Under the Sword of Damocles [NN2021]

This is my new normal, I suppose.

It all started one day, some six years ago, while napping on my daughter's couch. She woke me up, seemingly quite concerned.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yes" I replied, "Just napping."

"You were making a sound... like... never mind, as long as you're all right. Don't worry about it."

My daughter is an RN and has worked in situations in which that sound would be not entirely unknown. Curious, then, I feigned sleep. It isn't really that difficult to do. Just relaxed, assumed my normal left-sided position, closed my eyes and waited.

I heard it then; the death rattle, signal of imminent death, a sound with which I too am not completely unaware.

I didn't worry about it much. A quick, forceful, exhalation hacks the bronchial secretions up, and that's that. But now, recently, I hear it more often. Awake from mid-morning nap ... there it is. Awake from afternoon nap ... there it is. Awake in the morning ... yes, then too.

I haven't died within 24 hours of any of these incidents as of yet. I do experience a sense of foreboding in the early morning hours however. Like I wrote above, kind of my new normal.

----------------

In researching for this story, I looked up "Death Rattle" in the Wikipedia. It said this: "While death rattle is a strong indication that someone is near death, it can also be produced by other problems that cause interference with the swallowing reflex, such as brain injuries." en.wikipedia.org....

I am very much relieved to see that it could simply be brain injury. I can live with that.

- The End -

a reply to: pthena

Missed your writing style, Mr. Nappy Jones.

If you never slept : then there would be no more baby-rattles !!

Yaaah!

a reply to: Nothin

What I really needed was more forceful breathing while sleeping. Change in dreams seems to be working.

"uh! ah! That's how it always starts; but then later, there's running and screaming."

a reply to: pthena

This was good!!

Ugh brain injuries. Do you have one? I’m new old and don’t recognize your name.

Just skimmed all your threads real quick and read survivors guilt

a reply to: CrazyBlueCat

Ugh brain injuries. Do you have one?

If you read the bread crumbs in the [ edit ] part of the story, after - The End -, you may think that the whole story, including the title are just a play on words.

Compare with story An Unfortunate Misunderstanding.

a reply to: pthena

I gotcha, I think I see

I meant to tell you that I read an unfortunate misunderstanding and it was great!!