Some of you might be thinking reading this title that I am going to be talking about meeting Mark Feuerstein like I did in in An Amazing Happening (blog on 1/19/12). However, I really wanted to thank then for taking the time to cast a character with Lupus and not make a joke out of it as another medical show I will leave unnamed, where every other patient might have lupus but ultimately doesn't.
For those of you who don't know Royal Pains at all. First of all it is a great show and you are missing out, but that is besides the point. Royal Pains is the story of Dr. Hank Lawson "a young E.R. doctor who, after being wrongly blamed for a patient's death, moves to the Hamptons and becomes the reluctant "doctor for hire" to the rich and famous. When the attractive administrator of the local hospital asks him to treat the town's less fortunate, he finds himself walking the line between doing well for himself and doing good for others." (taken from IMDb)
Tom Cavanagh was seen before on Royal Pains as golfer Jack O'Malley who has Dupuytren's Contrature. Now Jack (Tom Cavanagh) is back and he is back on his game now that Hank helped fix him up. He is just getting a check up from Hank but when his blood work came a little off. Hank runs some more tests. It turns out Jack has been more tired and achy than usual but has been attributing it (incorrectly) to being more active than he was before. It turns out he also has rash on his neck. These symptoms combines with his blood work tell Dr. Hank that Jck has Lupus.
After going over his blood work, Dr. Hank talks to Jack about it. He doesn't gloss over it. He tells hiim it is serious and there is no cure. They do go on in the episode to talk about how his life is not limited, he just needs to be aware and get regular check-ups. He can still be himself live a full life and have Lupus. At the end of the episode we find out that Jack's Lupus is more progressed than they believe and it has started attacking his kidneys.
Thank you USA Network. Thank you Royal Pains. I hope you do not just take the easy way out and gloss over the symptoms and make it more simple than it is. I am looking forward to seeing how you handle this, I truly am. Royal Pains is one of my favorite shows and as after having Lupus myself for over 20 years, and even though I have been luckier than a lot of others, it is great to see you tackling the issue of our "hidden" illness.
Royal Pains airs on USA Network at 10 pm. I highly recommend it!
Christina that was so awesome. you are right about auto-immune diseases like lupus,fibromylalgia,auto-immune hepatitis,Hashimoto's thyroiditis. never heard of them before until i got my auto-immune diseases myself.So glad Royal Pains is telling like it really is. that is why they are so awesome & so are you for writting blogs
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