Careful Words

I’m choosing my words with extreme care this week. I’ve seen things on the ward that I simply cannot contextualize yet. To call them ‘unprecedented’ feels like an exaggeration, but to call them ‘normal’ would be a lie. I don’t have the medical language for what’s happening to some of these patients—not yet. It’s not just the physical lag anymore; it’s a total shift in their presence. That doesn’t mean it’s supernatural, but it does mean our current textbooks are failing us. I’m spending my breaks in the basement library, looking for anything that fits. Until I find it, I’ll keep my descriptions clinical and my observations private.