Captured Thought: Is the Love Real?

                    In my medical technology class we often reference and watch House episodes to get a true ethical dilemma intertwined with a medical situation. House is a TV show whose plot revolves around a snobby doctor and his team of medical assistants. Together, the team assists hundreds of different severe illnesses amongst the thousands of hours they spend in the hospital. Since the majority of us are taking the class to get a sneak preview of what our future in a medical career has to offer, these videos surprisingly do the job. These videos provide us with how to deal with an ethical dilemma that comes with an illness. We all have to acknowledge our patients lives and situations outside of the hospital, and seeing the doctors in the show address these situations preps us with knowledge on how to handle similar situations in our near future.
                     One ethical dilemma that has stuck in my mind the best is the most recently watched episode, Spin #206. In this episode, a profession cyclist has caused himself an unknown severe illness by taking illegal drugs to become the best cyclist he can be. One of Dr. House's assistants finds it horrible that he has been cheating all this time and claiming national titles, while little kids looked up to him as their role model and inspirational athlete. The assistant takes matters into her own hands and questions whether or not she should turn him into the press. A fellow doctor at the hospital over hears her thoughts and tries to shed some light on the situation. He brings up the time when he cheated on his wife with a woman he thought he loved. He asks the assistant to think about all of the kids out there who see him as a role model and how bad it would crush them if they found out everything was a lie. The assistant rebuttals with the statement that the kids will realize they never loved him because he is a cheater. The Doctor adds the closing remark and states, "When you love someone, and then realize they cheated, it doesn't mean you didn't love them before."
                      In the late afternoon on a Thursday, this quote easily passed by me. But, it wasn't until nine hours later when I realized how true the statement actually was. We all have been through times in our lives when we were lied to. I wasn't until some time later when we realized we were being lied to. For example, Santa Clause. Growing up we all awaited Santa's gifts underneath the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. It wasn't long until we heard a noise downstairs, woke up, and tip toed down the stairs just to find our parents walking around with our presents from "Santa" in hand. Sadly, we had to learn that Santa no longer existed due to the facts being present and logical. But, just because the facts and truth was out, it didn't mean I didn't love and believe in Santa before. We all need to realize that just because something changes in our life, it doesn't change our previous memories. Once we all become receptive to change and allow it to not affect on how we look back at our past, we will learn to live with change, no matter how large the impact.