Cherish life

My day began at 4.30 am. The weather was still lousy; the lightning was pretty scary. The intermittent flashes of lightning was hurting my eyes.I had to wear sunglasses at 5am! Dork alert:-)

So anyway I got to the hospital in one piece (insert sigh of relief here), albeit a tad late. I shadowed a member of the rapid response team today as earlier scheduled. It was an experience like none other! No sooner had I set my tush down than we were paged about an emergency situation on one of the units. We arrived on the unit to a patient gasping for air but still able to verbally express her discomfort. The patient was promptly moved to one of the critical care units. We walked back to the office hoping the rest of the day would be "quiet". About an hour later we responded to a code blue alert, lo and behold, it was the same patient from earlier this morning. She had gone into cardiac arrest. We tried to revive her for over thirty minutes, however our efforts didn't bear fruit. Seeing her flat line set off an array of emotions in me. Why?Why? Why? Watching her families reaction to the sudden, unexpected tragedy was difficult. It was heartbreaking. I empathized with them, knowing too well how it feels to lose a loved one.

How short life is! It can end in the twinkle of an eye. It began questioning my own mortality. When my time comes, will I be ready? Is anyone ever ready? I am reminded of a song by Tim Mcgraw (not that I'm a country fan), "live like you were dying" I think it's called. Cherish each moment, take the time to smell the roses. Every second, every minute, every hour counts. Life is a gift; cherish it.