Dr. Mom's wild ride

"Physician, heal thyself," is the old biblical injunction found in the book of Luke, but does that apply to obstetricians?

Dr. Marcia Caron, who started spending summer vacations at her folks' cabin on Crooked Lake near Deerwood in the late 1960s, took matters into her own hands June 29 when she delivered her baby in the front seat of her car.

"We had a wild ride," the surprisingly composed new mother said just a day after the unexpected early arrival of her first child, Graham McDougal Caron, while the family was en route to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Caron and her husband, Andre, live in nearby Plymouth, Mich. The proud grandparents are Jim and Cathy McDougal, who now live full-time in the Deerwood area.

"Things went a little fast and I realized we weren't going to make it," the new mom said in a phone interview.

Dr. Caron said the baby's birth was unusually fast. She had her first painful contraction at about 2 a.m. and the baby was born at 2:39 a.m.

The obstetrician had even joked with hospital staff, who had asked if she was going to deliver her own baby. Ha. Ha.

She admits to giving her husband contradictory directions regarding whether they should call 911 on that eventful night. Any woman who's given birth can easily forgive the good doctor any mood swings or confusion she might have experienced.

The story of the baby's arrival, which captured the imagination of newspapers and television stations in the Ann Arbor area, ended happily. Graham is a healthy baby. His birth weight was 5 pounds, 2 ounces.

"He's great. He's a beautiful boy," Caron said

Before the baby's birth the graduate of Bloomington Jefferson High School, St. Olaf and Mayo Medical School had been long on theory but short on personal experience in the child birthing department.

Did she learn anything? Probably a great deal. She probably reinforced her knowledge of the fact that babies are going to come when they're good and ready.

"And it was painful," she said. "They're right about that."

Let's start a movement to bring back that old custom of using turn signals.

Few aspects of motoring are as frustrating as when a car swerves into your lane without any warning or when you patiently wait for a car to pass by on an intersecting street only to discover the driver was planning to turn before he would reach you. He didn't bother to signal.

How much effort does it take to flick the turn indicator and let other motorists know that you'll be turning your vehicle in one direction or the other? Is there a down side to taking the guesswork out of driving by letting people know which way you're going?

Maybe motorists are too busy dialing their cell phones, turning on their CD players or adjusting their air conditioning to use their turn signals.

Military veterans come in all ages these days. The Brainerd Dispatch employs veterans whose experience ranges from World War II to the Gulf War.

It was another day at the office on a beautiful, sunny afternoon last week when my 11-year-old daughter called to say hi. She was visiting my brother's family in the Chicago area for a week and I figured she probably wanted to hear dad's reassuring voice. The reception was a little fuzzy so I asked her where she was calling from.

"We're watching the Cubs," she said.

Sure enough, while I was working, my daughter, an indifferent baseball fan at best, was watching the Cubs at venerable Wrigley Field.

Never let your kids go on vacation without you.