S02.E15: Lose Yourself

[WendyCR72]

A bit of a break 'til this airs, but I am putting it up now so I don't forget to later!

It's a miracle when a trauma patient survives the trip to the hospital, putting the pressure on Dr. Rhodes to keep the man alive. Dr. Choi and Dr. Manning have difficulty diagnosing the location of infection in a paralyzed patient. Dr. Reese must find purpose for a grieving widower who relies on a superhero costume. Meanwhile, April pushes Dr. Halstead to use unproved medications to help a patient with no other options.

[Lady Calypso]

Well, I guess I should have seen the April/baby thing coming, but I did not. I am impressed that she powered through until the end of her shift, though. Having to deal with the loss of her baby while still doing her job? Kudos to her and my heart did break for her and Tate. Although, I am wondering where his son is. It seems like he doesn't exist anymore. 

I'm not surprised the trauma patient of Connor's died. With Connor getting bombarded with the media and Goodwin telling him not to speak to them, followed by him giving them hopeful information, I figured it would backfire. 

I'll be honest; I was a bit confused with the ending of Superhero Patient, where Reese gave him a hospital jacket, I assume as a type of intern or something? Can she really do that? I kind of missed some parts of the episode, though.

The Choi/Manning story was well done, although it's nice to see that Manning's still...Manning. I was still agreeing with her on the stem cells point, though. 

I am very impressed with how they've turned around Halstead for me. Now, he's definitely up there in the likability area. I love that he noted the lack of April's excitement over their patient's successful recovery. 

[Driad]

Quote

I was a bit confused with the ending of Superhero Patient, where Reese gave him a hospital jacket, I assume as a type of intern or something? Can she really do that?

Not as an intern, but many hospitals do have volunteers who do non-medical tasks.  In the real world this would take at least a week because the hospital would check whether he has a criminal record etc.

[MakeMeLaugh]

When Reese handed superhero the volunteer vest: Him: "um, I really don't like hospitals as they remind me of all the time I spent in them during my wife's unsuccessful cancer treatments, but sure, why not."

I thought Maggie was quite the nosy Nora. If April wanted her to know about the baby she would have told her. Starting to not like Mags much.

I really liked the sublety of April staying with the heart patient and watching her heart beats after learning her baby had none. 

Halstead is soooo much more appealing in a take-charge capacity instead of the goofy newcomer slobbering over Manning. And Manning again had no pediatric patients. If I've said it once, I've said it every week--enough psych patients every week for two characters' story lines, but no kids or babies or even teenagers for Manning? Come on, writers.

I really thought paraplegic was going to turn out to be faking it for some reason. 

[starri]

2 hours ago, MakeMeLaugh said:

I really thought paraplegic was going to turn out to be faking it for some reason. 

I was sure it was either that, or the wife was doing something to him to make him sick.

It may just be that it caught me at the end of a bad day, but I was left a little cold by April's story.  I did like the endocarditis patient, and I know if my head was a little closer to on straight, I'd probably have been moved by it.  I was a little surprised that Catholic April wouldn't really have any conflicted feelings over having a D&C, but I guess maybe she'd already accepted that the baby was gone.

[MakeMeLaugh]

42 minutes ago, starri said:

I was sure it was either that, or the wife was doing something to him to make him sick.

It may just be that it caught me at the end of a bad day, but I was left a little cold by April's story.  I did like the endocarditis patient, and I know if my head was a little closer to on straight, I'd probably have been moved by it.  I was a little surprised that Catholic April wouldn't really have any conflicted feelings over having a D&C, but I guess maybe she'd already accepted that the baby was gone.

The episode started with the anvil on our heads clue when April told Maggie she only had 21 more weeks to go. I thought hmm, probably a little too early for an early delivery and a NICU story. There must be a 20 weeks marker for a "simple" D&C vs a more complicated procedure that Show was signalling to us, but the loss of the baby surprised me. I did think the reveal was extremely abrupt:  start sonogram, find no heartbeat, suggest the D&C on the spot as there is a room available right now. 

[oftentimes]

On 3/3/2017 at 4:01 PM, MakeMeLaugh said:

I really thought paraplegic was going to turn out to be faking it for some reason. 

 

I did too! 

April losing the baby .... man, that one got to me.

[Court]

On 3/3/2017 at 10:14 PM, MakeMeLaugh said:

The episode started with the anvil on our heads clue when April told Maggie she only had 21 more weeks to go. I thought hmm, probably a little too early for an early delivery and a NICU story. There must be a 20 weeks marker for a "simple" D&C vs a more complicated procedure that Show was signalling to us, but the loss of the baby surprised me. I did think the reveal was extremely abrupt:  start sonogram, find no heartbeat, suggest the D&C on the spot as there is a room available right now. 

It was and unrealistic. They would do blood work first, give you 3 options. But you'd have to wait a couple days before starting them.

