Grey's Slapped With A Toxic Megacolon
Christina's difficulty with marriage -- or at least weddings -- didn't really do much for me.
The young woman with placenta accreta brought back memories of my Ob/Gyn rotation years ago in medical school. Then there's Addison's infertility and the low hormone issue in the man that had no desire to have sex with his wife (turned out it was a tumor on his adrenal gland).
But what most intrigued me was Meredith's step-mom's mysterious condition. I call it mysterious because it's a difficult storyline to follow from a medical standpoint.
I know I've dissed some of the medical storylines in the past -- but I promise it's all in fun. But that's not what I'm doing here.
I'd just love to know how Grey's writers got from point A to point B.
First, Meredith's step-mom comes in with hiccups that won't go away. At first I thought the writers had created a storyline based on Jennifer Mee, the poor girl who had hiccups for nearly two months and eventually needed an implant to get them to go away.
Then Meredith's step-mom had an endoscopy to help determine the cause of the hiccups and apparently developed a rare complication of that procedure -- bacterial endocarditis.
OK, I can follow that part. But where did the toxic megacolon come from? I'm not sure where the writers came up with that, but I'd love to know. If you figure it out, let us know.
In toxic megacolon, the colon becomes distended and inflamed. And then her colon perforated, which led to a bloodstream infection (sepsis) and she died.
After hearing that his wife had died, Meredith's father slapped Meredith. Now that was quite shocking and made for a great story. This series of events is why I chose this storyline as my favorite this week.
So which story line intrigued you the most? And the strange kiss in the stairwell between Addison and the man she didn't really know (no matter how intriguing it was) doesn't count.
Related Links:
technorati tags: greys, greysanatomy, sepsis, toxcmegacolon, hiccups, addison, bacterialendocarditis
The young woman with placenta accreta brought back memories of my Ob/Gyn rotation years ago in medical school. Then there's Addison's infertility and the low hormone issue in the man that had no desire to have sex with his wife (turned out it was a tumor on his adrenal gland).
But what most intrigued me was Meredith's step-mom's mysterious condition. I call it mysterious because it's a difficult storyline to follow from a medical standpoint.
I know I've dissed some of the medical storylines in the past -- but I promise it's all in fun. But that's not what I'm doing here.
I'd just love to know how Grey's writers got from point A to point B.
First, Meredith's step-mom comes in with hiccups that won't go away. At first I thought the writers had created a storyline based on Jennifer Mee, the poor girl who had hiccups for nearly two months and eventually needed an implant to get them to go away.
Then Meredith's step-mom had an endoscopy to help determine the cause of the hiccups and apparently developed a rare complication of that procedure -- bacterial endocarditis.
OK, I can follow that part. But where did the toxic megacolon come from? I'm not sure where the writers came up with that, but I'd love to know. If you figure it out, let us know.
In toxic megacolon, the colon becomes distended and inflamed. And then her colon perforated, which led to a bloodstream infection (sepsis) and she died.
After hearing that his wife had died, Meredith's father slapped Meredith. Now that was quite shocking and made for a great story. This series of events is why I chose this storyline as my favorite this week.
So which story line intrigued you the most? And the strange kiss in the stairwell between Addison and the man she didn't really know (no matter how intriguing it was) doesn't count.
Related Links:
technorati tags: greys, greysanatomy, sepsis, toxcmegacolon, hiccups, addison, bacterialendocarditis
7 Comments:
i don't think it was just an endoscopy, they sewed together the bottom of her esophagus to block the acid. which i thought is what led to some infection that led to sepsis. but do infections really spread that quickly?
Believe or not, I am going through this right now with my father. I mean right now. Toxic Megacolon comes from a bacteria called C. Diff, you can search it at webmd.com and find it. When a patient gets broad spectrum anti-biotics after a procedure or surgery (my Dads was back surgery), it kills off good bacteria as well as bad. However, C. Diff is in the colon and while normally beat down by good bacteria, can flourish if good bacteria is killed via anti-biotics and it not affected by these same medicines. Most people just get diarrea and it passes, but some, like my father get hugely affected by the C. Diff, leading to a distended colon. In my fathers case, they had to remove the colon completely as the infection got so bad and the targeted anti-biotics did not work. The removal occured before a perforation though, which is good. He is still in critical care, as this surgery is quite dangerous but we are hopeful of his recovery.
i would really like to know if a woman can be pregnant for two babies that are due 4-6 weeks apart??? not sure if it was house or greys or what... but id like to know.
yep it happen! in some rare cases women have two uteruses which allow them to have two cycle, she might have release an egg at two different time and got both of them fertilize. in that case she will have two babies that are not twins, and are due 4-6 weeks apart.
ps: there was a case like that in Grey's where the girl was pregnant with two babies for two different men.
My mom died on May 1st of this year, because of C.Diff, sepsis, toxix megacolon. Earlier in the year, I had talked my 77 year old mom in to having a knee replacement surgery that I thought she needed to have done so she would not fall and get hurt. The doctor recommended a partial knee replacement. Three months after the surgery, she was no better off. The surgeon had to redo the surgery with a total knee replacement. She was given so many different antibiotics and other drugs during her two time short-term rehab stay, for which I think ultimately caused her C.Diff. I will forever feel guilty for talking her in to having the knee surgery to start with. Maybe I would still have my precious little mother and best friend. Shortly after my mom had came home from rehab, she suddenly got violently sick with pneumonia, diarrhea and vomiting. She was rushed back to the hospital where she tested positive for C-Diff and sepsis. Emergency surgery was done to remove her colon. She only lasted four days after the surgery. The sepsis just consumed her body. I had never heard of C-Diff until mom had it and since then I have heard of so many elderly people having it. Now I understand the concern about over use of antibiotics.
My father had pretty much the same situation. He had lung cancer. We all told him not to have the surgery to remove his lobe. But he insisted! After the surgery, his exact words were "I just bought myself 3 more years. He was so happy! But After being released form the hospital, we moved him to a rehab. He was back in the ICU one week later with sepsis and phnemonia. Three weeks later, he was in the ICU again for about 6 hours then Hospice for 12 hours. He died form C-Diff. The nursing home he was in was ridicculous. They didn't even think anything was wrong with him. It took my brother demanding that he be taken to the er. Yea 24 hours later he was dead. I along with ny mom and brother, will never be able to get over the fact that WE made him go into the nursing home for Rehab. He wanted to just come home.
My brother is in the hospital now with compliation from amyloidosis a rare blood disease. he went in the hospital w/ an infection in his leg went on antibiotics ended up in icu now he's on dialisis and tested positive with c def. He's very weak right now and things look bleak. pray for him we don,t want to lose "our jimmy".
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