Red Band Society--My Perspective

Fox's new show Red Band Society tries to show what life is like in the hospital, what it's like to be chronically ill. It follows the exploits of Leo, Jordi, Kara, Emma, Dash and Charlie all of whom suffer from illnesses ranging from cancer to cystic fibrosis to an eating disorder and everything in between. These kids get to dress in their own clothes, come and go from the hospital as they please, smoke pot, get drunk, trade drugs with each other, and decorate their rooms as if they were at home. If there's a hospital out there that allows this to happen, tell me where it is!!

Life in the hospital is anything but fun. Anything but full of friendship and comradery. When you're in the hospital, you're generally too sick to entertain the thought of busting out and attending your homecoming, as the character Kara did. When you're in the hospital, you're looking at the clock waiting for your next dose of pain and nausea medications, not going out to the local dope dealer like Dash and Leo. It's often an IV pole that following you around the halls of the hospital, not a gaggle of boys because they think you're pretty like Emma. 

I've been lucky, my times spent in the ER and hospital have been few and short. I can say, though, that I was not living a life in there ANYTHING like that depicted in Red Band Society. Your attire consists of backless, shapeless gowns, no undies, and blue socks...no glamorous clothes, make-up, or hair. Your bed is uncomfortable and has standard issue blankets, nothing luxurious. No window seats with posh pillows. The food is lousy and is, generally, whatever they want to bring to you. The only decore in the room are the cards and flowers that fit on your TINY bedside table. There are no such things as decals on your window declaring your room "The Swamp" like Leo and Jordi's room. Shoot, your room could be changed at any moment!

One has to give Red Band Society a nod for trying and putting a spotlight on hospital life and chronic illness, but it's not real life, not even close. A cystic fibrosis patient wouldn't smoke pot or anything else, it would knock them off of the transplant list. It did tyke fictional Lara who was waiting for a heart. Nurses don't get to pick and chose whether they answer a patient's call, no matter how annoying they might be. And a doctor wouldn't sleep with a patient's mother. Oh. My. Word! 

Life as a chronically ill person is not fun. Your friends tend to disappear--that they got right, medical staff is curt and abrasive, your hospital stays are painful and lonely, and it seems like the cycle is never going to end. All you want to do it be better and to be normal and then you come to realize, for better or for worse, that you're probably not going to so you learn to cope. You either cope with a sense of humor, with a sense of spreading awareness, or bitterness, it's all up to you. 

But, honestly, Red Band Society got it all wrong.