When You Were Absent

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you need oatmeal. I know where I can get you some. Would you like it?" She brought me 2/3 lbs. During the early spring my eyes began to ache and my vision was blurred. I thought this was perhaps due to sinus trouble as the weather had been raw and I was frequently obliged to go for the milk in the rain. I also had a running stool which I took to be on account of the vegetable stalks and skins I had swallowed thinking there might be nourishment for the baby. At the end of May a spreading rash appeared on my legs. Each cluster of spots finally grew into a large splotch as though the flesh had been seared by an iron. My ankles began to swell and pit and felt as though there were burning worms crawling up and down inside my legs. Finally it took me about 5 minutes to stand on my feet after I had been resting. What seemed to be an infection was spreading over my hands and they were becoming black and dry like a certain kind of black rooster's legs. The skin on my neck was also turning dark brown and when I caught sight of my face in the mirror I found it heavily furrowed. I thought I had better go and see a doctor. There was a clever young New Zealand doctor in the clinic and he at once said it was pellagra. He sent me to an old timer who asked me how I had received the burns and to go back and wrap my legs in cotton wool and carron oil or vaseline. Had they been burns, this would not have been the treatment, so I knew this doctor had not kept up his profession. Anyway where was I to get oil and bandages? I went back to the first doctor, Dr. Loan, and he sent me to another doctor for confirmation. This doctor also recognized the symptoms and prescribed nicotine acid, of which there Was a limited stock in camp. Later two other doctors also recognized the condition. My husband's letter to me said that there was room for me and food in Canton and to ask if we might be sent there-a five hour trip on the river steamer. I thought perhaps I might be allowed to go and went with three doctors' letters to the

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