The Sure Sign of Illness – Sclera
Considering Elly Patterson and her eating habits, I would not necessarily be inclined to think that a little stomach noise she experiences in today's new-run of For Better or For Worse is going to lead to influenza. What may be a more likely symptom of illness would be the unexpected development of sclera, the whites of your eyes, when you are accustomed to having pupils only. Of course with Elly, we also get a few other things like little spots surrounding her head, a temporary bruise across her cheek, an immediately blackening of her nose, and the unexpected development of larger breasts. How does this compare to the real symptoms of flu?
These are the symptoms of flu. Please note the one I have highlighted
Influenza - Symptoms
The symptoms of influenza (flu) appear suddenly and often include:
· Fever of 100F to 104F, which can reach 106F when symptoms first develop. Fever is usually continuous, but it may come and go. Fever may be lower in older adults than in children and younger adults. When fever is high, other symptoms usually are more severe.
· Body aches and muscle pain (often severe), commonly in the back, arms, or legs.
· Headache.
· Pain when you move your eyes.
· Fatigue, a general feeling of sickness (malaise), and loss of appetite.
· A dry cough, runny nose, and dry or sore throat. You may not notice these during the first few days of the illness when other symptoms are more severe. As your fever goes away, these symptoms may become more evident.
Influenza usually does not cause symptoms in the stomach or intestines, such as vomiting and diarrhea.
Well, Dr. Elly. Your stomach is upset and so is little Lizzie's. Maybe you and your family don’t have the flu. Maybe you have the common cold.
These are the symptoms of flu. Please note the one I have highlighted
Influenza - Symptoms
The symptoms of influenza (flu) appear suddenly and often include:
· Fever of 100F to 104F, which can reach 106F when symptoms first develop. Fever is usually continuous, but it may come and go. Fever may be lower in older adults than in children and younger adults. When fever is high, other symptoms usually are more severe.
· Body aches and muscle pain (often severe), commonly in the back, arms, or legs.
· Headache.
· Pain when you move your eyes.
· Fatigue, a general feeling of sickness (malaise), and loss of appetite.
· A dry cough, runny nose, and dry or sore throat. You may not notice these during the first few days of the illness when other symptoms are more severe. As your fever goes away, these symptoms may become more evident.
Influenza usually does not cause symptoms in the stomach or intestines, such as vomiting and diarrhea.
Well, Dr. Elly. Your stomach is upset and so is little Lizzie's. Maybe you and your family don’t have the flu. Maybe you have the common cold.
posted by howard at 10:44 PM
9 Comments:
It's equally likely that maggie_texas is right to think they all have either salmonella poisoning or gastroenteritis brought on by poorly prepared food served and handled in an unhygienic manner. Elly never questioned the way her mother does things so she's bound to make the same mistakes and get the same queasy results.
The family has a stomach flu because that's the illness Dr Elly knows how to "treat." If they seem to have another illness, that's because they are being impossible picky-face brats who are trying to further complicate Elly's life. Elly is too strong to let them get away with that crap.
John_F_Jamele,
And if she kills a person or two in the process, that's because they were really ungrateful. It has nothing to do with her being wrong, it's because they want to oppress her by insisting on contradicting her.
What's interesting to me is that either we're not going to get the little arc with "I don't have time to get sick" or we're going to have bollixed continuity over the next few days. Could be an interesting train wreck.
John F Jamele,
The family has a stomach flu because that's the illness Dr Elly knows how to "treat."
That’s entirely possible. It could be that any kind of illness that is flu-like gets called the flu and is treated the way Elly treats the flu. Or more importantly, the way Lynn Johnston remembers treating these problems 30 years ago. As isolated as Lynn is to popular culture or modern ways of treating women, it should not be surprising that she does not have Elly whipping out a flu symptom medication.
This isn’t the first time Lynn has favoured home remedies. I remember the Robin “ear problem” sequence, where Lovie Salzmann’s home remedies were also favoured over taking Robin to an ear doctor and getting some antibiotics. On the other hand, considering that Lynn was married to a medical professional for years and the fact that Lynn has been on those medical mission trips to South America, makes Elly’s attitude towards medicine more than a little surprising.
Suddenly I am rethinking the whole “Deanna is competent because she is a pharmacist” idea. I wonder if Lynn placed Deanna in the pharmacist role because she does not trust drugs or pharmacists. There were also strips where Grandpa Jim complained about being overly medicated to reinforce this view. Maybe Deanna the pharmacist was supposed to be a sign that Deanna was forced to work in a sleazy kind of job because Mike did not make enough as a writer, so his wife did not have to work. After all, Deanna’s last word in the strip was to quit pharmacy and develop a sewing school. A dream come true. No longer does Deanna have to debase herself in pharmacy.
The idea seems ridiculous, but now I am not so sure.
InsertMonikerHere,
What's interesting to me is that either we're not going to get the little arc with "I don't have time to get sick" or we're going to have bollixed continuity over the next few days.
Lynn has not done the direct mixing of new-run and reprints yet, where the continuity of the story-telling was not botched. I predict we will get that little arc.
howard,
I wonder if Lynn placed Deanna in the pharmacist role because she does not trust drugs or pharmacists. There were also strips where Grandpa Jim complained about being overly medicated to reinforce this view.
That does have more than a whiff of plausibility attached to it. This is, as you will recall, the same woman who suffered for years because of a foul-up with her HRT so she's not going to trust what some guy in a white coat says. There are a lot of people her age who simply do not trust modern medicine because it doesn't deliver the relief they want when they want it. Let's also not forget that she casts the local GP as a knuckle-dragging, skirt-chasing buffoon of a Momma's boy who encourages John not to take a mere woman like Elly seriously. The only person I can think of that has a worse opinion of doctors is the executive producer of Law and Order.
dreadedcandiru2,
It does draw an interesting contrast. Many of the readers of the strip were appalled by the idea that Deanna would go from pharmacist to sewing school operator at the end, taking that as mighty step backwards. The pharmacy position put her in the breadwinner position and gave her status in the strip that Elizabeth and Elly did not have in their more traditional feminine positions.
On the other hand, it was pretty clear that Lynn Johnston had a disdain for the pretty girls who operate in medical support positions, like the women who worked for Dr. Rod Johnston in real life. When she put Deanna, who was portrayed as being pretty and fashionable, in the same building as Dr. John Patterson, she could have been drawing a parallel to the women who worked for Rod Johnston. In other words, you are not competent. You were hired because you are pretty. After all, Deanna was working in Milborough for years, when it would have made a lot more sense for Deanna to have a job in Toronto where she was living for years. There is no good reason for her to be in Milborough, unless Lynn was trying to draw that comparison.
By moving her to sewing school operator, in the mind of Lynn Johnston, she could have been saying, “Now you are competent. Now you can be respected in your job. Before, you were just another one of those dim-witted, pretty girls only hired by the medical men for your looks.” Lynn may have expected her audience to embrace this idea. Lynn’s list of things which happened to the characters after the end were all considered to be positive things. Michael gets a film contract. April becomes a vet. Deanna quits pharmacy.
howard,
On the other hand, it was pretty clear that Lynn Johnston had a disdain for the pretty girls who operate in medical support positions, like the women who worked for Dr. Rod Johnston in real life.
And in doing so callously slandered trained professionals because of her own hateful vanity and paranoia. I'd love to hear what Rod's assistants think of her, I really would.
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