World IPF Week 6

Marking World IPF Week

NIV hood - non-invasive ventilation hood providing respiration support used at end-stage treatment in some cases.

We used to joke that it reminded us of Ground Control to Major Tom. There is a hatch at the side which you can open and the whole thing de-presurrises like a hovercraft .. you can then drink a little through a straw, bathe the face and kiss, and then close it again. It is a suspended moment between life and death. Years on it continues to horrify me.

Visiting Hour by Stewart Conn

In the pond of our new garden
were five orange stains, under
inches of ice. Weeks since anyone
had been there. Already by far
the most severe winter for years.
You broke the ice with a hammer.
I watched the goldfish appear,
blunt-nosed and delicately clear.

Since then so much has taken place
to distance us from what we were.
That it should come to this.
Unable to hide the horror
in my eyes, I stand helpless
by your bedside and can do no more
than wish it were simply a matter
of smashing the ice and giving you air.