House – Episode 1 (Season 4): “Alone”
The first episode of House’s fourth season begins with — well, not a bang, but not a whimper, either — more of moderately exciting spectacle, like one of those fireworks that trickles down rather than explodes outward. In this episode, bereft of a team, House must solve a case on his own. Mostly.
There are definitely spoiler warnings ahead, especially for the ending, so don’t read if you haven’t seen the episode. Or if you do, don’t whine about it afterwards.
As the episode starts, a young woman named Megan is at work talking on the phone to her boyfriend, Ben. He is trying to persuade her to go to a movie that evening, but she declines, citing fatigue and sneezing. She tells him that she thinks she’s having hallucinations because the building seems to be shaking. There is a sudden roar as her office building collapses in a gas main explosion.
It’s now two days later. Megan is one of the few survivors of the explosion, but she is still very severely injured. She has been through multiple surgeries for fractures and burns. Cuddy consults House because Megan has been running a persistent fever despite being on antipyretics (fever reducing medication like acetaminophen or ibuprofen). She has also been lapsing in and out of consciousness. Cuddy wants to use this case as a goad to get House working with a team again, but he refuses. He cuts her a deal: if he can solve the case by himself that day, she will not bug him for a week.
House ropes a passing janitor into helping him. He describes the case to him in mechanical terms, and asks him what he would do. The two of them come up with several possible diagnoses: brain damage with hypothalamic dysfunction (which House discards because it would have shown up on the brain MRI she already had), infection (possible parasitic or fungal infection, admits House), or Lupus (the janitor’s grandmother had Lupus). House wants to break into Megan’s house, but the janitor refuses (or at least refuses for the amount of money House is offering him). In the end, House shanghais Wilson to help him search the house. They find a diary which reveals that Megan had a history of fatigue and feeling blue. From this, House infers that Megan has depression. He then makes the leap that she was on a certain kind of antidepressant (an MAO Inhibitor — a class of antidepressants used only rarely, if that, because safer more effective drugs are now available), that when combined with Demerol (a narcotic pain killer) she received in the ER, can cause Serotonin Syndrome, of which fever is one symptom (This is true, but there are other symptoms of Serotonin Syndrome which should have shown up as well. Serotonin Syndrome appears rapidly, and should have shown up within a few hours of receiving Demerol, and should have resolved by now, several days since she has had either antidepressants or Demerol.) House decides to place Megan on dialysis to remove the drugs from her system (not a common treatment for Serotonin Syndrome, but it has been used in severe cases). Her boyfriend insists that Megan was not depressed, seeing a psychiatrist, or on antidepressants, but House believes that Megan was just hiding it from him. He gets her mother to sign the consent.
After the dialysis she wakes up and confirms through blinking that she was seeing a psychiatrist and was on an MAO Inhibitor. She then develops ventricular tachycardia and slips into unconsciousness and cardiac arrest. Cuddy has to defibrillate her back into a normal rhythm.
House considers his deal with Cuddy done and himself the winner, but Cuddy disagrees. She wants him to figure out why Megan developed tachycardia. Endocarditis (an infection of the heart) is considered at first, but discarded because blood cultures were negative. Cuddy and House now consider that Megan may have cardiac damage from Crush Syndrome. Crush Syndrome occurs when a patient has been trapped under a heavy object, crushing part of their body and cutting off blood flow. The damage from the crush injury causes an increase in toxic chemicals in the affected parts of the body. When the patient is then released from the heavy object and blood flow resumes, these chemicals circulate throughout their body, causing a variety of serious problems (She’s been in the hospital for 3 days at this point, routine labs should have shown any Crush Syndrome by now; it’s not going to show up suddenly this late). House and Cuddy suspect the high potassium from the crush injury combined with “microvascular occlusion” have caused the heart problem, but luckily, this will show up on an echocardiogram. The echocardiogram is obtained, but it is completely normal. Taking the tachycardia (but normal echocardiogram), sweating, and fever into account, House now decides that Megan is suffering from delirium tremens (alcohol withdrawal). Her boyfriend again objects, saying that he would have noticed if she were an alcoholic. House ignores him and starts her on IV ethanol, which does correct her fever and tachycardia. In real life, IV alcohol is not the recommended treatment for delirium tremens because it doesn’t solve the dependency problem, just prolongs it. Plus, it can lead to electrolyte abnormalities (which Megan already has), gastritis, pancreatitis, and hepatitis. Benzodiazepines (such as Valium, Ativan, or Librium) are the treatment of choice.
When Cuddy visits Megan and her family, she realizes that Megan has been silently screaming in pain for the past 2 hours (but apparently the pain wasn’t enough to raise her blood pressure or heart rate noticeably). Labs show an elevated amylase and lipase, meaning that Megan has developed pancreatitis. The alcohol was the most likely cause for the pancreatitis, but there can be other causes as well. House obtains an MRI which shows a normal pancreas (when it should at least show pancreatitis). The MRI also shows an abnormality around the liver consistent with blood. Sure enough, Megan starts to bleed out both ends and is rushed to surgery with multiple sources of internal bleeding. Watching the surgery, House notices that Megan has an enlarged uterus. He enters the OR and takes a look, realizing that Megan has had a recent abortion. He then hypothesizes that she has been taking birth control pills, which when combined with the Warfarin (a blood thinner) she has been on since hip surgery (which would have been nice to know earlier), led to her bleeding (The effect, if any, oral contraceptives have on Warfarin is not clear. The combination probably does slightly increase the risk of bleeding, so House may be right. Of course, every other medication mentioned in this episode — including MAO inhibitors, ethanol, cephalosporins, tamoxifen, and antipyretics — also increase the chance of bleeding while on Warfarin, only moreso). House puts her on Tamoxifen to block the effects of the birth control pills (this is not a recommended use of Tamoxifen). This revelation that Megan had an abortion is too much for her boyfriend, who leaves the hospital, but he return later to sit by her side.
