How do I begin to explain how it feels to grieve the loss of something intangible?

I remember that first moment in the waiting room, my thoughts an anxious jumble of ‘what ifs’ — regretting, questioning, wondering — would I ever be the same again?

Would I be a victim of my own limitations, lonely, leading a life cut off from the world?

Where would this leave me — where would my place in the world be, my place in medicine?