I was admitted for a scheduled, uncomplicated total knee replacement for an overnight as a precaution due to my previous health history. The next day I met my nurse, Katie and we reviewed the plan for the day. I ate breakfast, PT arrived, and I ambulated down the hallway while attached to a pulse oximeter. Suddenly I felt weak and dizzy, as I looked to see an alarmingly low number reflecting on my pulse ox. I turned to Katie, at my side asking if that number was real, followed by, “I have to sit down now”. Katie quietly and confidently assisted me to a safe position, and delegated others to return me to my room as she RAN down the hall to retrieve the attending physician to get orders for the next steps to ‘make a lifesaving outcome’ for the rest of my life. I have flashes of memory of the next few days, as I fought to live through blood clots in every lobe of my lungs and right atrium, DIC, and a stressed liver. BUT had Katie not responded so quickly, and with poise, my recovery may have not happened. Katie deserves recognition for showing up. Showing up for the mundane classes, showing up when the thankless shifts are difficult, showing up during demanding patients and families, showing up for missed family holidays. She has shown her dedication by ‘being’ the nurse of excellence. Words will never be able to reflect the overwhelming gratitude for all the care I received at Lee Memorial Hospital in my recovery. But it all started with Katie, a nurse who ‘showed up’.