Comments on: House – Episode 10 (Season 4): “It’s A Wonderful Lie”

By: Mike Malloy

Mike Malloy — Sun, 10 May 2009 23:14:25 +0000

I myself have Osteopetrosis and broke my hip in the 8th grade wrestling for our middle school. My mother has the disease and after looking at my x-rays they were able to conclude I did as well.

Anyway… in regards to the drill doing whatever it does in the episode (haven’t seen it yet. just trying to figure out which one it is to watch out for it)

I know they used 6 drill bits throughout the procedure when they drilled the 3 pins into my R hip. It took so long i woke up while being stitched up.

Just thought id give me 2 cents as one of the few who has first hand experience with the condition

cheers

By: Whitebat

Whitebat — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:16:38 +0000

Well, if you’re trying to make the clinic patient a saint, maybe she volunteers at an AIDS clinic, and is a little bit paranoid. The story Matt mentioned would give a Saint Nicholas connection for prostitutes and pawnbrokers. There’s a variant wherein each daughter receives a gift just as she’s about to be of age, and the father tries to spy and find out where the gift is coming from with the youngest daughter.

By: Aimee

Aimee — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 03:17:23 +0000

Add me to the people saying that the lactation from risperidone (Risperdal) is NOT just theoretical. I was on it for about a week and a half before lactation started. Needless to say, I freaked out, especially b/c I wasn’t warned about that possible side effect. After talking to my pdoc, she said that has happened to about half her female patients who have taken it and most of them go off of it for that reason (I sure as hell did!). Interestingly, the lactation doesn’t always go away soon after discontinuing the risperidone – mine lasted for about six months after I stopped taking it. It’s not a super-big amount but it is noticeable and stained the inside of a few of my bras – quite embarrassing until I get to a washing machine!

By: matt1618

matt1618 — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:08:56 +0000

Re: the “whore/Madonna” side plot…

The live nativity thing in Catholic Churches is rare but can be found. It was definitely a Catholic Church due to the side altars, Mary statue, high altar with tabernacle, etc. Maybe the show was going on as a separate event and not as part of a Mass… but then again, they showed the Church pretty full for just a live nativity thing. This could probably go on before Mass starts which explains why the priest doesn’t have a chasuble on yet, just the alb and stole… but all this may be moot as I doubt the writers thought it through as deeply as I am now!

I’ve never heard that St. Nicholas is the patron saint of prostitutes… maybe the writers gathered that from this story of him:
“Upon hearing that a local man had fallen on such hard times that he was planning to sell his daughters into prostitution, Nicholas went by night to the house and threw three bags of gold in through the window, saving the girls from an evil life. These three bags, gold generously given in time of trouble, became the three golden balls that indicate a pawn broker’s shop.”

Another thought: Maybe House is a fallen-away Catholic? He felt comfortable enough from previous experience to show up at a Catholic Church and he knew of whom St. Nicholas is the patron saint. I also remember him saying a line in another episode “If you want absolution, call a priest”. Another time he tried to make a metaphor that fell a part, something like “its like if a priest prayed for something… oh wait, that actually works”.

Maybe as he got more and more into science he fell more and more away from faith? I think he would find Fides et Ratio illuminating: JPII’s document on the relationship between faith and reason – they should be distinct but never separate.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 15:15:39 +0000

My opinion about the drill biopsy: They tried a regular needle biopsy first (we didn´t see that) but Maggie´s bone was too hard so they used the drill then. The risperidone thing: House was looking for breast tissue and he found it. Even when affected by a tumour, there´s still some functioning tissue left, or not?

By: Andreas

Andreas — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 01:00:13 +0000

IIRC the nice boob effects of risperidone are due to blockade of Dopamine D2-receptors and an increase in prolactine that is normally surpressed by dopamine. Thing is, then it’s related to EPS and other nice antidopaminergic effects of the antipsychotics, can you spell parkinsonoid, which are said, at least by jansen pharma before their patent ran out, to be smaller with the atypicals like risperidone, maybe by modulation through 5ht2a, maybe the affinity to d2 is lower. AFAIK the reason is unknown, and i don’t know how this translates to galactorrhoe, but a nice shot of vitamin h might have worked as well or better, or perphenazine, if i read my catie-try well. ;)

By: SALTY

SALTY — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:11:36 +0000

@ Tina:

Tina, it doesn’t necessarily make her a prostitute because she gets HIV tested every three months! How do you know she didn’t have a blood transfusion, or unsafe sex or something totally UN-prostitute-ish???

BTW, Scott….I just love your site! Keep up the great work..I look forward to reading your posts every week.
:)

By: tina

tina — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:58:25 +0000

she WAS a prostitute,
house said she got tested for STD (or only AIDS, I don’t rememberclearly) every three months; besides she knew exactly what kind of donkey show House had in mind, yet she wasn’t flabbergasted:-)

By: Tauriel

Tauriel — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:26:54 +0000

Wow, my wishes actually came true! “House” finally featured some Beatles music! :-))) (It was the opening bars from “Here Come The Sun King” mixed with some Christmas carol.) Nice. :-)

Aurora: Re Christmas performances in Catholic churches. They’re not that common, but they’re not unheard of. But they definitely wouldn’t be part of a mass like it was portrayed in this episode, so I’ll just give it to the artistic license. And yeah, I’m pretty sure it was a Catholic church. :-)

By: vieras

vieras — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 18:37:59 +0000

The girl was adopted. What was the grap about the fetus starting of stuff in the mothers body? She didn’t carry one.