Machines beep and clatter endlessly. The environment is oppressive today. It is difficult to breathe. Dad’s condition worsened dramatically last night. His blood pressure collapsed. Now he has yet another infusion pump and three more medications. His kidneys are failing. His doctor has lost hope. My hope also is evaporating in the absence of any tangible positive news. The decomposition of hope robs the room of oxygen. Nurses still come to fiddle with tubes and recalibrate machines. They wash dad and change the dressing on his wounds. But they are ghosts flitting about their duties in silence. There is not enough oxygen in the room to breathe let alone to speak.
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