Should you see a Doctor?

This can very likely answer that question for you, as well as give you plenty of useful information on just about anything that you can catch, or are likely to suffer from between your arrival on this planet, and your departure from it, as far as health goes.

There's not a lot of technobabble, but it is not a 'quick read'. There's 2,306 pages to the end of the index at the back, and it's all very serious stuff. I might even say that it's heavy, weighing in at 4.405 pounds. It's not cheap either, at $39.95 U.S. and $49.95 in Canada. How do I know? Just got mine shipped in to the local Indigo Books from their supplier in Toronto.

Now I have to decide what to do with the 1998 version of the Merck Manual of Medical Information - Home Edition, which is lighter reading at only 1,509 pages. Maybe it's a better edit, I don't know just yet. When I was a kid, back in a previous century, every home had a big, thick, and incomprehensible 'Doctor Book', from which Grandma presumably got those recipes for 'Spring Tonic', consisting of a tablespoon of brown sugar soaked with castor oil. The very thought of that was enough to keep any kid away from that mysterious Doctor Book. Like good whiskey, the Doctor Book has improved with age, and this Merck version is the latest in the line. And now that I've spent my fifty bucks, I should tell you that it's available on line for free, just in case you don't want to deplete the bank account and clutter the bookshelf.