Wait and see if your body does the work, take medicine to jumpstart your body or the D&C. 

I'm not Catholic but am Christian and I had a D&C when I miscarried. I didn't feel conflicted about it. You can't carry the baby to term at once you've miscarried. My body was not doing the work naturally and it's dangerous for you to do nothing at all after the couple days.

Seeing abortion written all over the paperwork and a nurse walk in and saying ok you're here for an abortion, right? Sucked and I could have done without it. That's not a judgment on anyone who chooses an abortion,either. That just wasn't my circumstances.

[WendyCR72]

Just because I am familiar with medical terminology, a miscarriage is known as a "spontaneous abortion". This is why they probably referred to it as such with you. But I'm very sorry about what happened to you.

[Court]

3 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

Just because I am familiar with medical terminology, a miscarriage is known as a "spontaneous abortion". This is why they probably referred to it as such with you. But I'm very sorry about what happened to you.

I know the medical term and I get why it was on the papers. But this one nurse came in really cheery about it and saying it. I yelled at her. I She never came back, lol. The rest of the staff was great.

[WendyCR72]

2 minutes ago, Court said:

I know the medical term and I get why it was on the papers. But this one nurse came in really cheery about it and saying it. I yelled at her. I She never came back, lol. The rest of the staff was great.

Gotcha. And "cheery" in that case would make me ragey, too. Again, I'm sorry it happened, though, just the same.

[izabella]

On 3/6/2017 at 10:50 AM, Court said:

It was and unrealistic. They would do blood work first, give you 3 options. But you'd have to wait a couple days before starting them.

Wait and see if your body does the work, take medicine to jumpstart your body or the D&C. 

I guess I'm confused.  No heartbeat means the baby is already dead.  They have no idea how long the baby was dead since April had no idea, so the baby would have died some time between her last appointment and this one.  What would be the purpose of waiting even longer for her body to spontaneously have an abortion, and wouldn't that leave April at risk if she had a spontaneous abortion at the stage that she was in?  Maybe drugs aren't a viable option after a certain stage in the pregnancy, and they'd want to make sure they get all the tissue out so she doesn't get an infection or it harms her (already comprised by tb health).  I can't imagine her wanting to walk around with her dead child inside her any longer!

Edited March 8, 2017 by izabella

[MakeMeLaugh]

Well, they could have given her a minute to process the fact, to call the baby's father, to call a family member or friend.... you know, be compassionate. And I'm sure they would have in the real world, as what difference would another hour or a day make?

[izabella]

2 hours ago, MakeMeLaugh said:

Well, they could have given her a minute to process the fact, to call the baby's father, to call a family member or friend.... you know, be compassionate. And I'm sure they would have in the real world, as what difference would another hour or a day make?

Yes, that I agree with completely.  She didn't have a minute to process at all!  I'd like to think it would have happened differently in real life, but, in my experience with the medical world, that is exactly how it happens.  Oh, hey, look, you have cancer so we're going to schedule you for this, this and this immediately, while you're still in the "what did you just say?" stage.  So it actually rang true for me the way they did it.

[Court]

3 hours ago, izabella said:

I guess I'm confused.  No heartbeat means the baby is already dead.  They have no idea how long the baby was dead since April had no idea, so the baby would have died some time between her last appointment and this one.  What would be the purpose of waiting even longer for her body to spontaneously have an abortion, and wouldn't that leave April at risk if she had a spontaneous abortion at the stage that she was in?  Maybe drugs aren't a viable option after a certain stage in the pregnancy, and they'd want to make sure they get all the tissue out so she doesn't get an infection or it harms her (already comprised by tb health).  I can't imagine her wanting to walk around with her dead child inside her any longer!

Well I'm not a medical professional but they usually do bloodwork first and wait a couple days so you can process. At the point April was in, I think the drug would have been a good option to make your body do the work. My sister also just went through this last week and I'd be shocked if having a D&C a few hours later is standard practice.

I miscarried and then got pregnant immediately afterwards. I was much earlier on than April (7 weeks) and the Dr told me it wasn't likely a viable pregnancy. No heartbeat found, levels low and baby small. He told me to wait a week and come back but I should prepare myself. I came back a week later and heartbeat was strong. That may be rare and I don't think waiting would have done anything with my miscarriage but I'm glad I had a few days to process before choosing what I should do. 

[statsgirl]

On 2017-03-08 at 4:36 PM, Court said:

No heartbeat found, levels low and baby small. He told me to wait a week and come back but I should prepare myself. I came back a week later and heartbeat was strong.

That's why I found it so strange that the OB scheduled the D&C immediately.  Let's confirm this before you abort a possibly living baby.  Equipment can malfunction or fail to find what you're looking for.

I have a friend who travels to Mexico for a medical treatment she can't get here. It may work, it may not. But she has to try.