An Apple A Day

Why won't people go to the doctor?? I'm always saying how much my dad, grandmother, and I are alike, but in this respect, I defiantly break from the pack. It's the 21st century! They aren't going to bleed you with leeches, or mush around in your brains Abraham-Lincoln-post-assassination-style, so why do you still think they're incompetent and are only out for money?

Okay, maybe a lot of them are out for your money. But let's think this through. If they say, bleed you with leeches, or give you medicine that makes you worse, or are somehow counterproductive to your health, and assuming you're a logical person, you're going to switch to a hopefully more competent physician. And pay somebody else. And they are losing money. So even if, when the smiling middle schooler on career day asks why they became a doctor and they reply for the bundles of cash, you can bet they still want to help you out so you will continue to provide them with said bundles of cash. So get over that! I'm looking at you, Grandma!

And Dad. Dad who thinks he's invincible. Oh, my arm's broken in three places. It'll heal itself in a week. No, no it won't.

So that's an extreme example. But he has this weird growth on his head (yeah I know, mental images) that has been there for quite some time and he REFUSES to get it checked out. He has a family history of skin cancer and spent more of his childhood with sun poisoning than without AND has a bald spot right there allowing the sun an all-access pass to his poor little scalp.

Would it really be so terribly hard to go the doctor, get it looked at, and probably just have them lop the thing right off? If I'm being as paranoid as he says and it's not skin cancer, at least he'd be rid of a growth on his scalp, which has to be an improvement by any standards. And if it is something worse, than they can take care of it before it's really bad. I'm not seeing how any of the logic here points to the "wear hats and ignore it" philosophy.

Fine, Grandma, your generation isn't so doctor dependent. Fine, Dad, you're an impenetrable force with an immune system of steel. Fine. Don't do it for you.

Do it for me. Do it for the ulcer developing in my stomach, and for the fact that I need both of you, alive and healthy. And even if I'm not enough, do it for your husband (who ironically goes to the doctor TOO MUCH) and your three children and five other grandchildren. Do it for your wife and your other son who really needs a father figure who can admit he's not invincible and seeks help when he needs it.

An apple a day is not enough.