daredevilkink | Discussion/Off-Topic Post #1

Since there's been a lot of talk about Ben Urich and how he doesn't get enough attention in fandom, I want to ask about his generically dying wife. That was one of the more baffling subplots to me, in terms of writers putting it in there for character reasons but not really understanding what they were writing with.

(1) What was she sick with? Obviously dementia (like alzheimers) but a pretty early stage of said dementia, because she could recognize him and have whole conversations that acknowledged shared experiences in their past and what was going on in their present. So that clearly wasn't the ONLY problem, because she was in a hospital on an IV, and she was basically bedridden. With dementia that's a very late stage event, and even then it happens in long-term care facilities specifically for it, where the person has lost most of their cognitive functions and are more or less unresponsive to the world around them except in simple ways. Did she have cancer? Or something else that needed hospitalization levels of treatment?

(2) What was that business with the insurance lady at the hospital? Basically what I saw was, Ben wanted her to stay in the hospital, the insurance company did not want to pay for it, and he could sweet talk the administrator into helping him. My experience in hospitals is (a) you only get to stay in one if you're sick enough to need its services, otherwise you're moved to rehab or a long-term care facility, and (b) the hospital administration isn't responsible for the decision as to whether you stay or leave except when it comes to making medical decisions as to the required level of care. They don't help you more out of the kindness of their hearts - they do what's best for the patient, period, more or less. Like, I was once in a hospital and my roommate had been given a five-day stay for her procedure by insurance, but at the end of the 5 days she was still pretty sick, so the doctor and nurses came in to document how sick she was so insurance would approve another day. It was a lot of hassle, but it wasn't like they weren't going to try to help their patient get past an evil insurance company.

(3) Ben's editor would have absolutely no way of helping out with Ben's company insurance plan by making some phone calls.

(4) Ben was considering moving her to an expensive facility, which insurance could opt not to pay for - or only pay for some of, since she was obviously sick, needing to be an IV and all - but his list of options in those pamphlets was WAY too different. Assisted living is for people who are a level below nursing home, with different levels of independence (my grandmother has full-time aids and is on oxygen, but there are people there who don't have aids and are allowed to drive cars). A nursing home is about the level you're at if you need a full-time IV, with nurses on staff.

Hospice is if you're close to death and you've decided to cease serious medical care (aside from pain management). It can be done at home, for people who are terminally ill and want to die at home, or it can be done in a hospice facility, where it is assumed that you will die there, but when you choose hospice you are basically saying "I am at the end of my life. I am not expected to be cured or even really treated. I just don't want to be in pain." For example, if you have cancer, and you're receiving chemo and radiation, hospice is for when you decide to not attempt to treat your cancer anymore (or the doctors say there is no reason to continue treatment, and you decide you don't want to die in a hospital). So choosing hospice is a major life decision, were you basically say, "I am going to die, this is how I am choosing to do it."

Someone wouldn't be looking at assisted living, nursing homes, and hospice all at the same time. If he's saying his wife is in the hospital because she needs treatment to get better, then she needs that, or a long-term care center.

I think the writers just hoped being vague about it would make it okay, and make us sad, because his dying wife and all, and we would feel bad for him, and therefore we would care about him. I really wish they hadn't gone this route, and made us care about him some other way, or at least done the requisite research for her specific condition.

I think Vague Wasting Disease is Marvel's new fridging, tbh. They did the same to Peggy.

Peggy's in her 90's. Vague Wasting Disease is what happens to people that age, for real.

They could have at least given her more of a backstory. She had info about the VA kickbacks. How? Did she serve? (I know you don't have to to work there but still) Did a family member serve and get fucked over bc funds were going into someone 's pockets?

Unless we get something better I'm just going to make my own backstory with blackjack and hookers.

If you do write that story, check out the Challenges Post where the Minor Characters Fic Fest is now open!

Sorry to mention it again, I just want to make sure everyone interested in these kinds of stories knows about it!

Yeah. I might've bought that he's researching every possibility (but telling himself that she's going to recover and come home is how he gets through the day) but it didn't seem like they did that intentionally.
I assume she's supposed to have ms or early onset Alzheimer's- the new generic coughing disease

Neither of those require hospitalization at early stages, but it's also true that people don't really know what they are necessarily.

Yeah, especially since the head nurse says Doris has been there a long time, and everything I can think of would also impair her movement and speech more (though I tend to sketch while I watch tv so maybe I missed something)
Screw it, I'm not patching up their plot holes. Researching this was someone's job, and they did it poorly. I'm not angry, just disappointed

My handwave is brain cancer. It can present in so many different ways and can progress slowly or quickly. Secondary symptoms or treatment complications (esp. GI symptoms) can land a patient temporarily on IV fluids.

Headcanon accepted!

Ok. I mean it's not totally feasible to me because my dad has aggressive brain cancer and he hasn't seen an impatient for more than a day, but it's the best guess so far. Ben does say that she needs to stay so she can get the best care "so she can go home and rest" so it's maybe that she got in an emergency situation and she's not quite out of it. Chemo can do that to people.

The main thing is this: hospitals are crazy expensive. If your insurance can find a reason to put you anywhere else, like a nursing home, or a long-term care facility, or a rehab facility, or just send you home with aids (the people who help you kind, not the other kind), they will do it.

AYRT

"Brain cancer" is a pretty huge blanket that has all kinds of presentations and all kinds of progressions. With that comes all kinds of potential complications. It's my headcanon because it's the only thing I can think of that really could fit, even though the vast majority of cases don't present the Doris seems to.

Discussion/Off-Topic Post #1

What was wrong with Doris Urich?

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Re: What was wrong with Doris Urich?

Re: What was wrong with Doris Urich?

Re: What was wrong with Doris Urich?

Re: What was wrong with Doris Urich?

Re: What was wrong with Doris Urich?

Re: What was wrong with Doris Urich?

Re: What was wrong with Doris Urich?

Re: What was wrong with Doris Urich?

Re: What was wrong with Doris Urich?