Jennifer Osufsen, Author

Saturday, May 15, 2094 Port Pemiscot, Missouri District 16:45 Once word got out yesterday there was a physician on-board, the floodgates opened wide. I'll admit that hearing greetings of, "Hey, Doc!" and "Hi, Doctor Cora" has brightened my time here. 06:30 - Patient: Teddy Knox, age 7. Foreign object removal from left ear canal (two pearls). Loaned his mother, Callie Knox, needle and thread to restring her grandmother's necklace. Callie insisted I take a dozen apples as payment. 07:13 -  Patients: Identical twin brothers Ed and Ned Dorley, age 56. Both complained of a toothache in the same lower right quadrant of the jaw. Both presented with nearly identical abscesses in size and shape. Applied coconut oil infused with garlic with sterile swab, and provided enough for self-application three times daily. Will follow-up with them each evening. Graciously declined payment of a 2-yr old faithful egg-laying hen. 09:50 - Patient: Bucky, a Pekingese pup...

The first entry in Doc Cora's casebook May 14, 2094 11:10 I'm surprised I am able to write this at all with my hands shaking as much as they are. My eyes keep straying to the locked cabin door, and the churning in my stomach has nothing to do with the rocking of the Adeline . He found me. Wilkes saw me on the boat, and now he can track -- 13:30 Well, that was odd. I guess this will turn out to be a physician's casebook sooner than I had planned. Earlier, footsteps pounded in the hallway outside my cabin, and muffled shouts followed. One passenger nearly plowed me over when I peeked into the hall. I followed the ruckus up the stairs - no, the companionway - and found a crowd of men and women leaning over the port side of the steamboat. Shouts and shuffling feet joined the hissing of steam and the churning of the paddle-wheel. By the time I reached the swell of passengers, they had begun tugging on a thick jute rope. Several men and even two women hauled a soaked ...

While sorting through my books the other day, I found an interesting journal. It's the patient casebook of Dr. Cora Thomas. I found it intriguing, so I will be posting one of Cora's entries each morning. Maybe you'll find it as fascinating as I did.