S06.E13: 39 Differences

[Whimsy]

Quote

Shaun and Lea clash over their parenting styles and worry about what will happen to their relationship when their child is born. Meanwhile, Dr. Lim must find a way to save the damaged lungs that one of her long-time patients has been waiting for.

Original airdate 2/13/23

[Annber03]

Man, they really had me thinking for a time there that that girl who needed the lungs would be a goner. I thought that maybe Lim would finally have them ready...only to realize she was just a few moments too late. 

I totally understand Shaun wanting to talk out potential parenting differences with Lea before their baby is born 'cause yeah, that is a good thing to talk about before having kids...but it's also true that even when a couple is on the same page, sometimes new and unexpected situations will arise that could change things, too. I am glad that the couple managed to come to terms, as did Shaun and Lea.

Also liked them checking in on Glassman. His talk with Lea about Maddie seems to explain why he's come to warm to her as he has...I think he's really starting to see her like a daughter now. Especially since she's married to and having a child with Shaun :). 

(Hot dog flavored chips? Ew.)

[Starchild]

10 minutes ago, Annber03 said:

Also liked them checking in on Glassman. His talk with Lea about Maddie seems to explain why he's come to warm to her as he has...I think he's really starting to see her like a daughter now. Especially since she's married to and having a child with Shaun :). 

Just wait until they put the little baby in his arms and say "this is your grandpa."

[thuganomics85]

Yeah, Shaun would definitely be someone that would already try and plan his child's schooling before they are even out of the womb.  Really, it would have been out of character if he didn't!  I just hope he isn't too disappointed if his son doesn't make it to Stanford.  I could see it going either way: either their son is a lot like him and follows his path or he ends up going in a completely different direction.  It would be fun to see if we ever get there (but that would require either a lot of time jumps or for this show to go as long as Grey's Anatomy pretty much has.)

Interesting that we get another case that involves a current patient of Lim's and her having to go through major trials to save them.  She has been put through the wringer this season!  Glad it worked out.  Great acting from the guest performers: especially the actress playing the teen/patient.

Glad Shaun's case also had a happy ending, but I do hope the father learns to not be as overbearing and overprotective going forward: or, at the very least, quit being so judgmental towards the mom/his wife.  It did look like finding out he was the one that accidentally made their son sick hit him hard and he is rethinking things.  Continue to like how Shaun is being portrayed with how he leads and his interactions with the residents.  Some real growth there.

More Reznick/Park stuff that's just mainly there for Park to be right but still kind of a smug prick about it.  Reznick's new office and espresso machine did look nice though...

Glassman is definitely going to go into pure grandpa mode once the baby is born.  Especially since he's pretty much living with Shaun and Lea for now.  Really digging their interactions.

[bros402]

Okay, so a good ending is nice... but I was half hoping that one of the kid patients would have at least something bad happen - be it amoeba boy having some brain damage or cystic fibrosis girl's lungs arriving too late.

Also, with them talking about hemochromatosis... my dad wasn't diagnosed until like 60 or so - he didn't start to donate blood until after he was diagnosed. There was no sign of it before the diagnosis - only when he got a blood workup due to a type 2 diabetes diagnosis.

With Reznick's thing, why would her reputation have been on the line? I could understand if they added the hospital as a trial site and they were a more convenient location for patients to get checked at, but since Reznick had to hire everyone for the department - this wasn't an existing department, so no way they'd have everything set up. It took something like 2 months for an existing outpatient location of my cancer center to be added as a trial site for the clinical trial I am in... and St. Bonaventure isn't part of a hospital system anymore.

Edited February 14, 2023 by bros402

[possibilities]

I wish all docs had all day and night to spend on one patient, developing a new and special protocol to save their lives. 

Is Lim the new Claire? They have to make her miserable every episode?

Did Shaun say he believes the child should have NO restrictions on food except for breast milk in the first 6 months? He meant the reverse, right? I've never heard of anyone who said no breast milk and otherwise any food is fine in the first 6 months.

I've occasionally used a neti pot during high pollen season. Now I'm freaking out about maybe having given myself an amoeba in my brain. 

It seemed like the kid had the classic lyme disease bullseye rash, but they didn't seem to treat that or even mention it after noticing.

