I am trying to figure out if it is just my heightened awareness to Cancer and organ donation or has the television media just ran out of story lines and now they all seem to use it as a plot line. Why are TV shows choosing the “illness card” more and more?

1. Grey’s Anatomy – Izzie Stevens, well we all know her story. She was flatlined and ready for death at the season finale, but she signed her contract, is now a patient living with Cancer and no longer ‘surgical’. I suppose that is what happens after you finish treatment and you start to live a normal life again….is it?

2. Young and the Restless – this summer, they decided to give a beautiful young woman, with everything to live for Ovarian Cancer. And they did a REALLY bad job with it. They made her have surgery, and they had to give her a full hysterectomy, BUT they saved her eggs for harvesting with her husband in the future.

When she started her chemo, she decided to shave her head BEFORE the chemo even started. From what I witnessed first hand this summer, it wasn’t until about a week after the chemo was completed that hair starts to fall out. And I KNOW it is television, but this ‘patient’ looked good for a patient undergoing chemo.

3. Young and the Restless – used it again this past week. One patient was brain dead and another needed a heart. When they decided to end her life, they noted that she was an organ donor and they proceeded to give her heart to the sick patient.

4. Dr. Phil – a few weeks ago had on 8 donors and recipients that have given their kidney’s to others. It was also a subject on last years Grey’s Anatomy, but these surgeries actually happened.

5. Commercials – I just saw a commercial today about a child that received a bone marrow transplant for a rare condition that they had and now they are alive and well and thriving again.

6. Mercy – a new show, pretty good actually. The first episode was with an ‘older’ lady who had cancer and she was tired of all the treatments her kids were making her go through. She did not want any more procedures. Her nurse told her that she had a choice, and she could choose no more treatments.

7. Brothers and Sisters – now Kitty has been plagued with the cancer card. She has lymphomia, and on Sundays episode she had to undergo a bone marrow biopsy to confirm her condition. All of this is very real to me and what I have witnessed this summer.

I watch a lot of TV and a lot of them are dramas, so it comes with the territory, but the reality of life is enough for me, now it is in so much of what I watch. Sometimes too much. But, I will probably continue to watch, well…because I like my shows.

Did I miss any shows that you watch? leave me a message, I would like to know how many other shows out there are using the cancer or illness card in their story lines.

The reality of Shari Silverman is that she needs a bone marrow transplant. If you haven’t already done so, you need to register on line at www.onematch.ca or you need to come to one of the clinics that are being held at the end of this month. Please read this article from this week’s CJN paper – http://www.cjnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17753&Itemid=86