Trask chuckled. “Propofol and versed are fun drugs. He insisted on seeing you before going back to his room.” Trask looked down at his phone, his expression not changing.
“How are you feeling? General, sir, you have a wonderful daughter.” Troy smiled broadly.
“That I do,” the general replied, his eyes twinkling in amusement.
Gwen reached for Troy’s hand. “Let Trask get you back to your room so you can rest and watch some TV until the doctors are ready to poke and prod you a little more. If you want, we can watch the same movie and talk over the phone together.” She squeezed his hand as her heart pounded with worry.
“That sounds great to me.” Troy’s head bobbed, then his eyes closed.
Chapter 22
An hour later Mac Novak and a man built like a human fireplug knocked and entered his room. “Good morning, Troy. You look good this morning,” Mac said. “I wanted to share with you that Jessie Brooks’ pain was managed. You made the right call.”
“That’s a relief,” Troy sighed.
“Hello, Troy,” Jayden Humphries, the colorectal surgeon said. “I’m not sure you remember what I said before the procedure this morning. Dr. Elizabeth Reed Bailey brought me in specifically to assist putting the two ends of your intestine together.” His British accent warmed the room.
Another knock on the door heralded Kip Brennan’s arrival. “Hey, everybody, I'm Kip. Martin and Julian can't be the only ones having fun with my friend Troy.”
Troy laughed. “Thanks, man.”
“Docs, I'll stay out of your way; you just do your job.”Kip sat in the lounger, tipping his feet up.
Troy sighed; his friends’ words made him feel safer.Cut the shit. You have to let the fear go.“What's on the agenda?”
Humphries spoke first, "You were a very cooperative patient when you were unconscious. I believe Dr. Novak will agree as well. If you are up to taking a ride, we can show you your scans, and then I’ll leave you with Dr. Novak. One of your Quebec personnel needs his appendix removed. Dr. Miller is detained at UC San Diego Hillcrest with a major trauma.”
Before Troy could say a word, Trask said, “I’ll get you a full report.”
Troy had worked with British special forces before. He was always amazed how the British accent made the most horrific things sound pretty.
In moments, Kip pushed the wheelchair, and Trask and Tim walked on either side of him. Once in the corridor, Troy immediately spotted additional security beyond the plan Gwen and he made. “Kip, don't mess with me. What's the extra security for?”
Kip continued pushing Troy down the hall. “Gwen adjusted the plan some more. With the two in-patient assault victims, the arrival of Holly Dupart and JT, and you, we upped the security. All routine.”
Troy chewed his lip. Neither Gwen nor Trask said a word about the change to him. And Gwen was on sick leave. No, his gut warned something was wrong.
The group stopped in front of the door to the room where Troy had been the evening before. Trask stepped ahead of them and cleared the room and the attached changing area. That was confirmation of Troy’s suspicions.
Inside, Jayden flipped the light boxes across one wall while Mac typed into the computer. Soon each frame on the wall held pictures from his CT scan. Troy watched as both Novak and Humphries pointed to various things on the scan. Troy was beginning to learn Tim had one of the best poker faces around.
Both doctors walked over to Troy and wheeled him closer to the screens. Humphries went first. “These are slices of your abdomen going from your front to your back. You lost two lobes of your liver. This piece is brand-new healthy growth. Now you have two full lobes, and the third is about a quarter of the way there. You have no more gall bladder to worry about either. You also lost a third to half of your spleen.” Humphries’ finger roamed the screen.
“One quarter of your large bowel and over a foot of small intestine is also gone. You have no more appendix. The tube from your stoma to your stomach looks okay. There is scar tissue dotting your entire abdomen and around a good piece of your large bowel. My biggest concern is your rectum has moderate scarring. But according to this morning’s exam completed by Mr. Holland and myself, I believe you have the requisite sphincter strength to support a reversal.
“Moving from your anus up, you have what we call a stump, the piece of intestine left after Dr. Bailey and Dr. Hedges removed the severely damaged pieces.” His hand moved along the scan again. “While you were out, I looked at the stump. It’s going to be close, but I think it’s long enough.
“Next Friday my job is to disconnect your bowel at the stoma in your side and reattach the intestine to your stump. To give me the requisite length, the scar tissue must be freed up. The plan is to try this laparoscopically, but I would be emotionally prepared that we may have to perform a complete open incision. That is time-consuming and tedious. It’s going to be a long procedure.” Jayden paused.
Troy shot Kip a dazed look. Kip smiled and sighed. “I got this.”
Jayden continued, “I dished you up a lot. Tomorrow, we will sit down with the crew and go over the procedure and post-op routine. I want you to take a breath and write a list of questions. Mr. Holland will go over what I said later. I’ll leave you now with Dr. Novak.”
Mac pursed his lips. “How are you doing?”
Troy sighed. “Overwhelmed by all this. I’m glad Humphries gave me time to think. The man does talk fast. I’m worried about Gwen, and I’m scared about the surgery not working. Now you’re going to add on another pile.”
Novak nodded. “I’d like to get through the medical end of things. Later, you and I will spend some time together to talk through the emotional. This really sucks. I wish there was a way to mitigate the info dump. Your friend Kip is diligently writing and taping what we say.
