Making the Rounds at General Hospital – A Dose of Medicine

In a giant leap from recent protocol, General Hospital had several storylines revolving around the hospital last week. It's nice to see the drama moving away from mob stories, be it ever so slightly, and getting back to its roots. We can only hope they try to keep it real, and not flounder their way through with inaccuracies.

Sonny continued treating his newly diagnosed bipolar disorder with therapy and Lithium. Happy with the way he was feeling after taking only a few doses, he seemed upbeat and relieved the medication hadn't altered his personality too much. In their next session, Lainey pushed hot button issues, placing Sonny's mother at fault for the abuse he received at his step-father's hands, driving her patient to an outburst. When Lainey's answer was to up the dose of the medication, Sonny threatened to quit all treatment.

Carly, having been tipped off by Lainey about the outburst, arrived at Sonny's just in time to interrupt the fight that erupted between her ex-husband and Emily. When Emily asked Carly not to give Sonny a reason to quit his treatment, he lashed out at Emily and she left, giving the former couple time to hash through issues and yet again reconnect.

A lot of stuff going on here, but the most predictable is Carly and Sonny finding their way back to each other. They have another issue in common, therapy, so it isn't completely out of the realm of believability that it would pull them toward each other. Lainey's tweaking and adjusting of the medication's dosage is also accurate as it can be tricky thing to establish and patients taking the drug for the first time are often monitored pretty closely. I'm continuing to watch this story play out.

The one thing I found a bit trite is both Lainey's and Carly's blaming the victim. It has been long established that Adella was as much of victim of the abuse Sonny's step-father handed out as he was. While I can see some of the strong statements from Carly regarding Adella, you would think a therapist would be sensitive to the mentality of victims and not jump to place blame there.

The second medical story developed late in the week. While operating on a patient with end stage AIDS, Patrick cut himself. Had he stopped the surgery to clean the wound, the patient, who he had fought so hard to even be allowed to operate on, would have lost her life. When he had completed the surgery, and was able to tend to the wound, he was forced to face the possibility he may have contracted the virus.

Robin was available for him to lean on, and to guide him through the various stages of coping with the possible fallout. She also had memories of Stone's diagnosis crashing in on her and shared stories of her own with Patrick while everyone continued to walk on eggshells to see what the young Dr. Drake's first round of blood tests would reveal.

So far this storyline has been intriguing to watch. I can also see them dropping the ball and the story after one or two blood tests if the writer's find something new to focus on. Though I see wonderful possibilities for interesting future episodes for this couple – with both positive and negative test results – I would hope they would follow through in a realistic way.

See, Patrick in a vulnerable state has been attention-grabbing fare, similar to the wonderfully dramatic scenes played out while his father was awaiting a transplant, only more intense because his fears on centered on himself. I'm looking forward to seeing Noah's reaction to his son's situation, and a return spotlight to the intense father and son relationship.

Lucky fell a bit deeper into the depths of his addiction, turning to Maxie for more than just pills. Caught up in his paranoid delusions of Elizabeth is being unfaithful with Patrick, he countered by falling into the younger woman's more than open arms. It was the end result of weeks of manipulation to get Lucky to this point, a project Maxie jumped into after her unsuccessful attempts at winning over Nikolas.

I know the writers are trying to portray just how far an addict will sink for their fix, but it seems a shame they have to destroy Lucky and Elizabeth in the process. While I believe Liz would be strong enough to help her husband recover from the addiction, I don't know if the affair will be a deal breaker. It's also pretty obvious the powers that be are hell-bent at pushing Elizabeth into Jason's lonely arms – another pairing in this latest shuffle of the couples I'm just not sure about.

Next week on General Hospital

Noah stands by Patrick, Alexis throws Sam out of her house, and Lucky confronts Jason about the missing file.