For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for September 21, 2017

Dumb dentist.

A few observations:

1. They say doctors are always the worst patients. Just how far will Dr. John Patterson go to prove it is true?

2. It’s been awhile since we have seen Lynn Johnston slam Rod Johnston’s replica car through the comic strip. I kind of missed all the “John’s car is evil” jokes. At the beginning of the year we were getting one or two a month.

3. Apparently the moral of the story is that if your daughter can hear your heart beating, that means something must be wrong. It’s kind of like John Patterson is the Grinch and expected his heart to be unhearable.

4. If the ashtray on your car rattles, that means something must be wrong. It’s kind of like John’s car could feel the anti-smoking movement as it started to hit its stride in the late 1980s.

My dad was like that until the year he got super sick with the flu that was going around. An ER visit led to a test, which led to another, which led to a third. The third showed that my dad had prostate cancer, but it was caught incredibly early (2nd on the scale to not being at all). If my dad hadn’t been so sick it may not have been caught till it was too late, or at least until the treatments were way more than just radiation treatments. That was back in ’94. My dad never missed a year getting a check-up or otherwise seeing his doctor after that.

Often it takes a scare like that. My uncle and my grandfather died very early from cancer, so my father is very serious about his doctor’s visits.

What is it about men (with perfectly good health insurance I might add) who refuse to go see the doctor—-even when something’s wrong! My uncle and my step-dad were both like that. I’m a man, and I never understood that!

My first husband liked to brag that he hadn’t seen a doctor for 30 years. Meanwhile, he smoked, drank and had chest pain. Yes, he died of a massive heart attack at age 55.

Normally healthy and very active at age 65, I have yearly checkups. However, bloody urine in early June bought me an operation to remove a cancerous tumor from my bladder two weeks later. I’ve finished BCG treatments to help prevent it’s return. Catching it early may have saved my life, but definitely saved my bladder. When you know something is right…..Do Not hesitate to get to the Doctor ASAP!!

It took my husband’s neck to swell up to twice its size for him to decide that “maybe I should have this looked at.” YA THINK??? That resulted in the situation I posted about yesterday.

A friend went to his upstairs office and dropped dead, pulmonary problem, never would see a doctor.

Some men think that being tough means never going to a doctor. I have a checkup every year.

My husband and I both go to the doctor at least 4 times per year. Both of our fathers (mine was 55, his was 63) died way too young from massive heart attacks.

Most people who die went to a hospital first . . . and before that they went to a doctor . . . so if you want to live forever – never go see a doctor.

Elly ought not to be high-handed about this. There was a similar strip where John suggests to Elly that they start their day with jogging or a light workout, only for Elly to scoff at it. Healthy living does a lot more to ward off heart disease and cancer than simply going to a doctor.

Problems can sneak up on you. During wife’s routine Dr. visit in 2013, I was asked if I’d had a physical lately. I felt fine, but scheduled an exam and found a leaky heart valve. Off to Peoria for surgery and they found an artery about to fail! Four extra years.

Another thing that can sneak up on you is glaucoma, where one slowly loses side vision.

Especially in Canada, with its emphasis on preventive medicine and a health system to save money by paying for it.

In analyzing today’s strip, I don’t think that John is worried about his heart. Lizzie listening to it just reminded John that he has one.

John is being especially stupid here, given that doctor visits in Canada are free to the patient.