Upon Reflection: The World Ended in 2012 by Kasey Edgerton

from the artist: “On September 30th, 2012, I received a phone call from my mom, slowly and shakily informing me that my dad had been rushed to the E.R., had already flat-lined four times, and might not make it through the night. The conspiracy buffs might have misinterpreted that Mayan calendar, but my world imploded right then and there as I sank to my knees on the shaggy carpet of my dorm room floor.

All in all, at 51 my dad was diagnosed with: double pneumonia (which I wasn’t aware was something you could even get), an infection of the blood, a Staph infection of the lungs and chest lining (empyema), thrush located at the base of his esophagus, renal failure, diabetic ketoacidosis, and last but certainly not least, Sepsis.

For the past eight years, my family has existed in a state of liminality, as hospitals and doctor’s offices have supplanted any sense of normality. The shockwaves continue and continue. Due to the Sepsis, his gallbladder ruptured, leaking toxins throughout his body. Another prolonged hospital stay caused the formation of blood clots in his arms. Shortly after the initial events in 2012, he developed diabetic retinopathy, and, numerous surgeries and rounds of injections to the eyes later, he has been declared legally blind. He also now has hearing in only one ear. His kidneys have shut down and he now receives daily at-home dialysis, facilitated by my mother. Most recently (2019), he was hospitalized for 81 days with a severe bone infection in his left foot, and leg, which resulted in a series of partial foot amputations. He popped home for a month, and then it was back to the hospital for three weeks worth of knee surgery (his knee became infected and then went Septic), and more slight amputation to the foot, which was not healing properly.

While the world may not have ended due to Rapture, or alien invasion, colossal deluge, or ancient apocalypse, the world I knew did, and continues to. “