For want of some fucking Valium, or weed …
For want of a nail:
1. Ma doesn’t eat.
2. Ma has no energy.
3. Ma’s depression wins each day.
4. Decision-making suffers.
5. Ma doesn’t eat, her muscle mass goes away, barest fitness becomes impossible.
6. Willingness to try on ideas, to ideate alternatives withers.
7. Lack of basic fitness suggests to surgeon that his numbers are gonna take a hit for unsuccessful hip replacement.
8. Doctors lack information from “Poor-Historian” patient.
9. Ma’s hip continues to necrode.
10. Immune system struggles against dead tissue & lack of blood flow in the hip.
11. Immune system gets distracted, debilitated, checks out o the motel.
12. Hip pain worsens.
13. Doctors still lack the full picture.
14. Ma drops from walker status to bed-ridden, spirits plummet & erupt predictably, further.
15. Decision-making suffers.
16. Openness to ideas withers, further.
17. Pete falls trying to help Ma.
18. No one can drive anymore.
19. Ma’s organs start to fail.
20. Bodily systems can barely keep up let alone heal hip or cancer.
21. Doctors wonder, shake their heads.
22. Story ends