Greys Anatomy and Longterm Medical Conditions

Grey's Anatomy is an absolutely horrible show whose medical knowledge is sub-par at best, but one of the things that I do appreciate about it is the moments when something real shines through.

One of the episodes which does this is the season three episode "Six Days Part 1" and "Six Days Part 2" which included a character named Heather Douglas who has VATER syndrome which gave her advanced scoliosis which led to her being unable to walk straight.

What I liked about this episode was that it was a portrayal that was a little bitter, but in a way that felt very real? It didn't feel like her anger came just from having a disability, but like Heather had liked with her disability for so long that all she wanted was to be able to do something that other people could do? She ranted to one of the other characters about how she wanted to be a girl that boys wanted to date, and she wanted to spend time outside of a hospital and get to do the things other teenage things. And knowing what my fiancee struggles with because of her mental health condition - she always talks about how she wishes she didn't have to worry so much about missing a dose of her pills or that she could fit in better within a classroom and not get yelled at for not learning like other kids when she hasn't taken her ADHD meds or how she wishes she could just talk to people without getting anxious because she genuinely enjoys people and wants to make friends - and how she feels sometimes, I can understand how that's part of the disabled experience, especially for teenagers. It's hard to come to terms with who you are, and I can only imagine that it's so much worse when there's something that most people see as very significant and which most other kids don't understand separating you from other kids your age.

And on top of it, this episode deals with how desperately her mother wants to help her in whatever way she can but can't afford it because of all the medical bills they've already racked up and because the bank won't give her anymore loans. I appreciated this because I know how much it can cost to have a long term condition - between my mother's mental health conditions, my father and sister having a genetic heart condition, my fiancee's struggle to get diagnosed and medicated - and I feel like in a lot of ways people don't talk about the financial cost of disability and illness. People want to discuss the emotional toll it takes because they see it as being good "drama" in a show, but they rarely want to think about something as real as being unable to avoid medical care.

There have been other episodes like this one that I really appreciated too - ones revolving around young children who have had to spend their entire childhoods in the hospital and parents who would given absolutely everything they own up to keep them alive, ones about adults who have dealt with their disability their entire lives and are either beaten down by life or still trying their best to love and live normal lives - but Heather from Six Days is always the one I remember the most because when I first saw that episode I wasn't that far from Heather's age myself.