The bleeding improves, but now Megan develops kidney failure and breathing problems. Her fever returns. House wanders the ER looking for a doctor to bounce ideas off, but discovers that Cuddy has put out a memo prohibiting anyone from talking with him. One young resident decides ignore the memo and talk with him anyway. At first she suggests a fungal infection or haemophilus infection, but House rules these out. She then mentions Crush Syndrome (which House states wouldn’t explain the breathing problems) and ARDS (Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome — which House complains would only explain the breathing problems). House rethinks the differential diagnoses, and now concludes that the patient is suffering from both Crush Syndrome and ARDS, which is bad news for Megan since these conditions have a poor prognosis. As he is talking with her mother and boyfriend, he notices a large lump in her arm. An MRI shows multiple similar lumps scattered throughout the body which are shown to be Eosinophilic Granulomas, which they say is a sign of an allergic reaction (I don’t know what they are referring to here. Eosinophilic Granuloma is a type of Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis, a rare disease that has nothing to so with allergies. I’m wondering if they are confusing it with feline eosinophilic granuloma, a very different condition.) Apparently Megan is allergic to the antibiotics she was given in the hospital — medications which she has taken before without any problem. Finally, House realizes the solution to this patient’s problems — she isn’t Megan. Both Megan and a similarly appearing girl named Liz survived the explosion. There was a mistaken identification and Megan was identified as Liz and vice versa. Megan died several days ago, and the patient House has been treating is Liz — whose medical records confirm everything House has suspected including the antidepressants, abortion, and use of birth control pills.
Overall, House seemed to jump from diagnosis to diagnosis, ignoring almost everything he learned previously, building a precarious (if medical) house of cards. That he was correct was almost entirely luck, not skill. I’m sure most of this was intentional by the writers, to show that House needs a team, but it made for some very disjointed medical care.
For those who may think that the patient mis-identification at the end was a stretch, I know it seems hard to believe that family members wouldn’t recognize their child/significant other, but it has happened more than once. There was a very similar case about a year and a half ago featuring Taylor University students injured in a van crash. I suspect it was the basis for this part of the episode.
I give the medical mystery a B+, because it was interesting, if ultimately a little misleading. The final solution I give a B+ (the wrong patient solution, not the allergy solution, that was a D) because it fit the situation well, better than many past solutions. The medicine was sloppy, haphazard, and sometimes just plain wrong. Even if that was intentional, it only deserves a C-. The soap opera was the good, particularly the scenes with Cuudy as well the janitor. I give it another B+.
A list of all prior House reviews
September 26th, 2007 at 12:30 am
You were a bit more generous with your opinion than I was in my profanity-laced rant.
September 26th, 2007 at 12:42 am
Does the allergic reaction mean she didn’t have both crush syndrome and ARDS, as House thought? Cameron 2.0 said if the patient had both, there was nothing that could be done. It was just left hanging.
No comments about the House-Wilson hostage negotiations?
September 26th, 2007 at 12:42 am
It’s a weird dynamic without the team around. There’s only so much they can do with the House-Wilson and House-Cuddy interactions, and it goes to show how much of the show had been the team interacting amongst themselves. House being basically antisocial means there’s actually only so much mileage the writers can get out of him in a single episode.
The ending was definitely familiar but I couldn’t recall the specific incident. Unfortunately it seems that it totally wipes out any possible explanation for what was the real Megan’s condition, because she did seem to be dizzy before the collapse. I suppose one can always put that one on the flu.
The upcoming arc looks almost too ridiculous, but knowing House, it seems almost believable that he’d put the potential young guns through complete insanity.
September 26th, 2007 at 1:05 am
My wife and I nearly died laughing when we heard the “Dr Buffer” say Lupus. And we both had the same thought about the two girls swapped in the van wreck.
September 26th, 2007 at 1:05 am
Actually, I very much liked the solution. As in the episode with the gypsy family, it was a mundane, non-zebra solution that neatly explained the coherent part of the medical mystery. (Unfortunately, not much you can do with the incoherent part of the medical mystery.)
Looking forward to seeing Peter Jacobson on the show, who I’ve seen previously as a slightly off-kilter but deceptively bright defense lawyer on L&O.
September 26th, 2007 at 1:07 am
My jaw dropped when House dismissed Liz’s boyfriend by saying something like, “Why are you still here?” because Liz was supposed to be dead. I know House is supposed to be a jerk, but that was jerkdom times ten.
BTW, I don’t know how I could have effectively summarized this episode without deliberating lying. The big twist, of course, was that “Megan” wasn’t Megan – but how do you do that *without* lying?
And Kay Lenz – oy, I’m growing old.
September 26th, 2007 at 1:39 am
I really liked this one, though mostly for the scenes with Wilson. All of his stuff was great, but the speech about slowly tightening a guitar string was especially good. And yes, the Lupus comment made me laugh out loud.
As for the Megan/Liz solution, CSI (one of the CSIs; I can’t tell them apart) did the same thing last season, and did something a little more interesting with it. On the other hand, Cuddy’s thing at the end about how the young guns could have solved it sooner, including a character-based explanation of why, was right on target. So yes, the medicine and mystery were kind of lame in this episode, but as a hook to hang the character interaction on it worked great.
September 26th, 2007 at 4:13 am
Haven’t seen the episode yet (but I’m a sucker for this site and for spoilers…) but this isn’t the only series to do the ‘mistaken identity’ thing. An episode of CSI: New York (”And Here’s To You, Mrs. Azrael” – season 3, ep 9) took the idea from the real life case you linked to, but the surviving girl was murdered while in hospital. Readers may, now that they know that, play guess the killer…
September 26th, 2007 at 5:37 am
Megan’s sneezing and dizziness could be attributed to the gas leak. And as noted above, learning that the victim was Liz, not Megan, didn’t satisfactorily address the Crush Syndrome/ARDS issue WRT Liz. Did Wilson get another bridge and whammy bar from a vintage Gibson Flying Vee with which to taunt House? Because once you rip the hardware off of a $12,000 guitar, it’s never gonna be the same. We see House playing the guitar for his flock of new job candidates, so I assume the “patient” made a full recovery, and I suspect the damage issue won’t be addressed, but still…….
(And wouldn’t it be nice to be able to tell your boss “The character wouldn’t have some generic guitar…he heeds a ‘68 Flying Vee, which I will gladly take off your hands when we’re done using it here at work.”) Or maybe it’s from Hugh Laurie’s private collection. Either way, it’s a sweet instrument.
September 26th, 2007 at 5:58 am
The misidentification thing is possible, but not believable under this circumstance.
