[Passed by the Committee on Motion Pictures of The American College of Surgeons]

[The Veterans Administration presents]

[Man singing as camera pans across room of men in hospital beds:] I got the blues, the TB blues. I've got the heebie jeebie TB blues feeling low down, way down low down, tired of my long time slow down waiting for that special day, when the Doc can say be on your way.

[You Can Lick TB]

[Produced for the Department of Medicine and Surgery by Presentation Division]

I got my bed and time to spend, but time drags on when there is no end, blue and low down, way, way down, low down. Aiming for that doc doc showdown, building to that special day when the Doc can say be on your way.

[ Humming ] [Camera pans down hall and into room with man lying in bed.]

[Bill:] Hello Doc.

[Doctor:] Hello Bill. How you doing?

[Bill:] Oh, fine, just great.

[Doctor:] What's wrong, something bothering you?

[Bill:] You ought to know this by heart now. I want to get my clothes, get out of here, go home.

[Doctor:] Is that all?

[Bill:] Oh, you've heard all this before. I still want to get married, have a family, earn a living.

[Doctor:] Bill, you will be able to do all of those things, I've told you that before.

[Bill:] Yeah, but when do I start?

[Doctor:] You've started already. You started the day you came here, seemed like a long time didn't it, like years instead of weeks.

Remember all the examinations we gave you, all the tests we made, they showed how sick you really were.

They showed things nobody could know just from looking at you, suspicious shadows in your lungs and in your sputum, germs, TB germs. They didn't just happen; you got them by direct contact with someone who already had tuberculosis.

Or maybe you got them by contact with objects infected by someone with tuberculosis. You could pass those germs on to someone else, your family for instance if you had been at home.

When the germs first appear, there may be only a few. And usually a healthy body will wall them in or kill them.

But sometimes there are too many germs for the body to overcome, or you may become rundown from too much physical activity, too much work, too much play, not enough rest and proper food.

Then the germs multiply and you're sick. There's no medicine that by itself is a sure thing to cure you.

To get well, you must have rest, proper food and medical care. To get well, you must be careful; to limit the things you do until we know what and how much you can do safely.

[Bill:] It helps to be reminded. Gosh, I want to get well and stay well.

[Doctor:] You may feel well, but the examinations and x-rays tell us you're still sick. You've improved but you still have to stay in bed and rest.

[Bill:] I am resting.

[Doctor:] I'm not so sure of that. You don't seem able to relax. You move about too much and that means you're working.

[Bill:] Working? What do you mean?

[Doctor:] Anything that isn't rest is work. Ever do much in sports or did you ever stay up late playing cards? Remember how tired you got?

Play is work. Any activity is work, even walking or studying.

Bill, many patients simply don't understand what we mean by work, too often they leave the hospital too soon, do too much, and break down. Remember Charlie James?

[Bill:] Yeah, I hear he's back.

[Doctor:] That's right. It wasn't many months ago Charlie decided there was no keeping him in the hospital.

He thought he could take it easy at home and he did for a while. He had no regular job but he soon found himself playing with the kids, you know how it is at home, it's hard to sit around not do anything.

That's what happened to Charlie, he got busy without knowing it, even began getting to bed late. He didn't realize that it was all adding up to too much work for him; in fact he just didn't know how much he was doing or could do.

So Charlie's back again, back where you were when you first came here. At that time, you remember you didn't do anything but rest and yet you were tired all the time, but gradually you got stronger until you could read, write, get out of bed for your meals, and go to the bathroom.

As you get stronger, we'll allow you to do more, work more.

[Bill:] Yeah, but what does it all get me?

[Doctor:] Just this, you're getting well. We know now that you can get well but it's a gradual process.

At the rate you've been improving, we should be moving you soon. As a semi-ambulant patient would be able to get around a bit, do more to take care of yourself.

You'll have full bathroom privileges...you'll be allowed more recreational activity, too. Maybe you'll want to hear some music, or play it.

[A man strums a banjo.]

There are lots of things you'll be able to do.

Of course, being sick does have its rough spots, and tuberculosis often produces some tough personal problems.

But there are always ways to work them out when you go about it right, and the social worker will give you expert guidance based on experience and the handling of problems just like yours.

Of course you can read or even study. If you want it the educational therapist is always available for extra help.

The occupational therapist will give you simple work tasks, depending on your treatment needs. You'll be expected to spend a prescribed amount of time each day in this activity.

None of these simple tasks will train you for a job, but they will show you, and show us, how work agrees with you. Your progress will be followed carefully in a number of ways by means of x-ray films and a variety of laboratory tests.

These will be made as often as necessary to show us just how well you are doing under the treatment you are getting. When your disease has become stabilized, you will be permitted still more activity.

You'll be able to leave the ward and go to the main dining room for your meals with the other ambulant patients. You'll get a deep satisfaction out of doing some of the simple things you've been denied so long.

You'll find yourself walking more. You'll feel you are beginning to live again. You, yourself, will realize you are able to do more, but always based on a day of balanced activity.

You'll think about work, a job after you leave us and you can get help in planning for it.

