Ulcer at work

This is a picture of a major American personnel problem. An ugly sore that doctors call a peptic ulcer, eating away at the wall of a man's stomach. Every year ulcers bring pain and unhappiness and expense to thousands upon thousands of working men and women. Yet often such suffering needn't be. As in this case of one man's fight for health. His fight against an ulcer at work. Mr. Holt, are you all right? What's the matter with you? Who asked you to come chasing out here? Why does a man act like this? Is he just born sour or does the problem go deeper? Where Steve Holt's concerned, those aren't the easiest questions in the world to answer. Because Steve's got more than one side. He's not always a grouch and a sourpuss. Does a man good sometimes to have to type his own reports. When a gal's got a cold, she belongs home in bed. Steve's a sharp boy with an idea. He saved the firm a lot of money on the Cosgrove process. That certainly didn't do him any harm with Mr. Winston. When the first tally showed a loss, he went over the figures himself at night till he found the error. Responsibility? On his own hook after that tally flop, Steve changed the whole cross-check routine. Brother did Mr. Carver ever burn that day. You see, Steve's the ambitious type. He works at it. At the office and at home, too. Lately, he's made friends with Lester Glynn's over at Aero. A contact like that may get him a higher paying job. The Halls have a nice place. A little expensive, maybe, but nice. Ellen's nice, too. Steve's kids don't exactly hate him. The Hall home's attractively furnished. Ellen, too. She picks up things on sale. Today, well, mink certainly sets her off, doesn't it? Paying for it may take a little doing, of course. What's $900 for a stole against $5,000 for a car? At least fur keeps you warm. Oh, all those rows, they tie knots in a man's gut. Then his temper cuts loose. He yells at everybody, even Ruth. The men he works with don't like it. It makes for more hard feelings, more mistakes all around. So, work piles up on Steve's desk. He feels like he has to check everything closer. It doesn't look good, and he knows it. And that brings on new pains, new troubles. Once he almost got in a fight with a mean-tempered foreman out in the shop. Carver, Steve can't yell at him, but he can play it cool, spoil Carver's fun, and that gets Carver. Like that time at the weekly staff meeting. Mr. Coleman, are you sure this is all the information? I I don't see anything about those new tax allocations. I'm sorry, sir. These are all the reports we have. Well, what about it? Didn't any of you think of this? Mr. Winston. What? I have a report here, Mr. Winston, that I worked up on the state levies, and I think we can project our figures from this. Who told you to work up a report? Nobody, Mr. Carver. I just something to do in the evenings. Well, it's a good thing somebody around here has an idea once in a while. Mr. Winston. You young, well, sharpshooting, are we? Carver. You. Carver. About these tax allocations, I think we can use the information we have here. Quite a victory for Steve. Or was it? Do you ever win when you end up with stomach pains so sharp they make the boss order you to see a doctor? Now, there it is, Steve. That irregular bulge there. It's a lesion. A place with tissues worn away. You've got a duodenal ulcer. Duodenal ulcer? The commonest type. See, this is your stomach here. An ulcer here, call it a gastric ulcer. This is your duodenum. That's the part of the small intestine that leads out of the stomach. So, duodenal ulcer. Peptic ulcer, that's the term that covers both types. They all spell trouble, too. That's why it's so important to start treatment as soon as possible. You sound awfully definite about this. I can't afford not to be, not where your health is concerned. That's why I took all these tests, had you drink that barium, took these x-rays. Ulcers can be tricky. I wanted to be sure of my ground before I reached my final diagnosis. Well, now I've got my proof. You've stewed yourself into a duodenal ulcer. Now, wait a minute, doctor. I think that Steve You wait a minute. What you think has no bearing whatever on your condition. Developing an ulcer is not an intellectual process. Those stomach pains that you talk about, the gnawing, the burning, those are obvious symptoms of gastric ulcer. And this x-ray is positive proof. But why? Why should I have an ulcer? What could have brought it on? There's nothing too mysterious about it, really. Hydrochloric acid is the key factor in ulcer chemistry, the way Dr. Olmsted told it. The acid secreted by the stomach lining and sublining, a mild solution. It helps break down food fibers for digestion. You see, your stomach's a sort of sack with walls four layers thick. The outside walls are made of muscle tissue. When those muscles contract, the action helps digest your food. When your stomach's empty, those same contractions yell, "I'm hungry." The message goes to your brain, and automatically an answer comes down the vagus nerve. Tells your stomach to get ready for dinner. Gastric juice flows from the stomach lining, a juice that's compounded of dilute hydrochloric acid, pepsin, and rennin. That way, your stomach's all ready to start work the minute you swallow the first bite. Ulcers? They come to the unlucky guy with a nervous system that pumps acid into his stomach even when there isn't any food there to digest. That makes trouble because hydrochloric acid can't think. Even when a man's asleep, it keeps on working, eating away at the stomach lining. If that goes on long enough, the