How Do They Do It?

In high school French, I listed my favorite foods as potatoes, milk, and butter. These were not foods, but a recipe.

Sometimes I drank Pediasure or ate one of those cheesecake cups you buy in packs. I didn’t know how to say those in French.

It took me hours to fall asleep at night. I caught up in History.

My mother didn’t feed me. My mother ordered a sleep study.

I was asked to lie down, which I resented. I slept sitting up due to pain from chronic constipation (I was living on mashed potatoes).

I slipped out of REM sleep sixty-six times. I officially had sleep apnea.

I was prescribed skin patches to keep me awake in History. They irritated my dry skin (I was living on mashed potatoes). I didn’t use them for long.

In college, History remained one of my worst subjects.

The doctor answered the wrong question. We skipped past diet and exercise and went straight to sleep.

There was no conspiracy on my mother’s part. Obfuscation is built into the system.

Health care gives families a way to outsource care of the ill. The trouble is, it gives them a way to outsource responsibility for abuse, too.