Take A Stand

It appears that our stay on the 7th floor was almost a short one. When planning for the bronkoscopy, the doctors were intending to perform the procedure at Cathy's bedside in the ICU. Therefore a procedure room was not reserved. The doctors had not anticipated a room opening up last night (why would they, Cathy has been waiting for days). To avoid having to re-admit Cathy back into the ICU for the bronkoscopy, and then wait for another room to open up, the doctors have postponed the bronkoscopy until a procedure room can be reserved. The bleeding has subsided today, so the doctor said that there is no urgent need to perform the procedure.

Cathy has been sitting up in a chair since 7 am. The physical therapist stopped by just before 10 to work with Cathy. One of the 'exercises' she had Cathy perform was to just stand. The goal was to stand for thirty seconds to one minute. I watched as the seconds ticked by and the one minute mark approached and passed. Cathy looked up and shot me a mischievous grin. If they wanted one minute, she was going to give them two. By the time another 60 seconds passed, Cathy was starting to tremble but she sat back down with a smile that that highlighted magnitude of her accomplishment. A little while later, while I was standing and admiring the view from Cathy's new room (it is a pretty view), I was struck by the thought of how the seemingly simple act of standing can be easily taken for granted.