“He said it wasn’t a limp, but like the guy had one short or injured leg.  Maybe you can make something of that, we can’t.”  He put his hand on his belly again.  “This gut ache is terrible.  Got to get to the restroom.”

Later in the day they went out to the parking garage, found the attendant and talked with him.  They left just as baffled as they were before the encounter.

Dean Saldler made three more hurried trips to the restroom during the afternoon.  Each time he felt like he would burst and each time his hopes for relief were dashed.  As he got up to leave the office his belly cramped again and he doubled up in pain on the floor.  Bill Walters saw him fall, went over to him, ascertained he needed medical attention and called the paramedics.  Penny saw him taken out and their eyes met.  As they did, he gave her thumbs up and called,  “Keep the place open till I get back.”  Within twenty minutes he was in the hospital. 

The initial tests showed a blockage somewhere in his traverse colon.  An attempt to insert a scope resulted in such pain it was deferred till they could get him to an OR and sedate him.  In addition to the blockage in the traverse colon, the descending colon was terribly inflamed.  He was taken to the OR.  Two hours later he was in recovery.  The doctor met with his wife Helen. 

“Mrs. Sadler, your husband is out of surgery and in recovery.”

“What happened?  Does he have cancer?”
”When we opened him we found that all but the first couple of inches of his colon were diseased.  We sent a biopsy to pathology.  I can’t imagine how he was not in terrible pain for months.  I have never seen anyone with that far advanced disease that had not been under treatment for years.”

“Is he going to live?”

“Right now he is one very sick person.  The colon had started leaking so he has a condition much like a burst appendix.  We cleaned out the abdominal cavity and hopefully we can control what we missed with antibiotics.  If not we will have to go back in and do some more cleaning.”

“So you fixed the holes in the colon?”

“No.  There were too many, when we tried to stitch them the remaining tissue was so diseased that it would not hold the stitches.  We had no choice, we removed all of his colon.”

“Can he live that way?”

“Yes.  We did what is called a colostomy.  He will have to wear a bag on his side to collect the waste.  If there are no complications he should be fine.  I’ll be ordering a ostomy specialist to see him and teach him how to handle the appliance.”

“A bag?  On his side?”

“Mrs. Sadler, I am sorry, there was no alternative.”

If you wish to read more of this novel click on the link below.  It is the first chapter and it contains links to the other chapters.

The Night Sniper Chapter One: On the Beat

The Night Sniper: Ch. 026 The Women Get Their First Cosmetic Legs

The Night Sniper: Ch. 028 Making Up an Unusual Lineup