Edited February 14, 2023 by possibilities

[rmontro]

You know it's going to be a rough episode when both patients of the week are kids.

It was interesting (and refreshing) how Morgan's study patient proved the opposite of "Everybody lies", which was the theme from David Shore's other show, House.

[Starchild]

6 hours ago, possibilities said:

I've occasionally used a neti pot during high pollen season. Now I'm freaking out about maybe having given myself an amoeba in my brain. 

I use one sometimes. Always use distilled water.

Oh and always use the saline powder they provide. If you don't, your head will feel like it's on fire (pH mismatch).

[NeenerNeener]

The last time I saw Azura Skye she was playing a high school student on BTVS. I hate these reminders of how old I'm getting.

[KaveDweller]

17 hours ago, possibilities said:

Did Shaun say he believes the child should have NO restrictions on food except for breast milk in the first 6 months? He meant the reverse, right? I've never heard of anyone who said no breast milk and otherwise any food is fine in the first 6 months.

He said the baby should have no dairy expect for breast milk in the first 6 months.

[The Wild Sow]

19 hours ago, bros402 said:

Okay, so a good ending is nice... but I was half hoping that one of the kid patients would have at least something bad happen - be it amoeba boy having some brain damage or cystic fibrosis girl's lungs arriving too late.

I really thought the lungs would be too late.

This show used to actually kill off the Case of the Week once in a while (thinking of the liver patient in "Oliver," which was the first episode I saw.)  Nowadays you kinda know they'll pull it off.  Might get a little boring!

[bros402]

22 hours ago, possibilities said:

I wish all docs had all day and night to spend on one patient, developing a new and special protocol to save their lives. 

Is Lim the new Claire? They have to make her miserable every episode?

Did Shaun say he believes the child should have NO restrictions on food except for breast milk in the first 6 months? He meant the reverse, right? I've never heard of anyone who said no breast milk and otherwise any food is fine in the first 6 months.

I've occasionally used a neti pot during high pollen season. Now I'm freaking out about maybe having given myself an amoeba in my brain. 

It seemed like the kid had the classic lyme disease bullseye rash, but they didn't seem to treat that or even mention it after noticing.

With a neti pot, use distilled water to avoid brain amoebas

I was thinking the exact same thing with the rash - you think they would've at least said "we tested for Lyme and it was negative"

3 hours ago, The Wild Sow said:

I really thought the lungs would be too late.

This show used to actually kill off the Case of the Week once in a while (thinking of the liver patient in "Oliver," which was the first episode I saw.)  Nowadays you kinda know they'll pull it off.  Might get a little boring!

Yup - I was expecting Lim to run in to tell the news to see the patient coding and the mom letting her daughter go. Then we would've had an arc of Lim being in pain because she wasn't there for her patient when her patient wanted her.

Also, I wonder if this could've been solved by them calling Super Shaun and asking him to consult and take a look. A lot of the cases would be solved with Shaun's Super Autism Vision, though.

[circumvent]

The way this show uses medical words and come up with solutions for the issues they encounter is like throwing a dictionary on my brain and expecting me to know what they are talking about. I know medical drama do that but this show is too much. A string of words that mean nothing to me and that I don't even know if it is close to possible. It is a peeve of mine. I don't want a completely fantastic solution, I would like to know if those procedures and experiments are even in a study phase in real life.

I do know that something like wha they did with the lungs would have more qualified scientists monitoring, not a couple of doctors - apparently the only doctors in tis country who are willing to take time in their day to watch a lung. I also think that manipulating the lung that much would eventually make it not viable for other reasons. But I guess that hospital is the BESTEST!

Shaun saying that the kid should have only breast milk for the first six months of his life seems reasonable to me - as long as Lea can breast feed - but kids should not have dairy at all. There are studies that show how much it affects the digestive process with reflux and other ailments. Specially cow's milk. I guess there are no writers that know that because someone like Shaun would at least research the matter.

And this week Shaun is back at yelling the need for surgery NOW! The poor parents are left in the room without any explanation about what is happening, what they are going to do with the kid, no consent needed. Most shows need to rush such boring parts to fit the drama but some of them at least have someone yelling those things to the parents as they rush to the OR, and the parent has to yell back if they consent or not. Not in this show

For the first time in a long time Glassman didn't annoy me. He mellowed down a little. The fire was the best thing that happened to the character's likability level

[nlkm9]

Random question, but does lim still have the boyfriend in the wheelchair?

