Just Like a Woman

Connor is stunned to find Alana, a female patient, is a pre-operative transgender. His resolve to cope is shattered when he subsequently learns that she used to be his football coach, and a mentor after Connor's father died. Repulsed and betrayed, Connor wants nothing more to do with Alana. Nor can he understand how Alana's son Tom, also an old friend, can be so accepting of the situation. Alana is diagnosed with breast cancer as a result of the hormone therapy she is on. She refuses to have a mastectomy and will not stop taking the hormones, as it would mean returning to the body she felt trapped in all her life. Connor confronts her for being a coward. Surely any life is better than none at all? Tom helps Connor appreciate the significance and bravery of Alana's transformation. Her distress over the injustice of her fate and insistence that she is still the person Connor admired, finally makes him accept not only the choice Alana has made, but Alana as a woman. While Steph worries about her husband, Ben enjoys the freedom of being a separated man by flirting with a woman he is called to attend. However, innocent banter suddenly becomes serious when the woman offers her his phone number and then a lift home. Ben succumbs, ending up in bed, only to regret it. Von refuses to heed Mitch's constant nagging that she must adjust her lifestyle to accommodate her lupus. Her day is not made any easier by Colin, a flamboyant chef who refuses to change his long hours, copious drinking and rich diet despite his diagnosis as a diabetic. Von is finally forced to read the riot act to him and can no longer ignore the relevance of the lecture to herself. Mitch drives the point home. If Von does not look after herself, she won't be able to hold down her job — and her work is the only thing Von has in her life. She goes home to begin educating herself about coping with lupus. Terri learns Mitch is seeing an employee at All Saints. She becomes totally preoccupied with finding out the woman's identity, finally discovering it is Juliette, a physiotherapist. Mitch's refusal to divulge anything only frustrates her further. Not only is she cool towards Juliette, she is also snappy with her staff. Terri can't believe she has become the victim of the green-eyed monster and resolves to pull herself together, offering Mitch her genuine blessings for his future with Juliette. Jared is the only nurse to readily accept caring for an obsessive-compulsive patient. At first, he and Sharon get on well, sharing their liking for cleanliness. However, as Sharon's condition becomes more and more trying, Jared starts to recognises some of his own behaviour in her. He tries his best to fight his own 'tidy' instincts, but is destined to fail.