For a number of years I had thought about writing about some of the things that have transpired as I travelled through all of my years as an oral and maxillofacial surgeon. I have previously written several books about my earlier life as a young cowboy growing up in Julian, California. I really felt that some of my children might enjoy knowing some of the history which I had travelled through, especially in the years of the Great Depression, and perhaps the little I might remember of earlier generations. I really feel everyone has a story to tell and for some later generations it might be fun to compare to the time they might be living. I know I would have been most appreciative of my grandparents or great grandparents if they could have found time and energy to put together such a history of their own lives.
I kept thinking there are some things which happened as I travelled down my path as a surgeon which might be of interest to some later on. I kept getting that thought and even mentioned it to three ladies who a half century or more ago were my assistants in my surgery practice and in many of the surgeries that I encountered along the way. I knew they too might remember things which happened that I didn’t remember or that they looked at it from a different vantage point than mine. It has been such a blessing to be able to reunite with these three women, all of whom played a substantial part in the story which we will tell. Their names are Linda Chubb, Nancy Mills and Carol Ginther-Land although we worked together in the 1950s and early 1960s, our respect and friendship through all of these years has never diminished. Linda and I have stayed closely in touch through all of these subsequent years while Nancy and Carol and I have found each other many years later. Though the years have elapsed and the gray hairs and wrinkles may have come, the love and friendship has survived intact. I owe a great deal of appreciation to these three helpers who allowed me to accomplish some of the things which I was called to accomplish.
More recently a young Christian woman and friend of mine, Lenaya Casados, has encouraged me to write this book which will be about some of the interesting or funny things which have happened as I have travelled down the road of my life as an oral and maxillofacial surgeon. This road started some 64 years ago so it will take some ability of mine to possibly recall. My ability to remember all of the details may be difficult since I am in my 87th year on this planet. Lenaya has been most helpful in helping me prepare another 20 books for publication and I am most grateful. She truly is a Gem, but I will add, “She made me do it.”
Some of the things in this book will likely be just stories and others will have a funny side or twist. They will not be written to mock anybody that might have been a patient, but at times may mock me as the “professional”.
As I write some of these stories I am attempting to give a picture of portions of the life of an oral and maxillofacial surgeon who lived in a particular time so that some who come later will know of some of the better things we might have done but also some of the mistakes we may have made. As the word somewhere says, to err is human. This book is not intended to portray a surgeon any different than his colleagues, but just another of God’s people attempting to use his God given abilities to help some part of humanity.
I have written this book to encourage others to do whatever he or she has been ordained to do to improve and relieve those whose care is placed, for a moment, in their hands. Although I may tell the story as though I had individually performed all of the surgeries alone, I am forever grateful to the men and women who walked with me to accomplish whatever we accomplished in the medical and surgical realm.
