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Walter Altland woke.  His leg hurt.  He felt down over it and bumped into the top of the cast.  He raised the sheet and looked under it, his leg was still there.  He remembered his wife coming in after he got back from surgery.  She told him his leg was fine.  He could see his toes, he wiggled them, his leg still worked, at least some of it.  As he was getting acquainted with the attachment to his appendage Dr. Douglas came in.  “Hi there, how are you feeling today?”

“Tell me doc, am I going to lose my leg?”

“Walter, your leg is fractured.  There was some bone loss due to fragmentation so we put in a pin to hold the bone until it recovers.  But lose your leg, not likely.”

“What do you mean not likely?  You mean you may have to take it off?”

“I can come up with things that could go wrong that might result in you losing your leg but nothing that has any likelihood.”

“But the women, they got shot and they lost their legs.”

“Yes.  The bullet that hit their legs was an exploding round.  It went in and exploded.  It blasted the area of their leg so bad that it was impossible to fix.  A couple of inches of the bone were pulverized.  Worse, vascular structures were destroyed.  With your leg, the damage to the vascular structure was limited to one small point at the wound.  That will heal.  The bone damage was significant, but I have seen dozens of worse injuries that we treated with good outcomes.”

“So you think I am going to be fine?”

“I can’t promise that but there is nothing I can find that indicates you have any real risk of losing your leg or function.  I’m going to have you go down for therapy today and tomorrow and unless you spike a temp in a couple of days you are out of here.  Give you six weeks or so at home and we take off the cast, then a couple of weeks of therapy and you are going again.”

“You really think so?”

“I know.  Someone from therapy should be in for you soon.  They will help you with the crutches and get you back on your feet.”

A few minutes later the nurse and an aide brought in a wheel chair.  They helped him into it and the aide took him to therapy.    

About eleven the women’s catheters were removed, reducing the number of hoses connected to them.  The IV was also removed at this time.  Wheelchairs were brought in for them.  Penny was helped to a standing position and coached to perform a heel-toe shuffle to turn 90 degrees and then sit in the chair. The others followed suit.  They were warned to not put any pressure on the pylon and hence on their incision.  Penny laughed when she was told to not put pressure on the pylon.  “It hurts, there is no way I will put pressure on it.”  They were wheeled out the door with their artificial legs sticking out to the front of the chair.  On the way down the hall Margie at first protested that they should have something to cover the pylon.  She wanted to keep it from view.  Barb looked at Margie and shook her head, “No, unless you are cold don’t cover it.  Let the people in this town know what happened to us.”  They were taken to the physical therapy department with their pylons showing like a red badge of courage.  It was a symbol of defiance against their injury, a symbol of the beginning of their recovery.

Walter Altland passed them in the hall.  He was holding his new crutches and complaining to the aide about having to use them till his cast came off.  When the aide pushed him into the room and was sure they were out of earshot of the women she turned to him, “You have two months of this, maybe at worst three.  That cast is bulky and heavy.  It’s going to be a little difficult to get around.  It’s going to itch some.  But it will come off and you will be able to walk again like you did before.  They have the rest of their life to get by with one leg.  I suggest you count your blessings.”

Walter was silent as she helped him out of the chair and into bed.

When they arrived at therapy Penny volunteered that she had been on crutches for several months ten years ago for a broken leg.  They took her first.  Ann, the therapist told the others to watch.  First Ann handed Penny an Allen wrench and showed her how to release and detach the pylon.  With that done she moved the wheelchair to a rail that looked like a walker except it was attached to the floor to make it stable.  The two therapists helped her to a standing position and had her stand holding on to it.  They measured her for crutches, obtained a pair from stock and adjusted them.  She made several tentative steps with them.  There was a lot of pain in her leg.  The movement increased it slightly but it was definitely good to be able to move about.  When she convinced herself that walking with the crutches would not hurt her she started moving around.  It was amazing how much of using the crutches came back.  After watching her for a few minutes Ann motioned her back to the wheelchair.  They helped her back into the chair and they showed her how to get the pylon back on. 

Penny was allowed to rest while they removed Margie’s pylon and took her to a pair of parallel bars.  She had never used crutches so she was a slower starter.  There they taught her to walk with crutches for several trips down the bars and back.  They returned her to the wheelchair and turned to Barb.  When they were done with Barb they took Penny to the parallel bars with her pylon on.  They helped her stand up then sit several times to learn how to do it with one leg using her crutches.  Then they helped her stand between the bars.  They instructed her to walk; placing the tip of the pylon on the floor with each step, putting only enough weight on it to know it was on the floor.  She swung the pylon ahead, shifted her weight till pressure hit the pylon tip, lifted her left leg while supporting her weight on her hands and swung forward till she could put the left foot down.  With that done she tried a second step.  Five more steps and she was at the far end of the bars.  There she shuffled as she turned while holding the bars and made six steps to come back where she started.  Everyone clapped as she shuffled to turn and lowered herself into the chair.  Ironically, the pressure on her leg was strange feeling but not that uncomfortable.  It seemed strange.  When she put pressure on the pylon it felt like the pressure was on her butt.  Later she learned the top of the pylon cast was taking most of the weight, not the end of the stump.

Margie and Barb each did a tour through the bars.  When they were done they were returned to their room carrying their crutches on their shoulders. They were given instructions that they could be out of bed in a wheelchair and go anywhere on the floor. They could be on crutches in their room and use them to go to the bathroom however a nurse must accompany them when they got out of bed or transferred between the bed and the chair for safety. 

