Would work go on without you?

Red lights, *eyes shut*, Red lights, *eyes shut*,

BEEP!, truck, TRUCK!

This was how fast it was for the truck to crash into

my car, or maybe it wasn’t as fast, it’s just how I remember it.

“We need you in the hospital, Doc.”

Those were always the words. The same words that had me leaving my anniversary dinner halfway through to get to OR.

The same words that had me missing my littl Jannah’s recital. Same words had me absent at my best friend’s wedding, and the same words that had me away from home 3 days in a row.

I will lose my wife if I keep going this way, I knew this. I could feel the resentment and anger build up in her every time I mentioned work.

I don’t blame her; she’s been an amazing soul.

I will make it up to all my girls as soon as I get back from work, I just had to see one last patient and I’ll be home, this time I won’t leave so soon.

At least that was what I thought.

Once again I found myself in the ever familiar pale hospital walls, except this time I wasn’t walking in, looking like the smoking hot surgeon I was.

This time I was strapped on the wheel bed, rolled in by the paramedics, my colleagues rushing frantically around me.

Today I wasn’t here to save lives, I was the accident victim, my life needed saving.

“You are very lucky to be alive” I keep hearing from my guests, actually from wifey’s guests, no one would have come to visit me if I hadn’t married a woman like her.

She kept in touch, held the family strings together, while I was always “too busy” to reply a text.

It’s been 6 months since the accident happened, a lot has changed.

I now move around in a wheel chair, I visit a physiotherapist more times than I imagined I’d ever need to.

My colleagues……. Half of my colleagues texted once or twice, maybe thrice.

The other half visited while I was still in the hospital. The security man at the north gate where I always parked my car had sent me some herbs and verses for “quick healing” and to wade off the “spirits”, whatever that means.

I found out that my daughter’s favorite sport is no longer football, and her best friend was now a boy, not pleased.

I was told that my brother had gotten back with his ex-wife.

My best friend, the one whose wedding I “couldn’t” attend, calls me every weekend.

Two new general surgeons were employed a week after I had the accident, my Boss called me once after I got discharged.

I am no longer the head of general surgery, I’ve been successfully replaced.

Work has been going on fine, without me.

We all need to work, even on jobs we don’t really love. But is our work taking away time we should give to the people that are dear and important to us?