[circumvent]

23 minutes ago, nlkm9 said:

Random question, but does lim still have the boyfriend in the wheelchair?

I believe they are still a couple. the last thing I remember about their relationship is that she rejected the marriage proposal but they didn't break up

[jacourt]

Lim gave him a key to her condo.  So I guess they are living together.  

[Daff]

On 2/14/2023 at 2:19 AM, possibilities said:

I've occasionally used a neti pot during high pollen season. Now I'm freaking out about maybe having given myself an amoeba in my brain. 

Isn’t it recommended to use sterile saline? I know the battery operated one comes with pods of it. 

[Daff]

3 hours ago, circumvent said:

The way this show uses medical words and come up with solutions

Forget the medical jargon. When the lung patient was first chatting with Jordan about her vlog, I sounded like a foreign language! Had no earthly idea what they were saying. 

[potatoradio]

Soooo...this is a medical drama, but apparently only with medical cases that have happy endings. I'm late to the show; started watching after the surgery that left Lim paralyzed (and, wow, talk about magic wanding a happy ending...geez Louise, show!). So far this seems more like a nice, mildly dramatic fairy tale with medical jargon thrown in. Just wish there was more for the characters to do to earn that happy ending. The actors, I bet, are more than capable, but the writing doesn't give them much of a chance to deepen their characters. 

btw, a beta test of a brand new EMR software would be a huuuuuuge project and not something done with a few extra hours put in. I work in more of an IT-adjacent position, but I do work with EHR software and no, no, a change in software is a Very Big Deal. Most providers freak right the eff out at the mere mention of a minor upgrade. Just couldn't let that little detail slide. ;) 

[possibilities]

3 hours ago, Daff said:

Isn’t it recommended to use sterile saline? I know the battery operated one comes with pods of it. 

I guess it is, but (like the dad this episode) I didn't know that when I first bought mine. I also didn't know they make ones with batteries!

47 minutes ago, potatoradio said:

Soooo...this is a medical drama, but apparently only with medical cases that have happy endings. I'm late to the show; started watching after the surgery that left Lim paralyzed (and, wow, talk about magic wanding a happy ending...geez Louise, show!). So far this seems more like a nice, mildly dramatic fairy tale with medical jargon thrown in. Just wish there was more for the characters to do to earn that happy ending. The actors, I bet, are more than capable, but the writing doesn't give them much of a chance to deepen their characters. 

They used to kill of a patient a week. It's only recently that they've stopped doing that.

There was also a lot more character development in the past. 

[tennisgurl]

Very convenient that Shaun and Lea are talking possibly having issues with their parenting styles just as Shaun is dealing with a case involving parents arguing over their parenting styles! I can easily see where they could differ in their parenting styles, of course Shaun is already planning their babies college admissions essay, but that's hardly the worst obstacle they two of them have dealt with. 

Not that I want this show to be a massive downer, but it is getting noticeable that no major patients ever dies anymore, or even faces real long term complications from what happens. It doesn't exactly do much to build dramatic tension when you know that every week the patient will be fine no matter what, its less about whether or not the person will survive and more about how the doctors will save the day. 

Glassy is going to go so hard into Grandpa mode when the baby is born, its going to be adorable. I really like him living with Shaun and Lea, its been a lot more interesting than I expected. 

Good acting by all of the guest cast, especially the girl needing the new lungs. Lim has really been going through it lately. I am glad that Morgan was proven wrong about her patient lying, you need some kind of balance between the House "everybody lies" mantra and never looking for holes in a patients story.  

Edited February 15, 2023 by tennisgurl

[jacourt]

I thought it was the interaction of the parents with the sick boy that made Shaun start thinking about how parenting differences can cause a problem in a marriage.  

[thuganomics85]

I don't know if it is a coincidence or not, but I still maintain that it was after the two part COVID episode when I noticed the show seemed to shift from actually killing the patients as much as they did.  I definitely remember them being much more brutal with that aspect before, but it has been noticeable that everything mainly works out now.  Even the few that still can't be safe tend to get a more bittersweet ending instead of flat-out tragic, where their lives are at least extended and get to have proper good-byes (like the character played by Elizabeth Mitchell last season.) 

