weighing and measuring

[englishangel]

I too have a bad back, due to falling off a radiator at the age of 17 (perhaps THAT is what floating kidneys are). I did have physio (at Hertford Hospital) but as the pain was in my hip (sciatica) it didn't address the original problem which I didn't even realise until ten years later.

Talking of heels did anyone see this?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search. ... e+Stallard

[J.R.]

I too have a bad back, due to falling off a radiator at the age of 17 (perhaps THAT is what floating kidneys are). I did have physio (at Hertford Hospital) but as the pain was in my hip (sciatica) it didn't address the original problem which I didn't even realise until ten years later.

Talking of heels did anyone see this?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search. ... e+Stallard

Don't get me started on 'Elf & Insanity again Mary !

And that comes from me, a Safety Officer for a football club that has to deal with the Local Authority 'Elf & Insanity Officer !

I swear they put something into the genetic structure of these individuals before birth !

[fra828]

I was thinking back to those 'medicals' we used to have with Dr Jory at Hertford at the end of the 3rd year, at 13/14 years of age. They were personally very intrusive and don't think they would be allowed these days.

[J.R.]

I was thinking back to those 'medicals' we used to have with Dr Jory at Hertford at the end of the 3rd year, at 13/14 years of age. They were personally very intrusive and don't think they would be allowed these days.

Surely not

[icomefromalanddownunder]

I was thinking back to those 'medicals' we used to have with Dr Jory at Hertford at the end of the 3rd year, at 13/14 years of age. They were personally very intrusive and don't think they would be allowed these days.

Surely not

Possibly not precisely what you are envisaging JR; but I do remember my medical, which tells me that I may have found it more unpleasant than I gave it credit for.

Picture a teenage girl wearing enormous white 'liners' beneath even larger 'blues'. When pulled out to their full extent they reached from my armpits to my knees, but they were usually bunched between my waist and mid-thighs. Therefore, in Dr Jory's defence, examination of the abdomen required his hands to be inserted beneath the many folds of my undergarments. I seem to remember Sister or Nurse (Sister, I think: Nurse would have made the event less stressful/abnormal) lurking in the far corner of the examination room.

Happy days.

[fra828]

That's EXACTLY what it was like

[J.R.]

I honestly can't remember any, what I would term, embarrassing medical inspections connected with CH !

[seventhirty]

....and in the upper sixth the medical involved a breast exam - probabably not at all medically necessary on 18 year old girls !

[Katharine]

I have no memory whatsoever of either of these medical examinations. Have I blotted them out from my memory or did they not happen when I was there, Frances, Kerren can you help me? Did we have them?

[englishangel]

I cannot remember anything either.

[seventhirty]

There were definitley three in my time (71-78), one on arrival, one in the 3rd/4th form, and a 'leaving' one for upper sixth. They were the stuff of legend, certainly when I was a junior the older girls would regale with (largely exaggerated) horror stories. The real thing was tame by comparison, and as far as I remember was perfectly proper in execution, just excruciatingly embarrassing for teenagers, and probably in hindsight rather unnecessary.

[anniexf]

Does anyone remember the excrutiating weighing and measuring we had in the gym once or twice a term? We had to strip down to our 'blues' and bra and go in and be precisely 'examined' by Nellie Norman or relevant gym teacher- height, weight, waist and bra-size ; then being checked for flat feet, and being told to stand upright; there were remedial 'feet' and 'back' classes for those that were deemed to need them. It was humiliating and degrading even in those days!

Nellie Norman was after my time; we had MKP, but it was just as frightful because she made such a meal of it. That smile - it seemed unnatural & was no comfort, in fact quite the reverse, it was more like a leer. Once when I was about 13 & had developed quite a bit but didn't yet wear a bra, poor Miss Plint (assistant gym & games mistress, young & "normal"!) went bright red. You could tell she hated being complicit in this loathsome procedure. MKP enjoyed every second, I swear. I was far too naive then to suss her; it was only when I left CH and had time to reflect that I began to view it as tantamount to institutionalised abuse, and got very angry. But I never told anyone; it seemed too humiliating & I felt almost "dirty", & as fra828 said, it was degrading. To this day I've never worked out whether the process had any long-term purpose or value.

But then: "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there......"

[Kim2s70-77]

Great quote, Annie!

[Angela Woodford]

I feel sure that I was never examined by Dr Jory. Oh, that would have been hideous!

I'm still amazed that he put me on thyroxin for my weight problem, after asking first if I was a bit slow and not very good at Maths. I've written about it before, I know. But really!

Weight loss 1lb. The thyroxin, as you'd think, made me rather more excitable.

That day when Sister Summers called up t'Imf the four fattest girls in school! Sister herself was a big woman - a very big woman. A huge woman.

(How I giggled to see that one of her retirement presents was a spindly-legged floral sun lounger...)

[Fjgrogan]

Sorry, I have no memory whatsoever of medicals with Dr Jory; in fact I would not have remembered even his name if it had not appeared here. I wonder whether it is perhaps because he was 'the new boy' as doctor and took a while to get into his stride? When I started at Hertford the doctor was Doctor Gregson Williams - again no specific memories of him, but a rather more distinctive name! I really had very few dealings with doctors in those days, and still try not to today!