ABSTRACT
Waking up paralyzed from the neck down, I entered a new realm. Spirit, heart, and mind imploded as morphine, fear, and pain colluded. I tried to comprehend and name what had happened. Swelling and scarring from surgery to remove a tumor inside my spinal cord had miscircuited my body. Dawn was always the worst time, with the medical shifts changing; I was alone staring back at the world, fantasizing about getting to the window, breaking the glass, slitting my throat.