Too many competent people around (or are they LOL?) including the family members.
The person was messed up but not THAT bad..come on. And could even communicate!!!
Consider that last part. The family members would have communicated with the person.
There were so many things wrong with this episode. It was bad enough to drive me from watching, frankly.
September 26th, 2007 at 6:05 am
I think it’s sad how the writers took a good series and subsequently stripped all the important points from it (Occam’s Razor; Aristotelian teaching/deducing; real medicine instead of bug-of-the-day; the eccentric but still brilliant main; etc.) until nothing but a lukewarm soap remained. *sighs*
I am reminded of a similar case that happened in Austria last year though. Both victim’s families (one Austrian, one from another country) managed to misidentify their own children who had been in a car crash together; one got buried in the wrong country, the other one was in a coma for months until he woke up and started speaking the wrong language, at which point the mixup was discovered.
;)
September 26th, 2007 at 6:10 am
And I can’t brain today, I have the dumb. Socrates, not Aristotle, was the philosopher I was looking for. :P
September 26th, 2007 at 7:33 am
Over all, this season’s premiere wasn’t horrible, but as someone stated above, there is only so much you can do with House without the young guns around. Alot of the show focuses on their interactions with each other and with having them do their own thing. I thought this episode was decent. Maybe I just had to wait too long between new episodes and was willing to accept almost anything. :)
Did anyone else notice the filming and camera angles were different in this episode? Some of the camera shots reminded me of The Office. Kind of jerky and reality like.. Not sure I liked it but it was different.
September 26th, 2007 at 7:46 am
I don’t recall House taking any Vicodin this episode…
I liked the Soap, but the medicine left me cold. Do they have any medical advisers now? I think they’re getting their ideas from Wikipedia.
September 26th, 2007 at 7:57 am
Official Comment
Anthony, Roxtar,
It was my understanding (flawed though it may be) that the “allergic reaction” explanation was supposed to trump and explain away the ARDS/Crush Syndrome diagnoses.
September 26th, 2007 at 8:26 am
I didn’t care much about the medical parts of the episode, even though I found the mistaken identity a nice twist.
I loved the scenes with Wilson, though. We get too few of these, unfortunately. But, yes, where was the Vicodin?!
Thanks for your analysis, Scott. You know, when I watch the show I sometimes even think “I wonder what politedissent is going to say about this.” ;)
September 26th, 2007 at 8:53 am
This was an alright episode. I was wondering how the guitar survived Wilson’s torture attempts, but whatever.
I liked the end, but the rest, with the whole medical stuff, was a little crazy. Why did all those symptoms come out then? Wasn’t Cuddy right about any of the “crash happened four days ago” problems?
September 26th, 2007 at 9:17 am
The stuff with Wilson was brilliant, and really the only great part. The ‘tightening guitar strings’ speech was the best part of the show! That, plus Cuddy’s speech at the end about what the Young Guns would have done had they been there. And the Lupus. But everything else was cheesy, like a parody of House.
Half of last season’s GREY’S ANATOMY circld around an unidentifiable patient with amnesia a crushed face. In one episode, her parents arrive and identify her, but ultimately (that episode or the next), while the father is sure this is his daughter, the mother knows it isn’t. As soon as I saw “Megan”’s crushed face, I knew what we were dealing with.
But I missed you, Scott!
September 26th, 2007 at 9:28 am
Maybe its nothing, but I noticed that the original Young Guns are still shown in the opening credits as though nothing has changed. Perhaps the writers are really shrewd and don’t want to tip their hand as to who the new Young Guns will be. Or perhaps they’re not so smart and just let us know that the original Young Guns will be back. I could see them all getting together, realizing how good things were, and forming a team again.
September 26th, 2007 at 10:42 am
MightCondrios: as far as I can recall, the only communication that occurred from when the building collapsed and her saying “Liz” was the couple of blinks she gave Cuddy about the drugs. But the facial differences are somewhat harder to explain away, although looking at the photos from the Taylor case makes you wonder how those got messed up as well.
Gary: it’s known for sure that the Guns will return on-screen in some fashion, because Epps, Morrison and Spencer have renewed their contracts. One of those silly ways reality interferes with the suspension of disbelief, but at least it’ll be interesting to see how in the world are they gonna get back on the show.
Overall I didn’t quite like this episode as much as I hoped, but I’m willing to give a lot of slack because there has been such a profound change, and I’ll hold off judgment until I see where this whole thing is going.
And I got to ask the questions that I’m sure many of us are wondering but none of us have asked: who is that ER resident with the off-kilter bosom and is she coming back next week for the job interview? ;-)
September 26th, 2007 at 11:49 am
Call me easy to please but I really liked this episode. Although some of the complaints about this show will probably drive some viewers away, but the story is still good and I still really, really enjoyed it. And I’m glad its back for another full season.
September 26th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
A bridge can easily be removed from a Gibson Flying V without causing any damage to the guitar. However, when Wilson pulled it out of the box, there appeared to be broken chips of wood still attached to it, as if he ripped it out rather than unscrewing the parts. This would be a lot harder to do than taking out the screws and probably cause enough damage to cut the guitar’s value in half. On the other hand, strings cost less than $10 to replace, yet Wilson made a big deal about breaking them. It just goes to show that you don’t have to adhere too strictly to reality to be entertaining, just strictly enough to satisfy the laymen.
September 26th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Not a bad episode, but what I found strange is that the patient kept getting worse. For every few symptoms, and treatment, ANOTHER problem came up with another totally different treatment. Don’t these different treatments interfere with each other? He’s jumping to conclusion from conclusion in a brilliant thought is what I expect from House, but this was all the way too sudden.
September 26th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
I quite enjoyed this episode, but I can also see how people might be dissatisfied. I do think the writing team played a bit to the back of the room on this one, and should have communicated their intent better.
I think it is fairly clear that the show is doing a reboot (as Buffy and Farscape, amongst others, were famous for doing). Law & Order not withstanding a procedural show can only survive a couple of seasons without crushing under its own formula. So I see this episode as a bridge between House 1-3 and whatever the reboot is. As such the editing, the changes in the shooting style, and a change in the color story all feed into how disconnected House is. The episode ends with what is really the beginning of the season: picking a new team and changing how he works.