acid eats a sore, an ulcer. Unless you take care of it then, inflammation develops. The tissue swells, so much that food maybe can't even leave the stomach. So, you vomit, can't eat or drink. If the sore goes deep enough, you may have internal bleeding. If it eats clear through the stomach wall, acid and digesting food pour into your abdomen, and doctors say you've got a perforated ulcer. That calls for an operation, fast. Before perforation, treatment's simpler. It helps not to let your stomach stay empty. Get the kind of food and medication that helps relax it and takes the bite out of the acid. Various drugs and sedatives can calm down the vagus nerve, so it doesn't keep crying for gastric juice. Another way to get the same result is to cut off that branch of the vagus nerve that ties into the stomach. But, no matter what you do about it or how you look at it, an ulcer never is a thing to ignore. It's one of the commonest causes of death and time lost from work among chronic diseases. Well, okay, you're the doctor. I guess I can gag down pills and live on a diet if I have to. I wish that were all there was to it. What do you mean? You forget the medical end of it. I'll take care of that. What I want you to do is to work on your attitude. My attitude? That's right. Ulcers breed on the wrong kind of feelings. But, you said what I think doesn't have anything to do with ulcers. I'm talking about feelings, not thinking. Not logic, emotions. Wait a minute, you're running that I'm running that by again. Well, no, no, I'll put it this way. A man with an ulcer is a man who's been trained to eat his way out of trouble. What do you say, to eat? Oh, now, wait a minute. What I mean is way back someplace, when he was a child, a baby even, he got into the habit of reaching for food, eating whenever anything upset him. This builds into what a psychologist calls a conditioned reflex. Eating starts the gastric juices flowing. But, our boy eats whenever he gets into trouble. Finally, he gets to the point where trouble automatically signals his stomach to start squirting acid whether there's anything to eat or not. I don't know if I'll buy that. You will once you think it through. And then then this attitude business. Well, call it feeling if you like, the way you feel about people. What's wrong with the way I feel about people? If you're like most ulcer patients, you care too much what people think. You're not really sure that they like you. So, you're always worrying about things such as whether they're going to stare at you or slap you down. It keeps you on tense and on edge all the time. Every little upset pumps more hydrochloric acid into the stomach to eat holes in the lining. Now, wait a minute. Only a jerk would act like that. A complete idiot. Oh, jerk's hardly the word for it. A man doesn't plan to have an ulcer. He may not even know that he's not sure of himself and pushing too hard to make up for it. That still spells jerk to me and I don't like it. Only a complete idiot would act that way. Well, maybe that's why 47% of those who have an ulcer once develop them a second time. And maybe it isn't. I'm paying you for medicine, not a bunch of crazy theories. Oh, for heaven's sake, stop pushing. Stop thinking I'm against you. Now, look, Steve. I'm your doctor. Remember? Your friend. You're only cutting your own throat when you act this way. You've got to face up to reality. You've got to be honest with yourself about the way you feel about things. Finding a new doctor sounds like a better answer to me. You can walk out on your doctor, but you can't walk out on yourself. And whiskey's no answer. Well, a man's got to go home and face the music sometime. Ellen seems to have some questions, Steve. That's it, Steve. Go ahead. Ask her what makes it any of her business. I wish I had the right words for you, too. But I guess you're the kind that has to make up your own. You know, Steve, ambition can be misdirected. It's no good if it kills you. If you want to live, you've got to find out what's pushing you. Do something about it. Ellen, remember one thing. Most cases I see, it takes two to breed an ulcer. And widows are a drug on the market. As far as I am concerned, it's high time that the two of you grew up and joined the human race. What do you think you're doing? I'm going to take this fur back. Do you mind? I certainly do. Fallerup's aren't going to give any refund on a special. They'll give me a refund. I said forget it. No wife of mine is going to beg favors from anybody. Steve What? Steve Steve, I don't care about begging. I don't care about anything. None of your business. Well, I'm thinking of you, understand? I love you. Steve, without you that makes no Do you think it really matters to me? I mean I wouldn't care if we were still living in that that crummy flat in Jackson. Steve, I'm trying to forgive you. I love Steve, I love you. Remember that I'm your wife. I love you. Oh, that one That one don't Don't ever let me forget that. And don't ever leave me. Getting rid of an ulcer is not the easiest thing in the world or the cheapest, but a man can do it if he takes the time and trouble. Takes his medicine too, literally. There's milk to drink instead of bourbon. You learn to dodge fights, too. No more sniping at Carver. No more night work, either. No more taking the office home. There were long talks with Dr. Olmstead. Steve began to see things clearer, understand himself a little better. I remember a thing my mother used to say. "It's cruel to let a baby cry." She'd say, "Just give him the breast right off. He'll quiet then." Mom was that way. Let me