Hospital Time

Tic.
Tic.
Tic.

Time marches on. It seems like there was no beginning to time and that there will be no ending.
Time speeds up and it slows down. It keeps on marching!.
Tic.Tic.Tic.
Then there is hospital time. It still ticks on, sort of. Each tick is no longer 1 second long. Each tick of the clock may last 5 minutes. Sometimes each tick lasts an hour or longer. And then there are those times each when every tick moves back an hour. You just never know.
2:30! An hour ago it was 3:30. What happened?
Give up on trying to figure it out. You are now on hospital time.
Hospital rules do not obey any natural rules. It moves at its own pace. It can slow down or speed up. The only time hospital times speeds up is when you have surgery. You wake up and it is much later in the day. While it speeds up for you, hospital time slows to a crawl for your loved ones.
You do not control hospital time.
It controls you!

Tic.
Tic.
Tic.

Time marches on except when you are on hospital time.

Carl B. Seay
January 17, 2026