It is fairly well known that the rest of the Young Guns are back on the show, but their roles are going to be different. I can’t say how they will be different, but as a guess: there has almost always been an A story, a B story, and a soap opera. The A story is the medical mystery. The B story is normally some mini episodic from the clinic, and the soap opera is the soap opera. My presumption is that the A story will remain the medical mystery and House’s interactions with his new team, the B story will be with the Young Guns, and the soap opera will remain the soap opera.
Now will this change be enduring, or resolve in this season, or be something entirely different is just something we will have to wait and see. And that is exactly what I plan to do wait, and enjoy, and see.
A brief aside: Since the show began House has been my anti-role model — the guy I try not to become. The fact that I now walk with a cane and take opiates throughout the day, seems to indicate I may be failing ;)
September 26th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
I’m confused, why didn’t the allergic reaction explain away the Crush/ARDS? An allergic reaction would cause respiratory failure (among other things) and that was her primary symptom in the end. The way I understood it was that House figured out the antidepressants, the abortion and the e-pills – those explained (or at least tried to explain) her previous symptoms and by the end of the episode all we had left as symptoms were respiratory and renal failure. And those were explained (sort of) by the allergic reaction which somehow miraculously manifested itself as abnormal tissue growths.
September 26th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
I’m kind of annoyed with House right now. I feel like the plot’s going way too slow.
This episode was ok. The kind that makes you say, “Oh yes, you’re very clever…” but still feels like a
rip off. Like the idea was okay, but the execution was…so-so…
September 26th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
I have a few observations:
First, I would not put much stock into reports that the actors portraying the Young Guns will reunite, unless its been reported that they signed long-term deals. The standard deal for network tv shows is a three or five year commitment. Actors get an opportunity for a career-making role but pay for it by committing to a length that they may regret when new offers come pouring in. Producers don’t want to re-cast a popular role so they want stability in their cast until they decide to make changes themselves. So my best guess is that anyone who has re-signed has agreed to a set number of “special guest” appearances because the producers aren’t finished with the characters. I could be wrong of course – I did not see the original report that the actors had re-signed.
More importantly, I have to say that this was the single most entertaining episode I have seen, for all of the reasons mentioned above and a few others (Cuddy in the gallery telling the surgeon “don’t enable him!”). I have not watched the show nearly as long as many people have. I watched a few episodes during the MLB post-season in 2004 and then came back to the show about halfway through last season, catching up on most of the missed shows from last season during summer re-runs.
Here’s my big comment:
I don’t understand the significance of a “medical review” of House. Its a TV show, people! Does anyone watch the show and then change their mind about the quality of the episode based on whether or not the medicine was generally accurate or laughably wrong?
Unless you’re a med student, intern or emergency room physician, I don’t know why these questions should be of great interest. Its not an Agatha Christie mystery in which all the clues must be in plain sight and available to the reader so that he can solve the mystery himself.
Medical professionals can hope for better medicine in the show; the rest of us should sit back and enjoy the masterful playing of a unique character, and the interactions with the supporting cast. Gregory House is unique because of how much of a misanthropic jerk he is. The entertainment value of the show is completely derived from that fact. I see people who are claiming that the show has gone “downhill” but even though I haven’t watched the show as long as most, in my humble opinion, the show cannot go downhill so long as House remains House.
Julia Louis Dreyfus said on “Inside the Actor’s Studio” that Seinfeld’s motto was “never learn, never hug” (I’m paraphrasing). This show will remain entertaining so long as House and his colleagues, like Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer, never change.
September 26th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Scott – you wrote an excellent medical review. I give your review an A minus. The show itself a B.
Daniel in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
September 26th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
In response to Dan, I rather like the medical reviews of House. I work in medicine, and there are times I watch the show, and think, “Wait. That’s not right, is it?” And I can come here and check, and find a thourough report of what transpired. My speciality is cancer, and after many years in this field, one gets rusty on other sub categories of medicine. I know I can get a good review here, and have my questions answered.
September 26th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
I tried publishing this a few hours ago, and it has yet to show. So assuming it was the link, I’ll try again.
About Cameron 2.0, she’s been in the show before. According to TV.com, she was one of the young doctors in last season’s finale. And according to the press release for the next episode (available on The Futon Critic), she’s in the running for the job next week, where House designates her “Number 23.”
September 26th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Just a few more things:
Anthony-Yes, she was the doctor who recommended botox injections as a possibility (House gave her a B+)
Also, I don’t understand the diary. House recommended she was depressed based on a diary he found in what is presumably Megan’s home. Was House just lucky there? If so, was Megan depressed/on anti-depressants? I get the idea of finding clues from the person themselves, but when they are not who the doctors think they are, then he would have not been able to find anything useful at Megan’s house (since Liz did not live there). In fact, it would be much more likely (and maybe a bit more interesting, IMHO, although probably harder to make 60 minutes) if it was parasites/fungal infection, like House suggested, and since there would be no environmental things to note at Megan’s house (once again, because the environmental problems came from Liz’s house), Liz would die.
Some other general complaints:
1. Why is it that House so easily ruled out a virus. I thought that not all viruses can be cured or helped through antibiotics.
2. What was with the medical records? Maybe House could accept her illegally or secretly obtaining the anti-depressant meds, but an abortion?
3. The allergy solution sucked. Sure, it worked fine for Liz, but what happened to the ARDS + Curush Syndrome? The allergies just explained it away? Not to mention, how often do patients who exhibited few problems beforehand have four or five different things wrong with them (not symptom-wise, but illness/ailment wise (wouldn’t call allergies or alcoholism illnesses).
4. Cuddy/Wilson’s attempts to get House to hire a team worked? As Foreman himself said, all House cared about was solving the case. Cuddy’s “you could have done it faster” argument sucked in that respect. A better one would be “you have to talk to patients now, and do all of the stuff yourself.”
Spoiler Alert!
5. Five new doctors! I know that only two of the originally planned four were to stay (so maybe three of the new five, maybe two of the new five), but really??
September 26th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
Didn’t house determine that ‘Megan’ was on MAO inhibitors by breaking into her House (real Megan’s house)- therefore confirming depression etc. If so, how could House be right?
Assuming that as a result of the mistaken identity everything about Megan was documented with Liz? (Get what I’m saying?)
