Were those really the ‘good old days’?

The other day I took our daughter to outpatients, because she had a red line on her arm – which went from a small scratch on her palm to half way up her upper arm.
By googling the problem, we had already determined that she had “Lymphangitis”, and that she was in need of antibiotics.
When we arrived at the hospital the anticipated waiting time posted was 9-10 hours. This seemed like a long time, an inconvenience – but we knew we needed the medication, because I did not want her to have blood poisoning as a result of the lymphangitis.
After an 8 hour wait, 5 minutes to see the doctor, a diagnosis of lymphangitis and  a prescription for antibiotics, we went home.  The issue cleared up within a few days, and there were no reminders of the problem.
I did not think of it again, until I read an account this story from
the Diary of Janie LePage Parkman, who was born in 1903, in Rustico, PEI.
As written by Janie:

“Janie Gladys (who was her daughter, born in 1929), when she was only 6 years old and started to school , she hit her toe on a stone, it was only a small cut and it healed up, but apparently there was pus underneath the cut, and she came from school limping, but we could not see anything wrong with her toe. Then she started holding her leg up and could not put it down. So we called our doctor, then was Mellish. He said it was Lymphangitis, caused from pus under the toe, and it gathered in under the back of her knee swelled awful, and turned into blood poison. It had to be lanced three times. We had to keep her in bed, and keep hot flannel pads around her leg for 6 weeks. The pads had to be wrung out of almost boiling water and put around her leg. How she ever stood it I will never know. But I know her leg was almost cooked for a while. The doctor came every day. The pus that was gathered there was dark green, doctor scooped it out with a little ladle. She was out of school six months. Then, after she got better she wouldn’t straighten her leg out, so we had to keep massaging her leg and finally we got it straightened out.”

The only thing good in this story is, that the doctor came in every day and made house calls.
I only had to wait for 8 hours, and that was the end of the story.
For Janie it was a 6 month ordeal – probably heart wrenching, having to place boiling pads on your child – causing a lot of pain.
So let us be thankful for today.
Yes, the “Good Old Days” were much simpler,
but were they really better??