Some fellows make the mistake of not planning. Tom Baylor for instance...used to be one of my patients, he couldn't be bothered about planning or training.

He wasted his time, figured the future'd take care of itself, with a soft high- paid job that would fall into his lap. But it didn't work out that way.

Tom couldn't make the grade, no training, no experience, so he wound up as a laborer on a construction job. He couldn't take it.

Now he's back, worse off than before. We could've helped him plan for training and work he could do, but he wouldn't listen.

However, most of our patients do listen; they know our program of gradually increased activity is prescribed medically according to each patient's progress.

They know it will get them to the point where their plans will began to pay off. Most of them listen to us. Are you listening? Are you listening?

[Months from a calendar fly by the screen.]

[Bill is shown in the doctor's office, putting his shirt and tie on.]

[Bill:] Well Doc, what's the good word?

[Doctor:] You've come a long way Bill; you're a fully ambulant patient as of right now. You once told me you wanted to earn a living when you got out, right?

[Bill:] Right.

[Doctor:] Can you get a job and stay well?

[Bill:] I think so.

[Doctor:] But do you know?

[Bill:] Well, not exactly.

[Doctor:] Well, no one knows yet, but we can help you find out if you stick with us, for we have the facilities to do it.

Shops and classrooms for our patients to complete their treatment, to help us find out how much work they can do. Many of them are planning to work at a trade, work with their hands, make things.

Others are planning for a profession, but no matter what they plan to do to earn a living, a wide variety of facilities is available to enable the patients to find out for themselves what and how much they can do.

And there's variety too in the amount of time they spend here each day. These two men are working on the same project.

Hank will complete his in about five days, but Jim will have to spend two weeks to do the same thing. Why?

We allow Jim to work only two hours a day now, but we've found that Hank can work four hours a day.

Each of these patients works on an individual time schedule, the amount of time each spends here is prescribed. We keep a constant check on condition and progress and allow them to work more only when they can do so without becoming too tired.

Many want to keep on working even after their time is up, but they learn quickly that their work is adjusted to give them a proper balance of daily activity.

The work done here is not intended to train anyone for a particular job; it's to find out the patient's ability to perform and physical capacity to perform.

This applies to every type of endeavor. Frank Lorenzo, for example, wants to some sort of work in the machinist field; he made his plans with the help of vocational guidance.

His expressed interest in mechanical work was borne out by test of aptitude and interest. They demonstrated that Frank had good coordination. He chose his field, and his records showed us that he could enter it.

So we put him on light mechanics. He's doing many different things that require precision and the use of a great variety precision instruments.

His work involves bending, reaching, lifting, standing because the type of job he wants will include such things. We know the demands of such jobs and we schedule his activities so he can approximate those demands now.

What Frank does here will not train him for any particular job, but he will be able to choose any one of many in the machinist's field. He will go out to a school or on-the-job training and will know he can learn and do exactly what they teach him.

He can become a machinist, get a job, live a full life.

Hugh Fleming plans to be a chemical engineer, his scores on the tests we gave him indicated a special aptitude for math. When he came to rehabilitation we started him in two classes, solid geometry and English, a hour a day for each.

Now he studies three hours a day and helps in the hospital lab two hours a day working towards credit in the school he plans to enter when he leaves us.

This sort of classroom work, study, and shop work are only a part of the day's activitues. They take up only a few hours and during the other hours of the day there's rest and self-care.

And there's still another sort of work, the sort of thing that rounds out a normal day for anybody...play, recreation, fun, whatever you want to call it. In whatever form it takes, it's needed in the right proportion to balance a day's activities.

[A play is being performed on stage, and the men recovering from TB are seated in rows watching it.]

It all adds up to a fuller life; all these activities are part of a planned program carried out here in the hospital to help build you up to that day you'll be discharged in your own care.

The day you will leave us knowing you are well again, that you can choose your own work and be sure you can do it. The day you can go home for good. That day will come for you Bill, if you wait.

[Bill:] You make it pretty tough for me, in a way. You know I want to leave here right now, don't you.

[Doctor:] Sure, I know.

[Bill:] You know they are waiting for me back home. We've all waited a long time.

[Doctor:] I know.

[Bill:] Well, I guess we'll just have to wait a little longer, but it will be worth it, won't it?

[Man singing:] Well so long Doc, it's nice seeing you. You're looking as healthy as can be, you're as strong as a rock and I want you to know that just what I want to be, healthy. That's just what I want to be.

Gonna lick TB if it's last thing I do, I'll do whatever you say. Gonna lick TB, Doc, tell me what to do, I'd like to go home but I will stay if you say so.

Like to go home but I will stay. I got a little girl, she's a'waiting for me, so is my family.

Oh, I ain't too smart but there's more things I know, KO TB Doc, KO TB.

Oh, I won't get low and I won't be blue, I'll do whatever you say, going to lick TB Doc, tell what me what to do. I'd like to go home but I will stay if you say so, like to go home but I will stay.

Yes, I'd like to go home but I will stay, Doc, like to go home but I will stay.

[The End, A Veterans Administration Medical Film]