There’s a really specific sound a walker makes when it bangs against the edge of a bathroom door. Every thump and knock or sneeze and cough makes me freeze and worry whether or not that was a sound of distress. I will never forget the sound of a siren or the acrid piss stink of hospitals. Routine surgeries have become a series over dramatic war flashbacks and I kind of hate everything right now.

I know everything will be fine. The surgery (hernia) went off without a hitch but they are just so fucking fragile. How can I not worry?