Episode 2: The First Cut Is the Deepest

Notable plot points:

Meredith Grey spends much of the episode carrying around a rapist’s severed penis in a cooler. The rapist’s victim has no family and is in critical condition and the only person who seems to care about the victim is Dr. Derek "McDreamy" Shepard. It’s clear that Dr. Grey fears that, in her isolation, she will one day be in the same position (as the victim, not the penis). Later, she happens to see a newborn in the nursery turn blue. Dr. Grey then attempts to tell the pediatric intern taking care of the baby that she suspects a congenital malformation of the infant’s heart. The pediatric intern, instead of being grateful that Grey caught a potentially fatal problem or grateful that she can now look very smart to her pediatric attending, inexplicably becomes angry and defensive. Grey then commits a serious medicine faux pas by going first to the infant's parents before going up the chain of command to the pediatric attending and cardiac surgery attending.  In the meantime, ex-model Izzie works in the suture pit where she learns the valuable lesson that undocumented people face discrimination. George finds out that everything he’d previously seen on TV regarding patient outcomes after codes was wrong. Cardiac surgeon Preston Burke is in competition with Dr. McDreamy, Derek Shepard for chief of surgery (at some unknown point in the future. The chief isn't going to retire anytime soon, but if these two yahoos are the only internal candidates for the position, I advise the hospital administration to consider conducting an external search.) In the end, Dr. Meredith Grey opts to reduce her isolation by allowing ex model Izzie and George to be her roommates in the home owned by her formerly-famous-surgeon-but-now-institutionalized-with-early-dementia mother.

My big news of the day:

1. Lawrence Dai sent me an email! Wow. I love that guy.

On Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 10:06 PM, Lawrence Dai <lawrenceandjulieandjulia@gmail.com> wrote:
Brilliant. People compliment me all the time, but imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery. Best of luck and don't give up! (but if you feel like it, go ahead and give up)

Mad Respect,
Lawrence

2. My only use for Valentine's Day is that it helps me remember the day that my ex wife and I broke up and will now help me remember the week that more recent Ex broke up with me. 

Letter to future ex-girlfriends: please break up with me on Valentine's Day because I've always thought it was a dumb holiday but it's been officially ruined for me since 2005.

On second thought, I should just stick to my vow to never date again. The last thing I need is more ex-girlfriends. Perhaps instead, I'll spend my next 30 Valentine's Days like I spent this one; sitting on the couch, eating brownies, and watching "The Biggest Loser" with my married straight friends.

3. I returned to the wards today and, for one hour, while the interns were in a teaching session, I held their pagers. Seven minutes into the hour, I literally wanted to throw the pagers against the wall. One of my interns was paged every three minutes. It really brings home this message from Episode 2 of Grey's: "There’s a wall with the attending and residents over there being surgeons and the interns over here."  Yes, interns have crappy lives and residents and attendings don't remember how much better their lives are than they used to be.

4. It is with a great deal of shame that I admit that Meredith Grey and I had a common experience today: After I spent a good portion of the day trying to find a decision-maker for a patient with no family, I drove home thinking about the fact that I will likely one day be in critical condition and there will be no one to make decisions for me. I called one of my best friends, a single-mother doctor to let her know I may designate her to take on this job. Then I made the mistake of imagining the conversation the ICU team is going to have about me: "Well, she has designated some friend who lives in another state as a decision-maker. I don't think it's a partner or anything. My, what a sad situation." 

Note to anyone making medical decisions for me: When in doubt, withdraw care.