago because I was so busy trying to make a living that I thought, well, I couldn't stop to have surgery or anything, but it got to a point, so bad that I was hemorrhaging a lot, and I thought, "Well, I just have to have surgery." So I did go to Michael Reece Hospital, and I had surgery. And had a complete hysterectomy and I was up and about, you know, they get you up so quickly nowadays. They don't keep you in bed very long, they want you to get moving, which is very beneficial for your recovery. But it happened that I was bleeding a lot, and they shouldn't have gotten me up. But anyhow, when I went to bed and I was bleeding, I told the nurse about it, and instead of really checking me out -- this is a student nurse, I believe -- she gave me a sleeping pill and she said, "Well, you'll rest better if you take a sleeping pill." And so I slept through the night, but I bled so much that the next morning, when the morning shift came on, I was, the bed was saturated with blood. And so right away, then they called the doctor in and they called my doctor in, and the OD was there, and oh, it was just panic. They said they would have to send me back up to operating room. Well, I refused to go, I was so afraid, I didn't want to go. And then they said, "Well, then we'll just have to take care of you in your room." So I had a roommate, they moved her out, and they just worked on me right in the room. And I remember them, kind of watching, and they were just scooping blood out of me, and it was just a horrible experience. And then they said that since I wouldn't go back to the operating room, why, they would have to fill me with gauze. They just stuffed me with gauze, and they said, complete bed rest for ten days. So then I had to stay in bed for ten days and not move at all. And the doctor said that they barely saved me, because I had lost so much blood and they had to give me transfusions all the time.

AI: My goodness, what a scary situation.

PB: Well, my sister used to come down every day, and she was very good to me. She'd wash out my gown and everything, but after I got well enough to go home, I was stranded by myself, and I was on the third floor, and I was just a prisoner there. Nobody there to take care of me, and my friend tried to hire some lady that lived in apartment, but she wasn't well enough to take care of me, so I had nobody to take care of me. And my son would try to do a few things, but he was just a young kid, and he didn't know what to do. So it was real hard for me because I couldn't stand up straight, and I had to take a bath and everything, in order to go to the bathroom, I had to go to the far end of the hall. And it was hard for me to walk; I was bent over and I just had to hug the wall and walk down that hallway, and I thought, at that time, I thought, "I never want to be alone again." I didn't want to be in a situation where my life depended on being able to do things myself, but I was in so much agony that for three months I just was a prisoner. But after three months, the doctor said I could go back to work, but to work only half-days. But then my place of work was so far away that I didn't want to go and work half day and then come home, that would be too much. So I stayed the whole day, but my boss was very considerate and said if I felt tired, "Why, you just go in and lie down for a while." So I did that and I was able to get through that.

AI: And that was still at the Dubois Studio?

PB: Yes.

AI: Oh, my goodness, and it sounded like you had a pretty long time to recover to the point where you were more back to normal.

PB: Oh, yes, I, I was in such a condition that I just couldn't do anything for a long time. It took me a long time to get over that, because I had lost so much blood, and I was just not able to do anything for such a long time, that it took a long time to get back to where I could do work again.

<End Segment 57> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.