Episode Report Card Deborah: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Slings And Arrows Of Outrageous Fortune
By Deborah | Season 2 | Episode 4 | Aired on 10.14.2004
Before we go on, I have to point out that some TWoP readers objected strenuously to the faulty portrayal of this stroke. Neurogirl wrote, "A middle cerebral artery stroke that caused right arm weakness likely would affect your speech (speech center on L, L strokes cause R weakness). Unless you have had a large bleed in your brain, a seizure, or a weird heart rhythm, you would not lose consciousness and drop to the ground from the type of stroke that was implied. And unless you had strokes in both sides of the front of the brain (totally different artery) or the brainstem you would NEVER be paraplegic. And if you had that you aren't waking up an hour later." And Grammaeryn added, "Just chiming in on the medical inconsistencies of this episode. I had a stroke four years ago and you can't be paralyzed from the waist down. There's no special lobe for waist down movement. There are motor centers on each side of the brain for motion on the opposite side. For instance, if someone is paralyzed on their right side, you can assume they had a left-sided stroke and probably suffer from aphasia or some other speech/memory problem (since speech and memory are left-sided). I had my stroke on my right side so I was paralyzed on my left side. I can't believe Olive opted out of rehab hospital treatment. That's the place where you can get stronger and how to go about your activities of daily living. Hell, I would never be able to put on my bra if it hadn't been for rehab! Yeah, the writers need a medical consultant STAT for this show." I don't have any particularly deep knowledge in this area so I'm just going to defer to them and agree here. It does seem that they wanted Olive's disability to mirror Kevin's, but I'm not sure that was necessary for the plot. Olive could have been disabled in any way that caused her to become more dependent.
Anyway. The doctor's led the Girardis to the door of Olive's hospital room. As they enter, a nurse is doing something with the tube in Olive's arm. Olive tells them not to look at her, complaining that the nurses won't give her a brush or her own clothes. Helen says gently that they don't care. Olive snaps, "I do! I care!" Then the nurse sticks her, causing her to complain and wonder aloud why the hell they don't just stick her in her legs, where she's paralyzed. Kevin volunteers, "It's a blood flow issue. I -- I used to ask the same thing." As the nurse silently leaves Olive's bedside, Olive snipes, "Nice chatting with you…Mrs. Mengele!" No one says anything. Olive regards the small container on her bed tray: "Processed juice drink…how do they expect anybody to get healthy drinking chemicals?" She chortles a bit. Me: "Damn straight." Frink: "Yeah, yeah." Joan offers to get Olive some magazines. Like, say, Curmudgeon Life, The Food Insects Newsletter, and Amateur Anthropology Digest? Olive declines, saying she just wants to get the hell out of there. Helen: "Soon…they said they're looking for a care facility." Olive: "Stick me with some drooling old people? Why don't they just shoot me? Give me some water. At least they can't ruin that." Helen pours some water and Olive struggles to take it with her right hand. Helen: "Why don't you use the other…" Olive insists she's fine. She lifts the cup to her mouth with some difficulty, but fumbles it just as she's about to drink. Helen tries to help but Olive barks, "Get out!" Kevin starts to say that things like that happen all the time, but Olive just barks again: "All of you!" They leave as she keeps telling them to get out.