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.

Article Author: Connie Phillips

Wife, mother, aspiring novelist, and music editor at BC Magazine, Connie Phillips spends most of her time in a fantasy land of her own creating. In reality, she writes about music, television, and the process of writing, when she's not cheering on her kids at equestrian events. …

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