September 26th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
I’m not a doctor, but I love these medical reviews of House. I use them to help House teach me a bit about medicine. (I learn things from the show, then “un-learn” most of them reading Scott’s review.)
As for this episode, “Dr. Buffer” and “Maybe it’s Lupus” made it one of my favorites, although all of that happened in the first few minutes. This one was far better than most of Season 3, so I think we’re in for a good ride.
And as usual, every time I think “that could NEVER happen in real life,” I read Scott’s review and find out that it (misidentifying a patient) really has happened…
September 26th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
>> as far as I can recall, the only communication that occurred from when the building collapsed and her saying “Liz” was the couple of blinks she gave Cuddy about the drugs.
That is all we were shown but do you buy that the family would not have take that opportunity to communicate??
September 26th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
OS, all House really found was a diary saying “I’m not very happy around my boyfriend” and then, in later months, “I’m happy again.”
This just got his wheels turning that it COULD have been depression that was cured with pills. There was no real evidence of it. :)
September 26th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
Anyway, I thought it was a good enough episode. Though with the seasons going on and on it seems that House’s quirks that made him such a rich character are becoming less and less apparent.
I remember the days when he LOOOOOATHED seeing patients. Now he does it so frequently it’s no big deal. I remember the days when we couldn’t go two episodes without seeing House order a Reuben (dry). Back when he wasn’t a jerk just to be a jerk (”What are you still doing here?”), but when he was a jerk to prove a point (”People live with dignity, they don’t die with it!”). All the things that made him seem so HUMAN.
I just wish the same magic that made House (the character, not necessarily the show) such a rich character was still around, rather then getting wiped away and replaced with these junky/jerk qualities.
This being said, my biggest problem with this episode was no Vicodin!! I don’t think there has been a single episode previous to this one that it wasn’t in. Ugh.
Robert Sean Leonard was particularly phenomenal, though, wasn’t he?
September 27th, 2007 at 9:47 am
Wow, this is going to be different for me. I just got into House a few months ago when I started watching season 1, so I could always look forward to immediately going back to see your reviews and the established base of comments everyone left in the weeks following the episode airing. Now I have to wait (and keep coming back to check) like everyone else! On the other hand, it means I get to participate in the comments.
I like the idea of a medical review. Yes, it’s entertainment, but it’s even educational now (I was a total medical layman before, and now…. uh, well, I know about ventricular tachycardia, pulmonary edemas and pleural effusions, and symptoms for lupus (or not). Fascinating stuff. I always like to read about the science (or science fiction) behind TV shows or movies that I watch. I can live with it when they make it all up, but bonus points if it’s actually grounded in reality (like Star Trek, believe it or not).
My take on the guitar pickup was that Wilson probably carefully detached the pickup and found some scrap wood to bolt it back onto to make it look like it was torn out (how exactly would you tear out a pickup, anyway, without smashing up everything else)? My question is where on earth did he manage to hide it that wasn’t in his office or his home.
I agree that House has gone from in-your-face-but-darn-he’s-right to just plain rude and annoying (started seeing it in later half of season 2 and beyond, it seems). I didn’t quite enjoy this episode without the Young Guns to defuse him. It was like eating a mouthful of pepper — delicious when mixed with something else, but not enjoyable all by itself.
September 27th, 2007 at 10:49 am
To the people asking “why does the quality of the medicine matter when it’s just a TV show,” I don’t really care about the quality of the medicine so much as the quality of the writing. I come here more to see if I agree with Scott’s reviews of the plot than of the medicine (though I’m also interested to know where the medicine is accurate).
It’s not just the House character who’s been crapped on lately. Cuddy’s turned from an assertive, compassionate, competent dean of medicine into someone who’s dismissive and apathetic and cares more about (badly) playing mind games with House and proving him wrong than about saving lives.
September 27th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
I didn’t rewind my Tivo to confirm, but that bridge looked more like one found on a Fender Stratocaster than a Gibson guitar. A Gibson would more likely have a stop-tail piece and separate bridge.
September 27th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
First, the return of this blog with the new House season is really appreciated. For an intelligent and articulate doctor to take some precious free time out of his week to share his knowledge is more generous than we have a right to expect.
Second, “Dan” makes a good point that this is “just” television and is strictly for entertainment value. This was a really entertaining (and humorous) episode — the new season is off to a great start. The show is not training viewers to be board-certified “Diagnosticians” (a specialty which, in any event, is unknown to the boards).
But “Dan” seems not to understand the itch that this blog scratches. Many television watchers are not passively absorbing whatever drivel is emanating from the screen. (Proof: look at how “24’s” viewership plummeted last season when the plot went from strained to ridiculous.) We examine plot construction, character relationships, etc. When a show is somewhat predicated on a technical field, inquiring minds want to know if the writers/producers got the technicalities right. We learn a few things, and the show becomes more enjoyable. We all appreciate that certain liberties will be taken, but uncovering them doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy the program. This is really no different than second-guessing the manager during a ball game — we wouldn’t do it if we weren’t engaged, and the fact that the manager makes idiotic moves from time to time doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy the game.
Most doctors are, by self-selection, intellectually curious people, so the House producers really should anticipate that their medicine will be reviewed. It is surprising, in this light, they don’t make more of an effort to get it right.
Incidently, we started watching House only to what Hugh Laurie is up to. We’ve been great fans of the “Jeeves & Wooster” productions since the ’80s. His “House” role is really the anti-Wooster in so many ways (except for some facial expressions) — Laurie’s breadth as a comic actor kept us with “House.” And he probably makes more $$$ doing one episode than his did over the entire Wodehouse series.
September 27th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Dan
The reason why we expect, to at least some extent, accurate medical knowledge and practise in the show because ITS A HOSPITAL SOAP. Nobody here expects 100% accuracy, but the doctors acting like doctors, including the doctors knowing what doctors should know, is part of it. One of the best things about the whole series that it isn’t, or somewhat tries not to use the “Star Trek” method for justifying plot. The “Star Trek” method is when things ALWAYS happen to serve the plot, never on their own accord.
Also, I think that Wilson hid the guitar somewhere in the hospital, or with a patient.
