a self reduced to Morse-code blinks
been unable to communicate except via like Morse-Code blinks or something for the first six months
Context
Pat Montesian after her stroke: a whole self trapped behind a body that can output only blinks, communication throttled to the lowest possible bandwidth, one bit at a time, for six months. It is the extreme case of the theme's central image — a fully present interior with almost no channel out — and rhymes with intubated Gately writing cuneiform with his off-hand: the mind intact, the transmission choked down to a flicker.