Karen was up during the day walking. They took out the catheter just after noon but she still had the IV. They were giving her antibiotics and she had the pain push if she needed it. She had not used it since about two in the morning. In the afternoon the nurse came in and asked her about the pain.

“I have less now than I did last week and I was taking pills then.”

“Really?”

“Well, it is sensitive, my stump. I sure wouldn’t want to bump it but it isn’t hurting. I can feel stitches pulling when I move it.”

“They will be in soon to change the dressing and measure you for a prosthesis. I haven’t seen anyone have one this soon but I’m told that if the patient is ready and their stump can take it, the sooner the better.”

The doctor came in with two women. They took off the dressings, measured her stump and her other arm, made a cast of her left hand and arm, redressed her stump and left.

Patti came in about three. They talked about the show. Darin came in about five. She was very quiet for about ten minutes after he came. Finally she took his hand. “I have to tell you something.”

Patti came over to the bed. “If you hate me for this you can leave.”

“Sure. Why would I leave?” Darin asked.

“I could be in trouble.”

“How?”

“With the police. Both of you could have been too. I gave the police the evidence against me so they don’t blame you.”

“What would they blame us for?” Patti asked.

“Well. The reason they had to cut off my arm was.” She bit her lip. “Well. On Friday afternoon when I left the studio I, well, I put a wire around my arm and tightened it. I cut off the circulation. They may blame you for helping me do it.”

Patti asked, “Why would they think that?”

“Because they may think I had help. I didn’t from you or anyone and I gave them the evidence I did it so you would not be blamed.”

“Why did you do it?”

“Because they couldn’t do anything to fix my arm. My hand and wrist didn’t work all. They didn’t have any feeling. My elbow had that metal in it. I had constant pain. The metal joint had something wrong, it was loose, they wanted to replace it. That would have been another surgery. I’ve had one surgery after another, blood clots, drug reactions, graft rejections, and the artificial grafts are causing inflammation. They even replaced them and it didn’t help. I was taking medicine that was going to kill me in a few years for the inflammation. You see, I want to live a long time. There are a lot of things I want to do. I decided that living longer without an arm looked better than dying young to keep an arm that doesn’t work.”