September 27th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Oh and another thing: I just re-watched the episode, and it turns out that Megan doesn’t have a medical history that House can work on. And that he has to rely on the family for it, which he thankfully didn’t. House saw symptoms and evidence on the patient itself, and ran with those, although the the evidence wasn’t always presented.
September 27th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
House said Megan couldn’t be allergic to Cyclosporin because she had taken it before. Can’t an allergy develop at any time?
Also, House said an abortion meant boyfriend wanted a baby but girlfriend didn’t. Could also have meant that boyfriend wasn’t the father.
The young woman who suggested botox and got a B+ was a medical student, not a doctor. If “Dr. Asymmetrical” is played by the same actor, I’ll have to assume that the med student is her younger sister.
September 27th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
I thought that the episode was pretty good for people who don’t care about the medical aspect, although it has been better. For the part where Wilson ripped that piece off the guitar, I figured he just got it from somewhere else to try and scare House, not from actually destroying the guitar. And I also thought the comment about tightening a guitar string and listening to it scream was hilarious.
September 27th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
LabbRatt-From what I know, medical allergies don’t develop over the course of two weeks. (Could be wrong). Also, the young women was not necessarily a med student. PPTH is a teaching hospital, but interns and residents do rounds, and such, so it is quite possible that she was a resident or intern, which would make her a potential applicant for a fellowship (fellowship is just an extended medical apprenticeship usually completed sometime after residency). And House said that the abortion meant that the girlfriend did not want a baby, and her lying about it meant the boyfriend did (otherwise, why lie about being on the pill and all that). I assumed it happened before they were dating anyway (of course, it actually happened to Liz, but you get the point).
Kyle-I know that House just used the diary as a guess. What I was saying was that his guess being right is annoying. Please-how likely is it that House finds a diary in someone else’s house, which suggests that someone else MAY have been taking anti-depressants, and it turns out that his patient was taking anti-depressants. About as likely as 9 years of doctors missing Addison’s Disease and House guessing that a man who was almost brain-dead had it and could be saved (see S3 Opener), if even.
September 27th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
So if it was the wrong girl and she DIDN’T have hip surgery, then she wasn’t on warfarin and shouldn’t have been exploding with blood like she was. Right?
September 28th, 2007 at 1:47 am
Polite Disent is extremely entertaining. After each episode of House MD, I get to come here and redo the “differential diagnosis” with a whole new set of characters! And there is always some bit of humor that I missed, and now I get it. Many thanks and praises to all that choose this forum to share.
September 28th, 2007 at 3:29 am
In response to Dan:
I’m an English major (background: BA, MA, and PhD coursework in Theatre, currently pursuing a second masters in English, emphasis in Rhetoric/Composition). I enjoy reading these medical reviews as they reveal to me the medical rhetoric involved in House.
Face it: you can’t truly appreciate a medical (or cop or other) series without at least making an attempt to understand the discipline-specific rhetoric involved. Therefore, when I watch an episode of House, I do casual research to try to understand the medical-specific aspects of each episode. That research also involves these reviews, which I find greatly helpful in understanding what is happening in each episode, and how the writers have taken liberties for the purpose of creating an entertaining product for the viewing audience.
These reviews have also, concomitantly to watching House, helped me in learning how to better understand/communicate with doctors in real life. I may not know specifics regarding diseases/symptoms/etc. in situations when I find myself talking with a doctor or nurse, but at least I have a better understanding of the rhetoric involved.
Incidentally, I would love to see a good, thorough analysis of the first three seasons (with the Young Guns) in a Freudian context…i.e. each character representing an aspect of the self…
Also, jokergirl, you are technically right on both counts. Both Socrates and Aristotle used a largely deductive method of reasoning which relied heavily on empirical data, just as House does…but in the sense that House needs to “bounce” his ideas off of a team, it is more a Socratic method than an Aristotelian.
September 28th, 2007 at 7:44 am
There’s a specific reason the medical inaccuracies bother me, apart from irritation at the apparent conviction the writers hold that you can’t make medical reality exciting enough. Several of the episodes, at least in the early seasons, were taken directly from Berton Roueche’s “Medical Detectives” books, one that I know of from an Oliver Sacks book (I think it was “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat”). Now, if you’ve read those books you know that they’re interesting and the medical mysteries are entirely engrossing; there’s no need to mess with reality to make them interesting. So why did the writers mess with the perfectly good medicine they had, rather than concentrating on the drama?
I’m sure, by the way, that other episodes were taken from other books with which I’m not familiar, and if anyone knows where some of the cases might have come from I’d love to know.
September 28th, 2007 at 10:23 am
So if it was the wrong girl and she DIDN’T have hip surgery, then she wasn’t on warfarin and shouldn’t have been exploding with blood like she was. Right?
Unless they’d been administering it to her after the collapse.
Or…wait. Did they say when she had the surgery? Could it have been to fix injuries sustained in the accident?
September 28th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Well I personally loved the episode! It was so full of House and basically that’s what “House M.D.” is about, right? The medicine may not have been good but I didn’t really care that much – the point is that problems popped up all the time and House always found a way to solve them. And annoy Cuddy of course. And on the other hand – Wilson annoying House. It had it’s moments (the Lupus diagnosis from a janitor, Wilson speech on screaming guitar strings) and the drama was very good.
Personally I found the final revelation especially moving – You stand there and care for someone, in the meantime discovering horrible secrets, only to find out that it’s not true and the one you really cared about is gone and you didn’t even notice!
By the way – about the ruined guitar bridge or whatever it was. I think it’s just SOME guitar’s bridge.(one that at least resembles the qualities of his, of course, to make it plausible) The visible wooden parts on it definitely mean it’s destroyed and I don’t think Wilson is the ass to do so to such an important and precious possession of his alleged best friend.
And about the reviews – they’re great. Keep up the good work Scott. :)
September 29th, 2007 at 12:28 am
It seemed that the guitar bridge was from a hollow body, and I think House’s was a solid body.
This episode was far more believable than the chimera one…the alien explanation was almost more believable. Or the episode when Foreman says that antibiotics don’t do anything without a functional immune system.