Because of that, I continue to suspect that the real life pandemic kind of turned the writers/David Shore into big old softies for better or worse.

[possibilities]

There's an argument to be made for minimizing the misery, but they still should be writing better episodes. 

 

[CarpeFelis]

10 hours ago, potatoradio said:

btw, a beta test of a brand new EMR software would be a huuuuuuge project and not something done with a few extra hours put in. I work in more of an IT-adjacent position, but I do work with EHR software and no, no, a change in software is a Very Big Deal. Most providers freak right the eff out at the mere mention of a minor upgrade. Just couldn't let that little detail slide. ;) 

I don’t even know what EMR stands for, but I’m a retired software engineer. The software I worked with was for CAD/CAM, and it reached a point where we had to submit our software releases a few MONTHS before a release to allow for all the testing. All I could think was “I hope they have one hell of an automated test suite!”

WTF with the bottle of nail polish. If the bottle didn’t burst in the fire, wouldn’t the polish at least be unusable?

And the writers sure do some awkward expository dialogue. Glassman mentioning how he was once operating on the “medulla of the brainstem”. What other medulla is there?!

[bros402]

2 hours ago, CarpeFelis said:

I don’t even know what EMR stands for, but I’m a retired software engineer. The software I worked with was for CAD/CAM, and it reached a point where we had to submit our software releases a few MONTHS before a release to allow for all the testing. All I could think was “I hope they have one hell of an automated test suite!”

WTF with the bottle of nail polish. If the bottle didn’t burst in the fire, wouldn’t the polish at least be unusable?

And the writers sure do some awkward expository dialogue. Glassman mentioning how he was once operating on the “medulla of the brainstem”. What other medulla is there?!

EMR is Electronic Medical Record

[SunnyBeBe]

I really liked this episode.  Maybe, my favorite yet!  
 

The nasal rinse devices that I have seen are extremely clear in their instructions to not use tap water.  
 
I don’t have much patience for parents who go at it verbally in the child’s presence.  We used to have a family court judge who would beg parents to stop the verbal war for their kids’ sake.  He often told the story of the pre-schooler who chewed her arm……stress from her parents’ verbal war had caused considerable injury. They would not make peace or let the child have peace, due to their banter.    

How would smoke detectors help save the house if it was empty?  I guess they were connected to an automatic alarm system, but that would have been activated when the exterminators turned them off.  My aunt and uncle lost their home to fire the day before this past Christmas.  Their basement was the only thing spared too.  It’s a very traumatic thing.  
 

 

 

 

[Fable]

On 2/15/2023 at 12:43 PM, tennisgurl said:

Not that I want this show to be a massive downer, but it is getting noticeable that no major patients ever dies anymore, or even faces real long term complications from what happens. It doesn't exactly do much to build dramatic tension when you know that every week the patient will be fine no matter what, its less about whether or not the person will survive and more about how the doctors will save the day. 

I think I'm okay with that for now.  I've liked the more recent episodes more than I have in a while, and I realized I don't really need a tearjerker to engage me.  Sometimes a feel-good show is enough.  

[Jim Marlowe]

On 2/15/2023 at 10:07 PM, thuganomics85 said:

I don't know if it is a coincidence or not, but I still maintain that it was after the two part COVID episode when I noticed the show seemed to shift from actually killing the patients as much as they did.  I definitely remember them being much more brutal with that aspect before, but it has been noticeable that everything mainly works out now.  Even the few that still can't be safe tend to get a more bittersweet ending instead of flat-out tragic, where their lives are at least extended and get to have proper good-byes (like the character played by Elizabeth Mitchell last season.) 

Because of that, I continue to suspect that the real life pandemic kind of turned the writers/David Shore into big old softies for better or worse.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that this season-worth (since the Salen's departure) in particular was quite special, a considerable amount of the staff became patients. We had:

- Lea 

- Park

- Lim

- Villanueva

Add to this an also considerable amount of kid patients.

So it would be hard to kill one of them and it shortens the list of potential loss.

 

But I'm agree, it would be by example not a stretch that the girl with the damaged lungs died in this present episode, I think she only survived because the actress playing the patient is a real life double-lung receiver and it was her experience depicted.

Same with the sextuplets, at least one of them would have realistically died, knowing the circonstances.