Frankenstein was a Doctor too, you know －フランケンシュタイン博士も医者だったさ－

The men in my family don’t like seeing the doctor or taking medicine.  Well, who does?  But I mean the men in my family really don’t like seeing the doctor or taking medicine.

I learned that until a recent viral infection which could not be ignored, one of my relatives hadn’t had any hospital tests since he was a little child.  That would be fifty or sixty years ago.  That is not because he has been super healthy.  He has gotten sick many times but just waited for the sickness either to get better on its own or to kill him.

He has always thought, “Sick people go to the hospital.  Therefor, to avoid getting sick, all I have to do is avoid going to the hospital.”  I am sure that there is a flaw in this logic somewhere. 

Another, older relative also avoided the hospital like he would have avoided a trip to Count Dracula’s castle or Doctor Frankenstein’s laboratory.  Even when he was in his eighties and was coughing badly, he refused to go.  His sons had to trick him into going.  They contacted his doctor and asked him to call as if by chance, and to arrange a visit as if it were a social call.

“Oh, Mister [X],” he said.  “We like to invite our patients in to chat once in a while.  It’s important that the staff don’t forget your face.  This is all perfectly normal.  We will be finished after a quick chat and a cup of coffee.” 

Of course, he left after an x-ray, and holding some bottles of medicine for his lung infection. 

Sadly, my baby son seems to have inherited the family curse.  He has an ear infection and we are supposed to give him anti-biotics.  We’ve mixed the medicine with mashed banana, chocolate flavoured gel, peach flavoured syrup...  We’ve tried holding his head back to force him to swallow.  We’ve tried waiting until he is very hungry.  No matter what, the medicine ends up everywhere except down his throat. 

I’m sure that it’s hard to feed medicine to any baby.  But it is much harder when the family curse is telling the baby, “Don’t drink that evil potion of Doctor Frankenstein, or you’ll wake up as a monster!” 

Oh, well.  We will keep trying. 

Maybe this distrust of doctors is not a curse anyway.  My older relative lived into his nineties.  Perhaps the family theory has been correct all along?

 

Vocabulary:

a viral infection – the presence of a virus attacking the body

a flaw – a problem; a mistake

logic – reasoning; clear and rational thought

a social call – a visit to chat, renew a friendship etc.

to inherit – to receive from one’s parents, grandparents etc.

anti-biotics – a type of medicine taken to help kill viruses or other infections

to swallow – to take food, liquid etc. from the mouth into the throat

a potion – a liquid with healing, magical or poisonous effects