Time does not stop for us

“I’m sorry, sir, you have to take all removable metal off” ... my eyes drift down towards his ring finger.

“Oh, yes.” He removes the ring & places it in a pill bottle, while he tells me it’s where he keeps his wife’s ring, too. On chain that he wears around his neck.

What he doesn’t tell me, but I already know, is that his wife had passed, also from battling cancer, just a couple of years ago.

I stop for a second & think about what keeps people going after their spouses move on…

As the nurses roll his stretcher into the OR, I take his phone & see his beautiful wife smiling with him on his lock screen.

______

Days I’m not in the covid ICU have made me think about all of the people who have had to put their life on hold because of this disease - particularly ‘non-covid’ patients.

Like the man I’ve described above, who’s been battling cancer for 15 years, suddenly back for metastasis to his spine, & in need of intervention before it completely compresses his spinal cord.

Or the young, sweet, intelligent girl in her early teens who’s spent half her life fighting a disease that has progressed to cause nearly complete blindness & hearing loss that’s worsened in the recent weeks, and the parents who were desperate to salvage what’s left of it.

While time seems to stand still for the rest of us: all forms of life, including disease progressions, do NOT get put on hold.

(& on the contrary, including births of healthy babies, that of which recently include a couple of close friends 💜)

My point is, no one really has more time they want to spare or spend on fighting this thing off. .

I talk often & passionately about masks & social distancing & how we are handling this disease.

It is not simply for the sake of rules

While this isolation has made many of us realize our appreciation for certain activities & freedoms

I worry that others continue to take things for granted; particularly: time. & life.

We do not have time to be bending rules, making mistakes, & learning the hard way.

Not when we know better.

Not when the consequences are our own illness & deaths.

We do not get anymore excuses for missteps. We are too intelligent.

Let’s be better.