Upon return to the room Penny told the nurse that she would take them up on the bathroom trip, the nurse protected her as she used her crutches to get from the chair to a standing position.  Then she walked next to her as she went to the bathroom.  In the privacy of the bathroom she looked at the pylon sticking out straight.  At first she was going to cry then she looked in the mirror defiantly, “The guy who did this to me isn’t going to stop me from living,” she said to herself as she felt the urine flow out of her.  She returned to the room smiling.  “Well, no bedpan for me.  And they don’t have to put the rubber hose back in.”

Barb piped up, “What do you mean the rubber hose?  Cops don’t use the rubber hose on suspects any more.”

Penny laughed, “Neither of you have had surgery before, have you?  Here they use the rubber hose if you don’t do as they say.”  Both nodded and the nurse smiled.

“I should have guessed that.” 

“I’m not talking about that kind of rubber hose.  I’m talking about the one they put in you to drain you.  If you don’t pee soon they will bring in one of these rubber hoses and put it back in you.  They’re a little more uncomfortable going in than you remember.  You had some medication in you when they did it the last time.  I’d suggest you concentrate on peeing.”

Barb and Margie both poured a cup of water and drank it, then each poured another and downed it. 

Penny laughed, “Go ahead and drink.  But if you have to and you can’t go, drinking like that will really make you uncomfortable until they get set up for the hose.” 

Margie looked at the empty cup. “You mean…”
“Yes, they will let you go a while till they are sure you aren’t going to be able to do it yourself then they do it for you.”

“How do you know?”

“Remember the broken leg I mentioned?  I tore the tendons in the other knee when I did that, I had surgery to fix them.   When I had the surgery I couldn’t go after the anesthesia from the surgery.  And that’s not unusual for that to happen.  When they finally decided I wasn’t going to go they put in the rubber hose and drained me. It was a temporary one they just stick in long enough to empty you.   A couple hours later I still couldn’t go again so they did it again.  But they left me get pretty full before they did.  I felt like I was pregnant.  Remember when you had to go real bad and there wasn’t anywhere to go and you had to wait, then double that.”

In a few minutes Barb put on the light for the nurse.  She came about five minutes later, helped Barb to the bathroom and waited.  She helped Barb back to the bed about ten minutes later, relieved in two ways.

Over three hours went by and finally Margie put on the light.  When the nurse came in she asked to be helped to the bathroom.  She sat on the commode for nearly twenty minutes with no success.  The nurse even turned the water on and left it run and then got a basin of warm water for her to put her hands in. Nothing helped.  She finally gave up and returned to the bed.  She was getting increasingly uncomfortable her belly even looked distended.  Within ten minutes the nurse was back with a kit.  She pulled the curtain and proceeded to insert the catheter.  The bag hanging on the bed was well over half full when the nurse opened the curtain.  When she left Margie looked over at Barb, “That felt worse than what you feel like when you are too full after a night on the town.  You were wrong about one thing.  When you have to go that bad the rubber hose feels good.”

“Maybe you should get a rubber hose and carry it in your purse to have if you are going out when you go drinking.  You put it in and keep yourself drained,” Penny offered with a grin.

Barb laughed, “And carry a bag of pee with me?  That sure would make me look sexy.”

Marge started laughing, then was able to compose herself, “Just picture this, a group of guys and gals sitting around a table drinking.  All have rubber hoses that go to a can under the table.  The waitress brings the drinks and empties the can when it gets full.”

They all laughed then Barb got pensive, “I wonder how it feels for a guy. The nurse said it only goes in a girl a couple of inches, imagine a guy, it has to be uncomfortable.”

“Maybe we should carry one.  If a guy wants to put something in us we ask to put something in him first. I bet that would turn him off.”

“Not some guys I have seen,” Marge said, “I know of one that would ask you to get a bigger one.”

The discussion changed to girl talk for a while.

Just before two thirty the nurse came in and announced, “Roll over girls.”

Penny was the first to ask, “What?”

“Roll over, on your stomachs for a while.”

“Why?” Barb asked, she was well endowed and was not totally comfortable on her stomach.

Because we need to keep the muscle in the front of your stump from contracting and pulling it up, you would look really funny with it sticking out straight to the front.”

She helped them turn in bed with their heads at the foot of the bed and roll to their stomachs.

“For how long?” Margie asked?

“An hour should do it,” she said.  She went out, got three extra pillows and came back, “Here, see if this helps,” she threw one to each of them.  Barb placed it under her upper torso taking some of the weigh off her breasts.

“That is better.  Thanks.”

When the nurse left, Marge started laughing, “Imagine it sticking out to the front.  Some guys might have a leg cut off to have something that big sticking out there.”

Penny wrinkled her face, “Is that all you think of, guys with big ones?”

“Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

Barb shook her head.  “Remember what the doctor said, when you have pain sex sometimes helps.”

Penny started to say something but cut it off.

While they were on their stomachs two of the detectives came in to visit.  Actually it was an interrogation about the shooting.  Like their partners they told of the single shot, the realization they had been hit and the trip to the hospital that followed.

“Didn’t you see anything, anything unusual before?”

One and all they answered, “No.”

After an unproductive time the men left.

The evening was spent with members of the force and their families.  Walter Altland came in for a few minutes to see them.  From him they learned about the incident with Jeff Zirkle.  The night was long, the pain seemed to wane in the day when they were active and come back with a vengeance at night.  There were shots for pain, none of them really slept.  All had wild dreams of being shot.  Barb woke up twice sobbing.

The Night Sniper Chapter One: On the Beat

The Night Sniper – Ch. 010 Another Doctor Visits the Three Women

The Night Sniper: Ch. 012 the Fourth Day