{"id":134222,"date":"2023-09-02T17:22:41","date_gmt":"2023-09-02T21:22:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=134222"},"modified":"2023-09-02T17:22:41","modified_gmt":"2023-09-02T21:22:41","slug":"hour-9-the-diagnosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2023\/09\/hour-9-the-diagnosis\/","title":{"rendered":"Hour 9 &#8211; The Diagnosis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The tremor started gradually.<\/p>\n<p>Hardly noticeable to anyone but me.<\/p>\n<p>But it spread beyond my hands and now threatened to swallow my entire body.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Doctors, tests, needles, scans, and then waiting.<\/p>\n<p>The waiting is the worst part.<\/p>\n<p>The not knowing; the wondering if my life is over or if I will be cured.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Today the wait is over.<\/p>\n<p>I struggle to put on my jacket as I walk out the door.<\/p>\n<p>It is early, before sunrise, and I trip over a bucket I forgot to put away the day before.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I finally make it to the other side of the carport.<\/p>\n<p>My hand quakes as I try to buckle my seatbelt.<\/p>\n<p>Even in the dark, I know my elbow is bleeding from the fall and my mood darkens further.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I watch the sun begin to stretch across the bayou as I drive past.<\/p>\n<p>Knowing will be worse than the waiting.<\/p>\n<p>I turn my focus back to the road ahead as I draw nearer to my death sentence.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Diana Kristine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The tremor started gradually. Hardly noticeable to anyone but me. But it spread beyond my hands and now threatened to swallow my entire body. &nbsp; Doctors, tests, needles, scans, and then waiting. The waiting is the worst part. The not knowing; the wondering if my&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":983,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[6056],"class_list":["post-134222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem","tag-2023-hour-9"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/983"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134222"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134238,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134222\/revisions\/134238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}