Open Letter To The Rochester Business That Put Up This “Get Well Soon” Sign

Open Letter to the Business in Rochester, Minnesota That Put Up This "Get Well Soon" Sign

About 136 million people in the United States visit the emergency room every year.  Four days ago, my husband helped make that number a reality after he was told to head to the ER in Rochester, Minnesota.

Since Thursday, life has been a blur.  But one sign in Rochester helped bring a bit of hope to my heart on one of the longest days in this hospital journey.

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What happened last Thursday was NOT on my radar.

I was at work, chatting to thousands of people on my radio show, when I got a text from my husband.  He went to the doctor because he thought his eyes had a tint of yellow, and due to a chronic illness that he has been fighting the past three years, and a partial shoulder replacement surgery two weeks prior, he just wanted to make sure he was ok.

After a few hours of getting bloodwork done, ultrasounds, he was almost ready to go home.  I finished up some work stuff while my kid was with him and we all decided that when they left the hospital, we would get some Jersey Mike's.  It was only 5:30 pm, but it was a long couple of hours...and most of us didn't eat all day.  Cooking was out of the question.  We passed along our orders and I went home...thinking that soon, my husband, kid, and sandwich would be following.

Jersey Mike's never happened.

About 32.1% of ER visits are considered "non-urgent".  I wouldn't say that my husband was "urgent", but people don't normally turn yellow just for fun (and his labs showed his liver wasn't working right).  It was decided that he would stay overnight and while the rest of the world was sleeping, he would slip into something more comfortable and head into the MRI tube to check one more thing.

That "one more thing" was the culprit of the yellow-ish skin and surgery was inevitable.

Maybe the patient is called a "patient" to help everyone subconsciously understand that waiting is just part of the hospital game.  No matter what the reason, waiting is tough as a caregiver.

Two surgeries led to two more full days of sitting and waiting for me.  But I got bored, so I did a bit of wandering around the hospital.  On one of those fun 5,000+ step walks, I found something that made me smile, a sign on top of the Canadian Honker restaurant.

The sign read "Get Well Soon" on one line and "God Bless" on the second.

Open Letter To Canadian Honker in Rochester

To Canadian Honker, thank YOU for having that sign on your roof.  I know this is meant for the patients at the hospital, but it was just what I needed to see.  It was day 3 of this hospital stay for my husband and this second surgery was a long one to wait through alone.  I was hitting my point of exhaustion in this journey and this sign helped me get through those final hours of waiting. Thank you.