As I lie in this hospital bed, I can hear the machines next to me humming and beeping. They tell me that I’m still here and living, though not very well. It feels like my body is giving up on me because it’s so weak. My kidneys have failed me, just like life has done many times. It’s cruel, really—how the same illness that took my sister is now taking me too.

The air is heavy with the antiseptic aroma of medication and calm melancholy as I look about the poorly illuminated room. The only sound that breaks the dark silence is the conversation of nurses in the........

© The Spine Times