A Writerly Adventure in the Hospital

I recently had a surprising writerly adventure. The scare of a possible stroke sent me to the Emergency Department with a smile that didn’t work and a droopy eyelid. My emergency visit became a two-day hospital stay for testing. Though our local hospital is one of the best, I was not a happy camper to be yanked out of home and interrupted in the midst of editing my novel. Plus, I was iscared of what they might find.

How did being hospitalized become a writerly adventure?

When you’re helpless in a hospital bed, scanned, hooked up to monitors, not allowed to get up without assistance, you might find yourself scared. To escape my fear, I decided to move outward, and use my curious writer brain instead of my panicking lizard brain. I observed the people and activities around me. It relieved a lot of worry. I asked myself, what would a writer do in this situation? So I interviewed people. I asked each nurse and technician to tell me their story. How did they come to be in this field, to work in this hospital. Where were they from? People are endlessly full of stories. Many of my nurses were from other parts of the world. Some were seasoned nurses, some brand-new. One nurse was worried she wasn’t appreciated for her skills and asked if I could nominate her for a nursing award that would become a sticker on her badge. I did. She was a lot of fun, happy to chat. We talked about books and reading, other hospitals and healthcare. She was from Tacoma and new to the San Francisco Bay Area. She liked Colleen Hoover’s books.

I used to raise money for this hospital, so these are my people. Each and every caregiver was competent, kind, and impressively good at what they did. I thanked them all for being in healthcare. They were surprised to be thanked! I said the pandemic put terrible pressures and risks on everyone in the field, and I knew there remained staffing shortages that made it hard on them.

Nurses and technicians who read

My writerly adventure included asking everyone who came to my room if they read fiction. That started a whole new conversation. Almost every one of them was a reader. My day nurse turned out to be a big reader! We compared notes about helping aging parents through illnesses. She gave me ideas for a sequel to The Invisibles when she told me how she and her siblings rotate taking in and caring for their mom.

My radiologist tech came into the room with colorful arms showing under his scrubs. Fully sleeved tattoos of an intertwining leaf design. I asked him how long he worked here and he said it was seven year, but “before that I was a rockstar touring in a metal band.“ We had a great conversation while I had an EKG. He may appear in a future book!

Another favorite was the man who emptied my trashcan twice a day. I finally got him to smile and tell me his stories. I even made friends with an avid reader who steered me to a really good book.

Once I let out the news that I was an author, many had questions and I gave out my cards. ALWAYS HAVE YOUR AUTHOR BUSINESS CARDS WITH YOU!

I emerged diagnosed not with stroke, but with Bell’s Palsy. It’s not life-threatening and should resolve soon. I came home with a LOT of stories and ideas, and with great gratitude for our healthcare workers, people who put their lives on the line during the pandemic and now work extra through staffing shortages.

Even in a hospital bed, don’t forget to be an author

Because I was open about it, I even sold books to nurses and technicians. I was an author in that bed, not just a patient. They asked me about my stories. I came home not only well cared for, but feeling mildly famous and knowing myself and my calling better. 😊👌

For me the moral of my adventure was to see everything through a writer’s eyes. I don’t have be travel to exotic places or become a pirate on the high seas to have an adventure. Going to the store can become a writerly adventure, if you take the time and connect with people, paying full attention.

“Pay attention. Be astonished. Write about it.” ~~ Mary Oliver

How do you use your curiosity and imagination?

What was your latest writerly adventure? Did you observe the world around you at a particular moment, and did someone or something impress itself on you as an idea for a poems or story? How do you turn the ordinary into the extraordinary?