In between everything else in life, I think that sometimes what I forget is the power of prayer and believing in something. All too often I am caught up in the day that I forget to take a second and think about God and the reasons that I am here on this earth.
I think sometimes I forget what the power of prayer is. Now, I am not essentially a religious person, but I think that believing in something is important.
This episode of New Amsterdam was all about believing in something. If it’s yourself, medicine, prayer, love – it’s all about believing.
Let me start by saying in New Amsterdam‘s lobby has a group of people that are praying.
The Art of Letting Go
I sometimes wish that people were more like me. I am capable of turning off emotions. Well, at least not showing them.
We meet a man who has been in a coma for over 14 years. He’s been kept alive with a feeding tube. Dr. Kapoor has been his doctor for years.
The mans eyes open and Dr. Kapoor tells the family that it is an involuntary reaction. But I completely understand why the mans wife wouldn’t want to give up hope. She believes that he’s in there, that he’s alive.
So she brings her kids back to New York, where they are told that their father isn’t alive. They sit there and watch their mother sitting there, trying to convince them that their Dad is still alive. But they are sitting there and watching their Mom hold onto hope while forgetting who they are.
It’s painful to watch. When these grown kids are sitting there – forced to watch their father being forced to hold on by a tube and their mother not knowing how to exist.
But the reality is that sometimes we all hold on to what we know and don’t mean to but push other things away in the process. The wife has pushed away her kids and she’s afraid to let go of her husband because then what does she have?
Here’s what I love about Dr. Kapoor – he’s got this heart that only wants to give. He wants to love, to heal, and to hear. This man is one of the purest hearts in the world.
In order to help the family, Dr. Kapoor has to bring the family back together. And he does that with the grace and love that only he can provide.
That’s the thing about New Amsterdam – the show is so human that it doesn’t feel like a show. It feels like you’re watching this documentary about people that make a difference and change your thoughts on things. They show you that medical professionals can care and honestly – that feels like most beautiful option in the world.
We Don’t Know Enough About Vaping
The hospital gets a patient – a young one – that presents symptoms of a heart attack. This young man is too young to be suffering from a heart attack is all I can think.
We learn that the kid has been vaping. His parents have not known that he is vaping and they are surprised by the news.
There is not enough known about the complications of vaping, but we do know that there are a lot of issues that come from it. This young kid has to have a lung bypass – they are failing. This kid didn’t think that anything would come from vaping, but it’s about to end his life.
Floyd is forced to operate and the boy dies. He did everything he could to save his life. Watching this, my heart broke. His parents broke down.
Life can definitely change in an instant.
Technology Breakdown
The hospital is going through a technology update and of course there are all sorts of issues. We all don’t know what to do without our phones and computers.
When my internet goes out, I freak.
The ER is a madhouse because the doctors are used to technology. They keep track of things in there. They get their next steps in there. They don’t know what to do without the hospital computers telling them what to do.
They are all confused. They are all upset and Lauren isn’t about to let them all off the hook. She helps them all remember how things were when you had to write things out. She helps them remember how to work together. She helps them remember that getting advice from each other isn’t a bad thing.
When the computers finally come back up, she’s okay with the IT person taking their time. She likes the way they are all working together.
Not Everything Is Cosmetic
Having recently lost a shit ton of weight, I know the shame that comes with it. I know that sounds ridiculous, but the reality is that when you loose a lot of weight and your skin starts to hang, people have a million comments.
But the worst thing is the way that I feel about myself from loosing weight. I hate looking at myself.
Helen has a patient that comes in who has lost a lot of weight. She’s miserable and depressed because of how her arms are. The excess skin is a lot – trust me I know. She feels horrible about herself.
The way that she is breaking makes me break for her. She mentions self harm and Helen gets Iggy to talk to her.
I feel like Iggy is one of those people that will go to bat for his patients and I feel like that is one of the best things about him. I feel like Iggy needs a lot of help on his own and I think that people are missing that. I’m not saying all people who help a lot have issues, but I will say that with Iggy it seems as though he’s helping because he wants to, but also because then he doesn’t have to deal with himself.
And I am not condemning that cause I think a lot of us would rather deal with others than ourselves.
Iggy and Helen know that they need to get this woman help and devise a way to get it for her.
Iggy and Helen are damn heroes and I love them.
Insurance is a complicated thing – one that in all honesty will break you if you let it. Medical care in the United States sucks – the way that it’s set up. A lot of the time we have to make choices between medical care and the medication that we need versus anything else.
New Amsterdam is there for you. I think that it’s one of the most important things that we can learn about ourselves, is how to help others.
This show does it beautifully.
