time { Time is an illusion, lunch time doubly so...

...and hospital time surreal. Recently I've been reminded of a phenomena I call 'hospital time'. Hospital time proves Relativity. When sitting in a hospital room, either as a patient or as a concern friend/family/spouse/etc. time passes differently than the normal world. It is a surreal passage where hours melt away and days merge and blend into one another. You know the world still exists, you can see it going by outside the window. But inside the schedule is one that passes based not on lunar, or rotational cycle, well not a rotational cycle of the earth/moon anyway, but a rotational cycle of nurses, doctors, PCAs. Even though you may or may not be sick and all you do is sit, it is exhausting. You are either worn down by worry, illness, or interrupted sleep schedule.

While in a hospital you are pulled out of the mainstream space/time continuum and float adrift on emotion, hospital coffee, and physical exhaustion.

When I was in the hospital for treatment of AML, it was six weeks. It both felt like an eternity and the blink of an eye. I was in isolation due to not having a functioning immune system and the view out my window was one of a hill and a wall of the hospital. The only visual landmarks I had of the passage of time were the light/dark cycle of day/night, recess of a school on the top of the hill, and changing of guard of the docs on duty. Add in the drugs and time became a simuflow, no longer discreet, no longer trackable, and at times, no longer linear.