Solutions

As doctors patients are always telling us how they would do our jobs. Just stitch me up, slap a band-aid on it and send me home. It’s easy to suggest a quick solution when you don’t know much about the problem. When you don’t understand the underlying cause … The first step towards a real cure is to know exactly what the disease is to begin with. But that’s not what people want to hear. We’re supposed to forget about the past that brought us here, ignore the future complications that might arise and go for the quick fix.

As doctors, as friends, as human beings we all try to do the best we can. But the world is full of unexpected twists and turns. And just when you’ve gotten the lay of the land, the ground underneath you, shifts. And knocks you off your feet. If you’re lucky you’ll end up with nothing more than a flesh wound. Something a band-aid will cover. But some
wounds are deeper than they first appear and require more than just a quick fix. With some wounds you have to rip off the bandage, let them breathe and give them time to heal.

Grey’s Anatomy | 2.20 Band-aid covers the bullet hole

We’re kids

After careful consideration and many sleepless nights, here’s what I’ve decided. There’s no such thing as a grown up. We move on, we move out, we move away from our families and form our own. But the basic insecurities, the basic fears and all those old wounds just grow up with us. And just when we think that life and circumstance have forced us to truly once and for all become an adult … … your mother says something like that. Or worse. Something like that. We get bigger, we get taller, we get older. But for the most part, we’re still a bunch of kids. Running around the playground trying desperately to fit in.

I’ve heard it’s possible to grow up. I’ve just never met anyone who’s actually done it. Without parents to defy we break the rules we make for ourselves. We throw tantrums when things don’t go our way. We whisper secrets with our best friends in the dark. We look for comfort where we can find it. And we hope. Against all logic. Against all experience. Like children, we never give up hope.

Grey’s Anatomy | 2.18 Yesterday

Your last day

In hospitals they say you know. You know when you’re going to die. Some doctors say it’s a look patients get in their eyes. Some say there’s a scent. A smell of death. Something. There’s just some kind of sixth sense. When the great beyond is heading for you. You feel it coming. Whatever it is. It’s creepy. Because if you know. What do you do about? Forget about the fact you’re scared out of your mind. If you knew this was your last day on Earth, how would you want to spend it?

If this was your last day on Earth, how would you wanna spend it?

Grey’s Anatomy | 2.17 As we know it (2)

Before you die…

It’s a look patients get in their eyes. There is a scent. A smell of death. Some kind of sixth sense. When the great beyond is headed for you, you feel it coming. What’s the one thing you’ve always dreamed of doing before you die? Okay, hello clearly not my dream. See I told you, not my dream.

Grey’s Anatomy | 2.16 It’s the end of the world (Part 1)

Lines

In surgery there is a red line on the floor that marks the point where the hospital goes from being accessible to being off limits to all but a special few. Crossing the line, unauthorized is not tolerated. In general, lines are there for a reason. For safety. For security. For clarity. If you choose to cross the line, you pretty much do so at your own risk. So why is it … … the bigger the line, the greater the temptation to cross it?

We can’t help ourselves. We see a line. We want to cross it. Maybe it’s the thrill of trading the familiar for the unfamiliar. A sort of personal dare. Only problem is once you’ve crossed it’s almost impossible to go back. But if you do manage to make it back across that line. You find safety in numbers.

Grey’s Anatomy | 2.15 Break on through

We lie

As doctors we’re trained to skeptical because our patients lie to us all the time. The rule is every patient is a liar until proven honest. Lying is bad or so we’re told constantly. From birth honesty is the best policy. The truth shall set you free. I chop down the cherry tree. Whatever. The fact is lying is a necessity. We lie to ourselves because the truth, the truth friggin’ hurts.

No matter how hard we try to ignore it or deny it. Eventually the lies fall away. Whether we like it or not. But here’s the truth about the truth. It hurts. So we lie.

Grey’s Anatomy | 2.14 Tell me sweet little lies

Fresh start

Fresh starts. Thanks to the calendar, they happen every year. Just set your watch to January. Put your past behind you and start over. It’s hard to resist the chance of a new beginning. A chance to put the problems of last year to bed.

Who gets to determine when the old ends and the new begins? It’s not a day on a calendar. Not a birthday, not a new year. It’s an event, big or small, something that changes us. Ideally it gives us hope. A new way of living and looking at the world. Letting go of old habits, old memories. What’s important is that we never stop believing that we can have a new beginning. But it’s also important to remember that amid all the crap are a few things really worth holding on to.

Grey’s Anatomy | 2.13 Begin the begin

Family

It’s an urban myth that suicide rates spike at the holidays. Turns out they actually go down. Experts think that people are less inclined to off themselves when surrounded by family. Ironically that same family togetherness is thought to be the reason depression rates do spike at the holidays. Yeah, okay Izzie doesn’t count.

There’s an old proverb that says you can’t choose your family. You take what the fates hand you … … and like them or not, love them or not, understand them or not … … you cope. Then there’s the school of thought that says the family you’re born into is simply a starting point. They feed you and clothe you and take care of you until your ready to go out into the world. … and find your tribe.

Grey’s Anatomy | 2.12 Grandma got run over by a reindeer

Feeling lonely

Forty years ago, The Beatles asked the world a simple question, they wanted to know where all the lonely people came from. My latest theory is that a great many of the lonely people come from hospitals. More precisely the surgical wings of hospitals. As surgeons we ignore our own needs so we can meet our patients’ needs. We ignore our friends and families so we can save other people’s friends and families. Which means that at the end of the day all we really have is ourselves. And nothing in this world can make you feel more alone than that.

400 years ago another well known English guy had an opinion about being alone. John Dunn. He thought we were never alone. Of course it was fancier when he said it. No man is an island entire unto himself. Boil down that island talk and he just meant that all anyone needs is someone to step in. And let us know we’re not alone. And who’s to say that someone can’t have 4 legs. Someone to play with or run around with.Or just hang out.

Grey’s Anatomy | 2.11 Owner of a lonely heart

Too much

When you were a kid it was Halloween candy. You hid it from your parents and ate it until you got sick In college it was the heady combo of youth, tequila and well you know … As a surgeon you take as much of the good as you can get … because it doesn’t come around nearly as often as it should. Cause good things aren’t always what they seem. Too much of anything, even love is not always a good thing.

How do you know how much is too much? Too much, too soon. Too much information. Too much fun. Too much love. Too much to ask. And when is it all just too much to bear?

Grey’s Anatomy | 2.10 Much to much