I keep a bag available.

When I suspect that everything might fall to chaos.

That a little order might be a life raft.

So that I will have the basic items I need to ride out the storm.

A minor blessing and the only one I can make for myself.

To simply make everything run more smoothly.

***

Of course I have medical equipment inside.

Sling so I do not have to worry about being transferred painfully.

Bipap so I do not have to struggle to sleep or worry about the hospital locating one.

But the go bag has items that you might not expect as well.

Things that are not health focused in nature.

Yet just as important.

***

The hospital go bag is also full of emotions.

The worry that I try to burry in a hand held console as I wait for the climax of the situation.

The calm I experience in a book after it becomes just waiting.

The anxiety in the protein bars that my mother eats as she watches over me.

All nestled perfectly in the fabric.

Enough to make it fit to burst.

***

Often I think of something I wish I had also brought.

But a bag does not have room for my entire house.

It is a simplification of my life.

What I absolutely need to get through a dark night and nothing more.

The bag a reminder of home as I go through all the shocking intervention.

It is enough.