Everything Is Fine

by Vince Granata

A cycle persists, one in which doctors stabilize critically ill patients and then discharge them to accommodate the next round of severely ill. These reprieves are temporary life rafts, a moment for a drowning victim to catch his breath before submerging again to thrash and flail.

When Tim was discharged, when he was no longer deemed dangerous, his disease was still in control. To expect him to find his way back to the hospital, to care, on his own, is as delusional as expecting a man with a broken leg to walk to the ER.