08 Medical Doctor

M.D. = Medical Doctor Doctor Day! The day Judy got to dress up like Elizabeth Blackwell, First Woman Doctor, and do a REAL LIVE operation for Class 3T. An operation was the best of all the brainstorms from her list. The best Human Body project ever. Better even than trying to doctor Stink. Her patient was special. Her patient had green skin and did not talk back. Her patient would not hog the TV and drink all the ginger ale and spit out healthy prunes. Her patient was perfect. She could hardly wait. First she took one more bath.

Stink knocked on the bathroom door. "Knockknock!" "Who's there?" "Stink, minus one bellybutton." No answer. "Mom! Judy's hogging the bathroom and she already took a million baths yesterday." Stink banged on the door. "Hurry up! I need to get in there!" Judy came out with a towel on her head, and all-wrinkly hands and feet. "I liked it better when you were sick," said Judy. "I liked it better when you didn't look like a spit-up prune," said Stink. "Doctors have to be really, really clean, Stink. Elizabeth Blackwell took three cold showers a day!"

"Elizabeth Blackwell didn't leave a lake on the floor." "Hardee-har-har." "Hip bone's connected to da leg bone," Judy sang as she got dressed. Today was going to be the amazing-est human body day ever, from head to toe. At school, Judy had ants in her pants all through Spelling, bees in her patella-knees all through Math. At last it was Science. Mr. Todd said the magic words. "Time for our Human Body projects. Rocky, why don't you go first?" Rocky wrapped himself in toilet paper like a mummy, and told how eating a mummy can help your tummy! No lie. Doctors in the old-oldolden days thought mummies could cure stuff like stomachaches. So they ground up

mummies, bones and all, and used them for medicine.

"Creepy!" said most of the class. "Fascinating," said Judy. Jessica Finch wrote medi-words on the board. Words like intelligirl (really smart girl), brainiac (has super-Einstein, not-kidney-bean brain), and brain case (sick in the brain), which she added to the dictionary. Then she passed out a word search. Judy found all the medi-words at brainiac speed. Finally, Mr. Todd called on her. Dr. Judy Elizabeth Blackwell. She put on her doctor shirt, a stethoscope, and a left-eye patch. She taped plastic bags over her shoes. She colored between her eyebrows with a black marker and stuck fake bugs on her head with tape. "Today I am Elizabeth Blackwell, First Woman Doctor," said Judy. "I'll start with a poem." She took a deep

breath, so she wouldn't get a terrible case of nerves. Or a bad case of sweat. Elizabeth Blackwell Lived in an attic Nothing was automatic First in her class What more could you ask? Became first woman doctor Even though boys mocked her Opened a clinic Helped poor people in it Delivered Babies Gave shots for rabies (maybe) Opened her own school It was way cool