“I’ve been in bed for three days and I am still tired.”  She rolled over and went to sleep. About an hour later she got restless and woke up. “My leg is really hurting.” She got a funny look. “It hurts and it isn’t there.”

“You will have that. Some of it is from the massive wound at the end of your leg. The amputation of your leg is a terrible assault on your body. During the War of the Rebellion over 90 percent of the wounded who had amputations died. They do things better but it is a nasty surgery. Some of what you are feeling is called phantoms. It is pain in a leg that isn’t there.”

“Can I have something for the pain? Maybe I shouldn’t have anything. I don’t want to be an addict. I guess it would be correct to say, not be addicted to another drug.”

“That is more accurate. Hit the button there. It will alert the nurse. She will bring you something. It is better than what they gave us. It isn’t likely to be addictive.”

“It’s hard enough to get off the booze. I don’t need another problem.”

“They do it as a local, like Novocain the dentists use. I don’t know of anyone getting addicted to that. Imagine going to the dentist to get a high.” They both laughed.

“The biggest thing is being honest with yourself. To drink you have to lie to yourself, to convince yourself you really will stop with one drink. You can’t and you know it. When you quit lying you can quit drinking.”

The nurse came in and administered the shots. She showed Carol where to insert the needle. “The doc said I was to show you where to do these. I understand you are a licensed nurse.”

“Yes. Want to see my papers?”

”No.”

In less than two minutes Denise was relaxing. “That sure helps.”

The nurse came back in about an hour later and she and another nurse helped Denise to sit up on the edge of the bed. The pylon on her left leg stuck out. “It looks longer than my right leg.”

“Maybe doc cut it wrong. Lift the right next to it.” Denise did and the nurse looked.