September 29th, 2007 at 3:18 am
In re: the guitar bridge:
As far as actually determining whether the bridge came from House’s guitar or not, I offer the following –
1) It does in fact appear that the bridge came from a hollow-body guitar, whereas the Gibson Flying V is (IIRC) a solid-body; furthermore,
2) House would surely recognize the difference, and,
3) I doubt Wilson (a good friend of House) would actually destroy or damage a cherished possession of his friend in such a way.
Therefore, I must conclude that —
1) Wilson bluffed. House recognized the bluff, but also its implication in this particular escalation of hostilities, and so refused to call the bluff for fear that Wilson might in fact harm the guitar, and that,
2) The guitar was in fact unharmed the whole time, meaning that,
3) The bridge in question was a look-alike ripped by Wilson from another instrument.
This would be like the situation in “The Big Lebowski,” in which the “kidnappers” send the toe of a young lady to Mr. Lebowski, but the toe is in fact from one of the “kidnappers.” It’s a ruse intended to spur the subject to action without actually causing real harm to the kidnapping victim.
September 29th, 2007 at 6:24 am
Long-time lurker here. Finally caught up with the American schedule (live in Sweden, and they’re currently showing mid-season two), but I’ve been reading this blog for a while. It’s highly entertaining, both the reviews and the discussions that follow. It’s nice to find out what’s reality and what’s not – I have stared in disbelief at House at times, when he’s done certain procedures.
Anyway, I have to say I loved this episode. The start was interesting – “I think I’m hallucinating” – and then the building collapsing. The most fun part of the episode, however, was House and Wilson annoying each other. Kidnapping guitars, kidnapping patients – it had me laughing out loud several times.
Thanks for the great reviews!
September 29th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
One of the things people talking about the guitar don’t seem to have noticed– during the end scene with the class, when he’s tuning up, the camera pans across the body of the guitar, and you can clearly see for a second that the bridge is covered with what looks like white tape, implying that house had taped the ripped-off bridge back onto the guitar. This is basically impossible, since you couldn’t get tape to hold tightly enough that the guitar would be playable (especially that kind of tape, if it’s at all similar to stuff I’ve gotten from the local drug stores for holding bandages on and things like that). That’s the kind of repair that would require gluing and clamping and generally lots of work.
Plus, yeah, that bridge didn’t look like a Gibson bridge…
I did really like the string-tightening speech, though, indeed. Plus, it looked like Hugh Laurie was actually playing the guitar! That’s pretty unusual– usually even with my own kinda half-assed guitar skills I can tell when somebody’s faking it, and it didn’t look like he was (although I’d have to look more closely to be sure).
September 29th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Polite Dissent rocks! I’ve learned so much, thanks Scott!
September 30th, 2007 at 12:58 am
jbrandt: “Plus, yeah, that bridge didn’t look like a Gibson bridge…”
Yes, but in ‘67 and (as far as I know) ‘68 Gibson DID offer a tremolo bridge on the Flying V guitar…so that’s really an iffy bit of evidence…
September 30th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
No note that Cuddy actually doesnt want her staff to run tests for House? After all the comments, that the team have to run the test themselves and not ask specialists, im missing a comment here :-)
I liked the episode, overall it was much better than the average third-season-episode
September 30th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
Funniest scene hands down was when House responded to Wilson’s threat by saying “Bring. It. On.” and then tossing his (Wilson’s) phone right out of the window.
October 1st, 2007 at 2:54 pm
jbrandt: Hugh Laurie actually does play guitar and piano.
October 2nd, 2007 at 9:47 pm
Isn’t drinking one of the 723 different things you can’t do when taking MAO inhibitors? If so, how could she both be on them and be an alcoholic? Or is my medical ignorance showing? (Actually, it was my wife who spotted it, and she does know more than I do, but I’ll take the blame, because I thought she was right.)
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:00 pm
I actually appreciated this episode very much. It seemed like a breath of fresh air, because I believe that shows need to break away from the formula every once and a while. Looking forward to more House for the first time in a long while. The writers do seem to have their mojo back! Yay!
Someone noted this before: As a sufferrer of several medicinal allergies, I must say that all of mine were discovered only after taking a drug, so what happened to Liz in that regard wasn’t untimely.
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Josh, that confused me too (about the warfarin … why would she bleed out like that if it was the wrong patient, i.e. she hadn’t had the warfarin?). But I think David has it right; the hip surgery they talk about is one of the two surgeries she’d undergone following the building collapse. So it was Liz, but she had also had the warfarin.
Still, it seems like a pretty unlikely plot twist. If warfarin really incurs the risk of causing severe, life-threatening internal bleeding in patients who are also taking oral contraceptives, and you have a female patient with no medical history who is noncommunicative, wouldn’t the appropriate plan be to run blood tests for contraceptives (like House did)? I mean … does she really run the risk of thrombosis if you wait a few hours to run a test before you administer the blood thinners? I guess we can write it off by saying the boyfriend told the doctors she wasn’t on the pill, but is it sound medical policy to trust the boyfriend of an unmarried woman to know all the medications she’s taking?
October 2nd, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Official Comment
Prup,
While drinking alcohol while on MAO Inhibitors is discouraged, it is only drinking red wine that will cause severe problems.
October 3rd, 2007 at 12:26 am
Thanks for the reviews, very interesting. I watched the episode with my daughter, and we both commented on the way it was shot, kinda like “The Office”. Also, I may be missing something, but if a part the patient’s history was gleaned from the visit to her house, then it seems like the only way this can be wrong is if they went to the wrong house…
October 4th, 2007 at 9:29 am
Ben,
he went to the right (means: Not Lizs) house. He only concluded from the diary that she has taken the pills. Probably there was a different change in her life, that causes the swing from depressed to happy.
So it was unlikely (getting the right diagnosis for the wrong reason, something not uncommon in the house series) but not impossible.
October 5th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Hello Scott,
Thanks again for the first review of the season – may all your reviews be inspired!
As for this episode, I kind of liked it better than many episodes of season three. While the medicine might have been sloppy, most of it passes me by until I read your review. This episode had humour and a good balance of light moments (the guitar scenes, the scenes with the janitor) and heavy moments in a good balance.
And: No more Young Guns… I thought they were becoming too one-dimensional and depressing. Especially Foreman – that character only could look sulky.
October 5th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
I must say, I did find that a little disappointing after waiting so long for the series to kick off.
