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elx · #51

da de de de de de dee dee doooo da de da dooooo do do do do da deeeeeeeeeeee
apparently i am not, as i don't even know who that is, sorry, carry on.

Dimnos · #52

No pet name calling?

elx · #53

o, right-o. scuttle off lobster limbs

Dimnos · #54

Thats more like it.

MLE · #55

Didn't Hugh Laurie also play the piano on the season premiere of House this season?

Tadao · #56

Zhukov · #57

Bravo.

Kitsa · #58

I know that he can play piano. I don't really watch House so I don't know if he did or not. I caught an episode earlier this season where a woman took a bone marrow aspiration with a slight nose-wrinkle, chatted through the whole thing, and I called almighty bullshit on that show.

Colonel Flagg · #59

But if they showed how it really was (ungodly painful and worthy of general anaesthesia) that wouldn't make for "must-see TV".

Kitsa · #60

Dimnos · #61

Yes because non-documentary shows must still be 100% factual.

Kitsa · #62

I don't give a shit about fiction. I give a shit that someone, somewhere, will be watching that and have their own bone marrow aspiration coming up, and that they will think that it's no big deal because it didn't look like one on TV. And then they're going to go in for the procedure and face the betrayal of a lifetime.

If you haven't had one, don't bother opining on that aspect. Hopefully you never have to find out firsthand.

If they're going to play doctor on those shows, they need to have some semblance of accuracy. Suspension of disbelief and whatnot. Leukemia doesn't make you fart cotton candy, brain bleeds don't give you the ability to fly and bone marrow aspirations are not painless little procedures. That's what I have a problem with. If you're going to make a show about genius medical experts who do not occupy some parallel dimension where the above claims are true, make it somewhat accurate.

Tadao · #63

LET ME ENJOY MY SHOW KITSA

Kitsa · #64

FUCK YOUR SHOW, TADAO

Dimnos · #65

If they are equating a show on TV to reality they have bigger problems.

Kitsa · #66

There's a sort of desperation and a wild grab for information that accompanies a new cancer diagnosis, Dimnos.

Dimnos · #67

So you look for answers in a fictional TV show? Silly.

Kitsa · #68

No, you absolutely don't. But you're in an altered state of mind, in a very cold and dark emotional place, and you absorb anything that seems like it might be relevant to your situation. You're making grabs for any reassurance you can get that everything might be okay after all.

And if you're watching TV to try and take your mind off things, or focus on something that isn't having Hell Week at all the doctors' offices experiencing bad things and hearing even worse things, and you're watching House, and even subliminally you gave it any credence at all (again, suspension of disbelief), I can see how it could happen. You could know that you had a procedure called a bone marrow aspiration scheduled for Thursday, and here's a woman on TV having one, and it doesn't look that bad at all. And they do research for these shows, right, fact-check or something? Because it all sounds good, they use the right words. Not everyone has a medical education.

So then you walk in completely unprepared and end up curled in a ball, crying and retching in pain as they numb your skin and half an inch of fat before drilling into your hip bone with a saw-tipped metal straw. I've had some of the most brutal cancer-related procedures you can have, up to and including a botched biopsy where I literally choked on my own blood, and I will say that a bone marrow aspiration not done under general has to be far and above the most brutal medical procedure any modern-day cancer patient could have. It's more like Nazi torture.

Dr. Boogie · #69

So is it better to depict it as nightmarish agony? So that the patient who catches that episode goes into the procedure in the grip of pants-shitting terror?

Dimnos · #70

Perhaps my faith in common since is, as usual, misplaced. I dont think any amount of fictional TV or even first hand accounts would lead me to believe having a needle big enough and strong enough to puncture my bone to withdraw marrow would feel anything less then excruciating.

Kitsa · #71

I think that people should deserve to know the truth. In my opinion, they should have shown the person getting some sort of sedation. Even valium/versed would be something.

I tried to candycoat it once irl, with my mom when she had her first cancer. I tried telling her it wasn't that bad, even though I knew firsthand that it was, and the whole procedure was a nightmare. I don't even like thinking about it. I decided then and there that I was never going to do that to anyone again.

European doctors usually do the procedure under general now, and progressive-minded oncologists will at least give you some sort of IV sedation. What I wish I could get across to anyone who has one coming up is that they need to demand something, that it's not something you go into cold. If you're traumatized and they have to club you over the head to get you back in the door, what good does that do anyone?

Kitsa · #72

Dimnos- people don't know, going into it, that it's a straw-sized needle with a saw on the end. You don't see that until it's drilling into your hip. And then they want you to roll over so they can do the other side.

People want to assume that the pain management will be effective and it just isn't. But surely you go into blood tests assuming that no one is going to stab your spleen, or x-rays assuming no one is going to give you a lethal dose of radiation. People make assumptions about the intentions of medical professionals because they have to, to get by.

Colonel Flagg · #73

Some semblance of reality would be nice, and shouldn't be too hard to write into the script. I remember shows like ER (while watered down and very heavy on the doctors humping nurses aspect) had actual surgeons as consultants on the staff to make sure that they got most of the medical stuff at least half-right. I'm not sure if House has the same resources, but they should do a better job.

I wonder if any of this is helping rabid-penguin?