Lew Powell's Frostbitten Feet

[BettyO]

(08-24-2012 02:24 PM)MaddieM Wrote:  

(08-24-2012 02:01 PM)MaddieM Wrote:  The anthropologist who discovered Lew's noggin stated that he suffered apparently from chronic sinusitis. We do know that he had an attack of measles when he enlisted and was sent to the Camp of Instruction (boot camp) at Jacksonville, FL at the beginning of the war. This childhood illness turned ultimately into pneumonia from which he almost died. This could have also weakened his constitution. We don't know....He apparently began recruitment for the SS in November 1864 and then left for Baltimore on January 1, 1865. For all his hearty appearance, he appears to have been a somewhat frail lad constitutionally.

I know someone who suffers from chronic sinusitis, and it's awful. Really painful. It also flares up when you're run down. I had measles when I was 16, and boy, was I ill! My weight dropped from 8 stone to 6 stone. I was ill for months.

I have sinusitis also occasionally - it depends on the temperature outside. My sinuses flair up in cold weather. I think of Lewis sleeping on the ground outside in the army and that didn't help any probably - plus there were those teeth and the abscesses he must have had and the tooth aches! Ugh! I don't even want to go there! I had measles at age 5 and really don't remember it much - I had chicken pox at age 6 and do remember that! My younger sister had that really bad. I had the mumps at age 11 and remember that, too!