Rejection

 I think that you have to believe in your destiny; that you will succeed, you will meet a lot of rejection and it is not always a straight path, there will be detours - so enjoy the view.  --Michael York

It's been a while since you first came back to the Hotel. Yes, I saw you in the clinic while I was in the SU for a regular visit. "I'm going home if they don't decide to keep me, " you said, as I passed you between patients. Once I saw them put you on the stretcher, I knew you were going to stay.


They brought you back to the Hotel Rehab because you got sick.You had a monstrous UTI but the docs said you were stable enough to stay with us for a bit, until it ran it's course. Unfortunately, the course was not typical or easy.

One day you felt bad and the next, we noticed you were sick, and then the week was over and you were really bad. Pretty soon, you were on the fast track to ICU and they airlifted you to the specialty hospital because you were horribly sick. World Renown Hospital took care of your specialty issue and kept your "lemon" as you called the lump they removed from you (damn med students!) but you just wouldn't wean from the vent. It took about a couple of months, but finally you got off it. You still have a trach, which drives you nuts.

And so, you go back and forth, from illness to getting better and just about done, then back again. But now, you can't go home again. Your family can't deal with the trach and they have their own problems. Your parents are sick and old and falling apart, too. Mom and Dad finally relented and told you, "Son, we love you, but we can't physically do it anymore." Your children have families of their own with lots of work, too.

Now, you cycle through the latest illness and wait. Nursing home after nursing home says maybe they'll take you, then they "decline due to staffing". You are still you: silly, gossipy, funny, grandpa, dad, son, but now everything has changed because of that darned "lemon".

It sucks to be rejected.