OMG I LOVE THIS SHOW.

[agilebrit]

So, Chase got one right tonight, and... quits? I might quit too, my boss punched me in the mouth. Well, not "might." "Would." With a heavy dose of "assault and battery charge."

Tritter is a manipulative bastard and I hate him.

Okay, House is a manipulative bastard too, but he's a different sort of manipulative bastard than Tritter is, and I can therefore put up with him. However, he made Cuddy cry tonight, so that makes me hate him a little. Greg, honey, that was WAY below the belt, there. Bad House! No Vicodin!

And Wilson rolls over on his only friend. Wow. How sad is that?

Okay. I'm going to grant for a moment that House is a "drug addict." Although what that means, with his level of pain, is anyone's guess. Is he dependent on the Vicodin? Well, YES. Because he's in PAIN.

Not only that, but he's in a shitload of pain. That much pain equals fear. Fear that you will someday run out of the drug that keeps you from wanting to chew your own leg off at the hip. Fear that causes you to hoard the drug. Fear that causes you to steal a prescription pad and forge a prescription for it--even though you have 600 pills rattling around your house.

Not only that...but it looks, from where I'm sitting, like that fear has suddenly become justified. They're cutting him off. Two every six hours? Is that enough? I don't know. But I don't think anyone knows--except House. Because it's his leg. Certainly this damb cop doesn't know.

So, it looks like they're going to wean him off of the Vicodin. Dandy. How are they going to deal with his pain? What else is there to give him? What other treatment is there? I'm not a doctor, and I don't even play one on TV, so I don't know.

But it sure will be interesting to see what they decide to do. Because pain management is a tough call to make--and I'm fairly certain he doesn't want them cutting on his leg again. And, dude, I've been at the "ten" on the pain scale, and don't ever want to be there again. If I had to take twelve Vicodin a day to not be there? Damn straight I would.

Comments

[milkshake-b.livejournal.com]

If the show honestly bothers to address that, I'll be shocked. I stopped watching when we got that season three opening with him pain-free and jogging, because the ignoring details such as muscle loss there made it blatantly obvious to me they were going to go down the path of "House really isn't in that bad a shape, and he's just that fucked-up a person and if he fixes his head he'll be fine." I haven't heard one thing in anyone talking about the season so far to suggest any otherwise.

[dragonflymuse.livejournal.com]

Okay. I'm going to grant for a moment that House is a "drug addict." Although what that means, with his level of pain, is anyone's guess. Is he dependent on the Vicodin? Well, YES. Because he's in PAIN.

See, this is where the show's arc goes down the toilet. Because, as any doctor knows (and nurse), chronic pain patients DO NOT become addicted to their pain medications. They develop tolerance, and require higher dosing/multiple meds, but chronic pain patients learn to live with CONTROLLED pain, and don't have the expectation of being pain free. And House is clearly addicted (one ep dealt with that discovery/admission, so it is canon), which means his behaviour and actions shouldn't be tolerated just because he's House; he should be treated like every wheedling, conniving, angry junkie looking for a score, and that is not how this is playing out. Which is sad, because this handling of the matter (and having a main protagonist be a sufferer of chronic pain) does a great disservice to people who actually suffer through the agony day in and day out.

So, it looks like they're going to wean him off of the Vicodin. Dandy. How are they going to deal with his pain? What else is there to give him? What other treatment is there? I'm not a doctor, and I don't even play one on TV, so I don't know.

But it sure will be interesting to see what they decide to do. Because pain management is a tough call to make--and I'm fairly certain he doesn't want them cutting on his leg again. And, dude, I've been at the "ten" on the pain scale, and don't ever want to be there again. If I had to take twelve Vicodin a day to not be there? Damn straight I would.

Vicodin is not a long term medication. There are better meds meant for long term pain management, and shame on the research team and their advisors for not bringing them up before now.

And most chronic pain sufferers are medicated not to be a 10 on the pain scale, but they do learn to live with (and function and be productive and have LIVES) medicated down to a 4 or 5.

I deal with alot of chronic pain patients at work; I've seen 9 year olds with terminal diseases handle a change in their pain meds better than House.

And good for Wilson. Tough love is needed. He is doing House a service, despite how it has been handled.

[ludditerobot.livejournal.com]

Okay. I'm going to grant for a moment that House is a "drug addict." Although what that means, with his level of pain, is anyone's guess. Is he dependent on the Vicodin? Well, YES. Because he's in PAIN.

Granting that. But. The addiction actually predates the injury. He says he was an addict in "Three Stories". The doctors see (mostly) a chronic pain sufferer, but Tritter sees an addict. But he's both. Which makes things complicated. And either the writers don't see that complication, or they have no real understanding of it, like they don't understand real long-term pain management.

This gets to the question of finance. More people go through oncology because more people get cancer than get whatever combination of off-the-wall illnesses that House gets? That's why he's always borrowing money from Wilson? OK, that's bigger picture than this ep, but it's interesting that we never see a murder of Wilson's crows, even if, as head of oncology at a big-time institution, he'd have a billion of 'em. Think about 3 Lbs. Everyone there is, in some way, Hanson's ducks, and Brain Surgery and Oncology are both bigger tickets than Diagnostic Medicine.

It's interesting to me that Tritter seems to be the House of detectives, being a manipulative ass, trying different treatments until he gets what he wants, etc.

[louli-rabbit.livejournal.com]

Is it just me or did everyone on the show forget that at the beginning of the season when House was recovering from his gunshot wound and whatever they did with the ketamine that made his pain in leg go away that he had stopped taking the Vicodin?

It was after a month or how ever long it was when the limp and pain returned that he started back up again and had to ask Wilson for a perscription.

At least I'm pretty sure about that.

*scratches head*