Weekends in the hospital are just the worst.
The longing to be anywhere but in the hospital is stronger on the weekends because the halls are empty, the restaurants in the hospital are usually closed, television programming is terrible. The doctors don’t round as frequently to break up your day. The gift shop may be closed.
It’s just an empty shell of the busy weekday atmosphere. You know the one that keeps you distracted from all the horrible things going on around you.
The main reason though, is the fact that you really can’t get outside and enjoy just simply being outside. You might go for a walk but that doesn’t compare to the freedom to be on the go, finding a park, hiking in the woods or exploring something somewhere.
Being stuck in a hospital sucks
If you don’t know what being stuck in a hospital is like, it’s miserable. There are people who have been in the hospital for a year or more. Can you imagine?
Can you imagine what it’s like to be confined to a bed unable to get outside and feel the fresh air on your face, the sun glimmering in your eyes, or touch the grass?
Can you imagine what it’s like to be unable to lift your own hand to your face or move your legs?
Can you imagine what it’s like to be unable to go to the bathroom by yourself?
Can you imagine looking out a hospital window at either a brick wall or if you’re lucky the city or an interstate? All the while wishing you could be out there enjoying life away from the tubes, monitors, telemetry and hospital furniture.
It can be soul crushing and depressing, if you let it.
Stop making excuses, be grateful you can go outside, no matter the weather
That’s why if you’re able bodied {I mean you’re not in the hospital, you can walk (even if it’s with a cane)}, you should be grateful that you’re not confined to a bed.
Don’t squander your health or mobility sitting around the house on the weekends or during the week if you’re retired.
Don’t waste away watching boring television shows or playing on the computer.
Don’t take for granted that you have the freedom to get your body outside, rain or shine, cold or hot.
Get outside or exercise every day to honor those who can’t
If there is ever a day that you find yourself less than motivated to move I want you to think of all the people, children adults, infants, seniors, teenagers that are stuck in a hospital bed, perhaps staring out a window wishing they could be anywhere but where they are – then you get your butt up and go outside.
Health is fleeting – it can end at any moment. Go do something, I don’t care what it is as long as you’re not sitting around the house wasting away.
If you want to know how I know so much about what it’s like to be stuck in a hospital go here.
