In the Hospital

There is absolutely nothing like sitting in a hostpital.  Nothing at all.  Its weird, how I’ve read so many stories where people try to describe hospitals, but I swear, they get it wrong every time.  And I’ve definitely been in enough to know...*sigh*

This latest round...Yeah, there’s nothing quite like sitting in a room with a loved one who just went under the knife.  Not only having to deal with the fact that her life was completely out of your hands the past few hours, but now she’s obviously not feeling herself, looks deathly ill, and is a bit off because of medication.  The first thing I think of when I think of hospitals, is the helplessness.


There’s nothing like feeling like a rat in a maze.  A maze with moving doors and walls, that are controlled by someone else.  If you don’t go in humble, you will come out in a rage.  And if you have rage, then you will be treated like dirt.

The biggest thing I’ve ever seen or heard, in all talks about hospitals, is the smell. Every single hospital I’ve ever been in has its own unique smell.  The particular one I’m writing this in, has one of the more pungent smells I’ve encountered in a hospital.  Its actually more of a taste, that is sticking to the back of my throat.

Clean is also something that people try to use in prose to describe hospitals.  But I’ve never, ever been in one that slapped me in the face with sanitariousness. Most always smell of disease, or decay, or just...not health.  I always feel like I need a good shower after I’ve been in the hospital system for any length of time.

The best part about hospitals is each one is unique in its own way.  I’ve been in one that had a small central garden, with beautiful little statues.  My cousin works in the Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, and they have a wonderfully beautiful central area that is overlooked by the elevator as you go up.  One of the other really cool things about that particular place, was room 13...it had bloody hand prints on the door.  So many cool little things in each place.

The only thing that is the same from place to place, is the gift shops.  Sure, I’ve been in rinky dink hospitals that have rinky dink gift shops, but honestly, some places carry some amazingly cool things.  The gift shops in the hospitals in Asheville, NC., had a Garfield selection that could not be beat.  One time I bought a little toy, I had never seen anything like it.  When we got home, I checked on Ebay, and the thing was selling for $80 and up.  Of course, by the time I got back, it was sold out....

Above and beyond anything though, I can say for certain, that every single hospital I’ve ever visited, both as a patient and with a patient, has etched differently into my brain.  There’s not one that is anywhere near the same as another.  And the one thing I can say for certainty about any hospital at all...I don’t want to come back any time soon.

I could go into the deficiencies of the health care system, and maybe I will in another blog post, but for right now, I’m happy.  Lisa is laying in her little bed, and finally starting to feel good enough to smile.  And I can’t help but smile back.  There is less of her right now, than there was a few hours ago, but what is gone was causing all sorts of problems.  She keeps asking for a preacher, so we can go ahead and be married, but I keep arguing with her to get better, because our wedding is exactly one month and one day away.

Its amazing how these things happen, and make you sit back and realize how truly amazing it is to have her love, and just have her in my life.  I might be sitting in a hospital room right now, with nurses buzzing around, and all sorts of clicks and whirs from machines, but Lisa is alive and doing well.  What else could be better?