ABSTRACT
I am still in disbelief that I am here. The night is eternal, interrupted every fifteen minutes by a nurse doing “checks” with an annoying flashlight. But even without the interruptions, I would not be sleeping. I take a walk around the unit at 2:00 a.m. The fluorescent lights in the hall and nurses’ station give an eerie cast to the place. Many people are already up, silently walking the halls in bathrobes and pajamas. We look like ghosts, lost souls inhabiting the shells of our former selves, pacing and counting out the hours till daylight.
