All in a row in the medical time zone

 Why do we want all our ducks in a row?

 So last week we had 2 medical false alarms. One more false than the other and one genuine alarm but slightly removed. Followed immediately by an offspring's breaking up with his girlfriend. This also may have been a false alarm but I'm not entirely sure yet- all I know is that while I really don't care for getting older I have no desire to be young again. Once was enough thank-you.

That and our friends spending their week in a hospital reminded me of all the time zone changes involved in crises. There is a special time zone for ERs and hospitals. And a special time flow- but  "flow" makes it sound somewhat linear and it definitely is not. It's not just that the people who work in a hospital mean something else entirely by words like "soon" and "8AM rounds" or "lunchtime" or "morning" than people do outside the hospital. It's that crisis mode changes time itself for the patient and immediate family (defined as the ones who are immediately at the hospital with them). Days of the week cease to exist, mealtime had no meaning, the calendar hanging on the refrigerator loses all functionality. It feels odd when people not in crisis mode remind you of some event in their time zone.On the plus side my to do lists dissolve and I kinda like that mealtimes are no longer the order of the day. In crisis/medical mode I no longer worry about who will eat what when - my usual mom (and daughter) pre-occupation. On the negative side I gained 10 pounds last time my son's shunt caused a prolonged medical adventure. Still, it was nice not to think about house work for a while - until the crisis was over and the calendar glared at me and the  pile of laundry pushed through to my consciousness again.

 I ponder all this because we were only almost in crisis mode. So I had no good excuse for wanting to throw out the lists, and the cooking, and the laundry, and the work schedule last week. It was only a feeling that since my friends, and my sister and mother, and for a little while a son or two, were there I must be in crisis-time too. Isn't that what I'm supposed to do? How can I be sitting around the pool, or drinking wine or thinking about grading or (more likely) doing absolutely nothing, when people I love are not?  I wasn't sure how all week. But I'm working on it.

Also these are geese, not ducks at all.