Brief escape

A co-worker of mine is struggling with cancer and has been hospitalized intermittently. She spent the entire last week living in the oncology section of the hospital where I work. I visited her one day during my lunch break. Sitting with her, listening to the mixture of coughing, various machines beeping and an occasional squealing wheel on carts passing by, it reminded me how lonely it was to be in a hospital room, despite all the actions around us. My boss (an interventional neuroradiologist) once told me when we were discussing my volunteer work with Musicians On Call: "Music is one of those things that you don't realize how much you miss until you hear it. 4 o'clock in the afternoon, on the oncology floor, everybody's depressed--including the staff--but there is no powerful and quick solution...until something like music comes along."