“Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be,
since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.”
Thomas à Kempis
Johnny Moon literally swaggers into the office for his appointment, looking like a rock star of the early eighties. At twenty-one years old, he neither works, nor goes to college. His sole source of income is from pinball: competing in bars and winning tournaments. Over the past year, through many hours of practice, he has metaphorically become a “pinball wizard,” and earns a handsome income.
His symptoms include increasing irritability (prompting his girlfriend to send him to the doctor), a fine tremor, profuse sweating, and constant heat intolerance. Dr. Roberts quickly diagnoses Johnny with hyperthyroidism, an overactive thyroid gland, and begins treatment.
Johnny’s form of overactive thyroid is called “Graves’ disease,” and Dr. Roberts discloses his medical school experiences of alarming patients with the term “Grave.”
Once Johnny takes sufficient medication to get his thyroid problem under control, his pinball game rapidly deteriorates. What follows is a negotiation between Dr. Roberts and his patient, which allows Johnny to earn a living.
In the final Chapter of this trilogy, we see Dr. Roberts suggest to two complete strangers in the local shopping mall that they may have a thyroid problem. The results are disastrous for Dr. Roberts, but entertaining for the reader.
These chapters address additional themes, including the challenges physicians face in obtaining accurate medical histories from loquacious patients, the problems with medical jargon, and the medical history of Grave’s Disease. Dr. Roberts also raises the question, “What should a physician do when he sees a stranger in public with obvious signs of a disease?” It is clear he has learned from his own bad experiences.
The Pinball Wizard
