As a young man, my late father had a lot to worry about.

He was married and had a wife and three little sons dependent on his support.

He was overdue on house mortgage payments.

The owner of the local grocery store had extended him credit and was asking when he could start paying down the balance he owed.

It was a terrible chore for mom to do all that laundry by hand on the scrub board, so dad had bought her a washing machine on the “time payment plan.”

This was in the midst of what is now called the Great Depression” and employment was very hard to find.

Then my father began having severe stomach pain after a meal and would retreat to the yard to vomit.

There was severe heartburn and he would belch.

How I remember those reverberating belches!

He couldn’t pay for it, but he went to the hospital anyway and had X-ray procedures which confirmed a peptic ulcer.

My father’s uncle was a physician and dad telephoned him for advice.

Uncle Joel told dad to mix equal portions of cream and fresh-squeezed orange juice and drink that instead of a regular diet.

That diet gave some relief to the pain and eventually my father’s peptic ulcer healed.
At that time there was no understanding of the cause of peptic ulcers.

One of the laboratory tests we have done to help diagnose this disease is to test the feces for the presence of blood.

Peptic ulcers bleed and the blood is passed in the stool.

A tarry black stool which tests positive for the presence of blood helps to establish the diagnosis.

The physician may ask the patient to undergo a scope procedure which will differentiate between an ulcer and malignancy.

It was assumed that bacteria could not be the cause because the acid in the stomach inhibits the growth of bacteria.

That assumption was eventually proven to be false.

The bacterium Helicobacter pylori was consistently found present in peptic ulcers.

Presently, diagnosis may be established by analysis of the breath for compounds produced by H. pylori and/or analysis of the blood for antibodies produced against that bacterium.

Treatment with antibiotic in combination with antacid therapy has proven effective in the majority of cases.

Worry and stress may be a contributing factor in the development of peptic ulcer.

My father had the dubious distinction of making many unwise financial decisions.
He was a genius in the areas of mechanical skills.

He could overhaul an automobile engine or an airplane engine.

He worked for several years as a finish carpenter and could execute the construction of a spiral staircase with the finished product exhibiting unique beauty.

He lacked financial management skills, but his ingenuity got us through the Great Depression without our ever going hungry.

He was a survivor and lived to be almost 90 years of age.

Bill Bradford retired to the rigors of a small farm in Pokagon Township.
He has served as director of clinical laboratories in physician group practices and hospitals.
For a decade he was an educator in clinical laboratory sciences at Andrews University.