Refuse to Stay Sick

After fending off a cold, I was looking forward to tasting my food again, leaving the tissues at home, and hosting dinner nights with friends. Instead, our whole family immediately came down with another respiratory virus. As my husband attempted to blow the contents of his cerebrum into a tissue, he muttered a phrase we throw around a lot: “I refuse to stay sick.”

I also witnessed heroic patients get out of bed for the first time with sheer determination on faces:

“I can’t stay in the hospital — I have to get home.”

“I don’t have time to be here.”

“I’ll walk all the way out those doors, if you’ll let me.”

And that is exactly the attitude of someone who will discharge in record time. These fighters do well because they have grit. Sometimes people get knocked down and they get sick, but so often, that fighter mentality is pivotal to their recovery.

That’s why it’s so painful to hear someone mutter that they’ll never get better, or that it doesn’t matter if they ever get home.

At work, you can hear the same thing play out. Those with grit are more likely to announce that this will be the first year that our hospital wins that Corporate award. They look at problems with a sparkle in their eyes, itching to find the solution that will make a big difference.

And then there are others that tell you it will never get better, it can never be done, we always fail at that.

Which will you be?

Will you refuse to be a sick facility? Will you challenge the never-limits? Will you look at the “always fails” as an opportunity to do something big?