A Very Merry Christmas?!

[magz19]

Okay, so the whole scene at the end of the episode when House is/has taken all of the pills and washed it down with all the alcohol... did anyone else think that that was a suicide attempt? Either deliberately or not

Comments

[bardicsidhe]

After a brief search to find the name of the medication House took from Mr. Zebalusky (I knew it was Oxy-something, and Wikipedia turned up Oxycodone as a painkiller (and if this isn't right, would someone with TiVo please correct me? I didn't tape it.). I went and looked up the effects of Oxycodone when mixed with alcohol, and found the following page detailing the risks.

"Avoid alcohol while taking oxycodone. Alcohol will greatly increase the drowsiness and dizziness caused by oxycodone and could be dangerous."

I doubt that House accidentally mixed the two, having looked through all of the material I could find. He's developed a high resistance to Vicodin, not to mention psychological dependence (which is also detailed as a risk of taking Vicodin for long periods), and so it may be that the Oxycodone just wasn't 'doing it' for him. So, he may have tried to boost its effectiveness or at least put himself in a pain-free stupor. The man's mind never stops working, I swear, so I think that even in the low he may have hit, he'd be aware of what he was doing.

I also don't think he'd intentionally kill himself - not over this. Killing himself would only make him look all the more guilty of the crime he continues to say he never committed, especially if he died of an overdose on another highly addictive painkiller. He'd much rather be a miserable living martyr, because then he could still have the voice to let everyone know how much they're making him unjustly suffer.

I do see where you're coming from, though. When he reached for that shot glass I went "Wha--?! Are you stupid?" But this is the doctor who dropped acid to cure a migraine. This is the doctor who cut himself and crushed his own hand to temporarily relieve his chronic pain. I still believe he knew what he was doing.

[bardicsidhe]

Also saw the above note that he was down to the last few pills - which I'd forgotten. Like Stella said - maybe he was trying to prolong the effects, since it was a stolen bottle, and he went through hell just to get those this episode.