Twenty hands on you under a fluorescent bulb. Conferences about blood cell count partly in the nude. And the tiny voice of a seven-year-old roommate across the curtain whose knock-knock jokes seem inexhaustible. These are the moments that make up teenage Nora's book of days as she manages her Crohn's disease in the pediatric ward of the hospital. But what Nora loses in comfort, health, and dignity she gains in the ability to examine the lives of those around her, people who are struggling to do their best whether they are sick or well.
Twenty hands on you under a fluorescent bulb. Conferences about blood cell count partly in the nude. And the tiny voice of a seven-year-old roommate across the curtain whose knock-knock jokes seem inexhaustible. These are the moments that make up teenage Nora's book of days as she manages her Crohn's disease in the pediatric ward of the hospital. But what Nora loses in comfort, health, and dignity she gains in the ability to examine the lives of those around her, people who are struggling to do their best whether they are sick or well.