The quiet after a patient wakes up

Pulled a tough one through the cath lab today — three hours, a stent that didn't want to sit right, the family out in the hall doing that silent pacing thing. But it's the moment after, when the patient opens their eyes and just says 'thank you' like it's nothing, that I keep turning over. The wire work is the part they train you for. That small exchange is the part nobody mentions.