come home crying over something and she'd give me candy every time. Now, Dad hit it from a different angle. Dinner was always the time he picked to bawl me out. Mom? Oh, sure, she could be mean. I remember sometimes I'd wonder if she really did love me. Like that time she gave me the chocolate bar and then slammed the door on me because some of the chocolate got smeared on the couch. That door slamming routine, you know, I hadn't thought about it, but it's always upset me. Miss Poinsett's was another one. I'd worked hard on those problems, but somehow I got fouled up and she swore I hadn't studied. That fat head coach of ours shutting me out of the locker room just because I missed that curve. Poor as we were at home, I didn't even know you're supposed to give a girl a corsage if you took her to a college dance. Square deal? He wanted you to deliver the impossible. I still wish I could shoot him. Oh, kids don't really mean anything by it, but they sure know how to freeze me out if I forget to bring home presents from a business trip. Does a man really have to buy love, pay cash for it? Isn't there any way to win success except by pushing, driving, acting like a machine instead of a human being? Those were the questions Steve had to ask himself because little by little he began to see that he'd lived according to his own private ground rules, that he'd taken a lot of things for granted that maybe just weren't true. Dr. Olmstead claimed a man could find happiness just by being honest, be himself, letting people like him the way he is instead of always trying to promote and scramble higher up the ladder. But words are one thing life's another. So, Steve found his real answers on the job, right where he worked. The clerks he found do better when somebody isn't always yelling at them. Ruth's typing's improved now that the pressure's off. And the other day Steve found she'd turned down a transfer. Mr. Winston keeps an eye on costs and profits, but he does it in a relaxed sort of way. Doesn't push or try to take over all the responsibility. That's right. You're asking for an ulcer when you let work lap over onto your lunch hour. Well, that foreman Steve squabbled with, he had an ulcer and his bad temper almost bought him a fractured skull. Spoiled work goes up when there's hate in the shop. Absent time, too. Some men quit. Others just develop ulcers of their own. Production down down down. Finally, Steve began to realize that the aggressive ulcer case isn't just hurting himself. He's also bringing trouble and pressure to dozens of other people. Like Carver, it turned out he had an ulcer, had had for years, but was too proud to admit it. Too late to admit it now. It hit Steve hard. He was even glad when Mr. Winston named Mr. Yoakum to fill Carver's job. He could see now that he needed more experience himself before he took on that much responsibility. He held off on the job at Arrow, too. Not because he was scared, but because he wanted to be sure he made the right choice, the mature choice. Things eased up at home. Now that he takes time for the kids, presents don't seem to matter quite so much. Ellen why Ellen's decided life can be worth living even without a mink stole. But the real payoff, the final test came late the other afternoon down at the office. Night, Mr. Hall. See you tomorrow. Good night. Hello, yeah. This is Steve Hall. Hello, Steve. This is Glynes. Over there. Yes, that's right. That little deal we were talking about. That change of climate you were so interested in. Well, it's come through, believe it or not. We bought the plant and I want to see you in charge of the whole V3 section. How about it? The whole V3 section? I thought Stevie boy. I told you you'd go places if you stuck with me. When can you start? Oh, well, I hardly You have to make it fast, Steve. This is a business that takes quick decisions. When Arrow wants you, they want you quick. Mr. Glynes, this Well, I've been having a little trouble with my stomach, you know, and that much pressure, the responsibility of that whole V3 section. What are you talking about, Steve? You can handle that job with one hand tied behind your back. It won't bother you. I know. I had ulcers myself. It's the price of success. Got to admit that's a big decision, though. You don't want to talk about it down the office. Tell you what. Let's stop off at that little bar down on Livingston. Well, I uh Steve. Steve, are you there? Uh yes, I'm here, Mr. Glynes. You know, I'll tell you, there's no point in our getting together, really. I've I've made up my mind already. A job that big was going to push me too hard. Are you crazy, Steve? This is a chance to get into the upper echelon at Arrow. Arrow. Yeah, a chance to break my neck, you mean. I need more background before I tackle a job like that. I can't believe my ears. A little thing like an ulcer? You aren't chicken, are you? You mean I don't want to lose my head? Yeah, I sure am. But you, I always thought you were so ambitious. I am. It's just that now I got a better idea of what I'm ambitious for. Uh Mr. Glynes, I'm sorry. I'm going to have to hang up now. My wife and family are waiting for me. I know that that job sounds fine, but I'm just not the right man for it. It No, no, not for a couple of three more years yet. It wouldn't be fair not to be absolutely frank with you. I'll see you later, Mr. Glynes. Bye. Well, that's the end of our story. A happy ending, too, because Steve Hall finally did face up to both sides of his problem, the physical and the emotional alike. You see, that's what it takes to win the fight against an ulcer at work.