I was sidetracked by “Megan”s mother throughout- I was assuming the actress’ horribly immobile Botoxed face was in fact indicative of some kind of heriditary condition (damned if I know what…I’m not medical, m’self) which would tip House off in some way. Turns out she just has an implausibly static face with drawn-on eyebrows.
That said, the series is welcome as the raison d’etre of Scott’s commentaries, which my wife and I greatly enjoy. Thanks from a long-time lurker!
October 8th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
In retrospect, the guitar bridge scene was a nice bit of foreshadowing. As any guitar player would know (and most people would simply guess), that kind of damage is usually irreparable. I immediately assumed Wilson had just done in some crappy 30-dollar pawn shop guitar to freak out House, an act which is confirmed by the last scene, and which has a nice parallel to the medical mystery.
Very good episode, I thought.
November 4th, 2007 at 8:34 am
jbrandt: Hugh Laurie is in fact a brilliant guitarist, pianist, saxophonist, harmonica-ist and the list goes on.
November 22nd, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Does anyone know if is any episode of House MD in wich appears the syndrom of Stevens-Johnson???
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevens-Johnson_syndrome
Thank you
December 29th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
i love this episode. it is filled with humor and love (:
June 22nd, 2008 at 1:12 am
Anyone else find it funny that even the janitor suggested Lupus? Will Lupus ever be an actual diagnosis in House, even in the clinic? It’s an in-house (pun partially intended) joke that Lupus is never the cause.
June 24th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
This is not a medical nitpick, but I couldn’t help cringing at how completely out of tune House’s guitar was in that final scene. Ouch. It bugs me, because I know what excellent musician Hugh Laurie is. Or maybe it was intentional and meant as an extra torture for the applicants? :-P
August 5th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Interesting for me, because I am back on an MAOI (Parnate) after going through some SSRI’s. My cat once swallowed my Effexor, giving herself serotonin syndrome, for which the vet eventually prescribed cyptoheptadine! She was always trying to get at them again, afterwards. Not the reason I switched back, though.
Always marveled at Cameron & Cuddy running around in high heels. It was nearly as annoying as House running around on his long-dysfunctional leg, expecting no repercussions. Still an addictive show, though. Can’t recall whether the new women are on the show at this point, also can’t recall what they wore. I think by this time, the team had stopped suggesting sarcoidosis for everything, though!
August 17th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
House figured out she was taking MAO Inhibitors by glancing at her diary and then figured out she was the wrong patient, therefore he read the wrong diary. Are we expected to forget details like that?
September 7th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
I may be in the minority, but I loved this episode. I felt like the writers got their groove back. The guitar subplot was masterfully done, and I had to pause and crack up for a good ten minutes as the janitor suggested Lupus. The eventual diagnosis was a bit of a stretch, but when is it ever not? Naturally, not being a doctor, I didn’t know about the granuloma thing, so I wasn’t put off by that until after; however, I still enjoyed the show while watching it, and isn’t that what matters, in the end?
I did notice the diary thing, but I figured, as House said, half the population is on antidepressants. I was betting on bipolar myself, when he said she had a sudden upswing after a period of time.
September 9th, 2008 at 6:52 am
[...] link: http://politedissent.com/archives/1759 [...]
September 15th, 2008 at 11:40 am
I have no problem believing the whole diary stuff. House deduces that the girl may be on mao inhibitors from the diary, true, but this is only a hint which puts his mind on the right track. He considers the idea and concludes that this is the best explanation explaining the girl’s symptoms. Not THAT great stretch, especially compared to other solutions he seemed to take out of thin air.
And Wilson’s screaming string – priceless:-)
September 21st, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Frequent reader, but new poster.
I love Scott’s review – it saves me from having to look up all of these terms myself because I’m insanely curious about the medical stuff. Having a professional opinion is priceless and makes me watch the show more (the producers should pay you)
I’m a recent House fan because the Discovery Health Channel has run out of Diagnosis X episodes. I haven’t seen it mentioned in these posts yet (but haven’t read them all.) If you love the medical stuff, Diagnosis X is House in real life – real mysteries solved by the real doctors.
Frankly, I’m even more intersted in medicine once I see how difficult it is to practice. I’m also going to spill my guts the next time a doctor takes my history. NOTHING is too small not to matter (herbal supplements, childhood broken bones, vaccines etc.)
Keep this post going! Thanks!
March 4th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
After being disappointed with Season 3, I was hoping for an improvement with this reboot. Alas, none was forthcoming. If next episode isn’t substantially better, I think my relationship with this show will end (I expect half the property of the producers, actors and staff, of course).
Scott: I think you’re overestating the rarity of using MAOIs, it’s not that uncommon. Especially now that a transdermal selegiline patch is available, which doesn’t require any dietary restrictions for some of its dose range.
Ledasmom: I expect many of the medical mysteries come from case reports published in academic journals. Also it seems they have at least one person randomly trawling through Wikipedia and jotting down anything that might appear cool in television, then the writers try to find some excuse to place it in an episode.
May 9th, 2009 at 10:24 am
I found this website few months ago, and I find this website interesting. This website certainly have provided many useful information about medicine.
Firstly, I want to say I’m very bad in English. I’m currently learning, but the progress is slow.
Secondly, I find this episode intriguing. An episode which focus on House, Cuddy and Wilson. I think we can hardly find this episode in this series, which makes this episode so unique and interesting.
I love this medical mystery, quite a funny episode actually.
June 5th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
MAOIs are seldom prescribed as you stated…but the danger is overstated, the main one being given demerol in an accident, which is more of an argument not to use dirty drugs on patients that you haven’t been able to ask what drugs they are on…the dietary and medication restrictions are easy, as well as being over hyped…
But, they aren’t ‘less effective’. in fact, they are still the most effective ADs, especially for those not responding to first or second ( or as is probable, 3rd, 4th, etc) line medications.
June 22nd, 2009 at 3:11 am
It may – and does – happen that one gets sensitized to whatever substance and develops allergic reaction on another contact with the substance. I’ve spent my childhood using penicilin and tetracyclin and some macrolid group antibiotics and whoa,a few years later, try to give me any of these and the real fun will start. I guess that I got quite spectacular hives on occasions – or at least it doesn’t happen to me with whatever else that the docs would call the whole ward to have a look or take pictures.
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