Nocab,Nocab, Nocab

This is a story about somebody having a metal foreign object removed from the top of her foot. My inspiration came from needing foot surgery for the same reason as my protagonist.

Chapter 1

Liz lived a very fast-paced life. Her job as an actuary was as cherished to her as a newborn to a mother.  Every workday was her next fix, and she took home stacks of paperwork to plow through on the weekends.  Dating and friendships fell to the wayside.  Family members lived in other cities and were only remembered on government holidays,if at all.  

If Liz felt sick, she drugged herself with over-the-counter medicines and kept trucking along at the number-crunching.  Late one flu season, an unusual ailment sprung up suddenly.  She had a pain and tenderness in her foot and ankle.  She didn't have a swollen "kankle" or redness like that time in college when fire ants attacked her when she took out the garbage.  There was no visible problem, but extreme inner pain that would not be ignored.

Three days after the relentless pain began, Liz called the doctor's office.  She spoke with a note of desperation, "This is Elizabest Lee Meeks, and I really need to see a doctor as soon as possible."  She had not been seen for three years by her primary doctor, and that was to get vaccinations for a trip for work.  The receptionist said she could be "worked-in" to see a nurse practitioner.

A pain so sudden made Liz feel frightened of all kinds of diseases including cancer and gout.  In fact, she was so scared she called her family.  Her mother asked two times, "Who is this?" Once past the shock, she was very warm and comforting.

The nurse practitioner shook his head.  He had no idea what was causing the foot and ankle pain.  He ordered blood tests and x-rays, and not thinking the condition was serious or warranted any treatment,  he told this 30-year-old woman she could go home after she finished in the lab.  However, after the x-rays, the technician asked her to please wait until somebody else saw "something".

Ten minutes dragged on as might ten hours in one's mind, because she was imagining all kinds of problems.  However, she did not imagine anything like what the nurse practitioner told her was the true cause of concern.  

"Elizabeth, I do not see in your medical file it ever saying you were shot."

"What do you mean?  Like with a gun?  Luckily, nothing like that has ever happened to me."

"Well, you have a bullet in the top of your foot."

Chapter 2           

Liz was unable to even see a surgeon for two months on account of the doctor's popularity for plastic surgery.  She  almost had a second falling out with her family, because nobody could explain how she had a bullet in the top of her foot.  However, her mother persisted in staying in contact with her, and also convinced Liz the problem and its mysterious nature were of utmost concern to her once neglected relatives.

In those months of waiting for her removal of a foreign object, Liz turned to over-the-counter cold medicines that knocked her out at night.  Instead of working through her weekends, she began sleeping through her pain by this unoriginal method of self-medicating.  This drug-induced sleep was deep enough to keep the pain away, but it invited many vivid dreams.

Chapter 3

Liz spent her first vacation in years having her foot surgery to remove the foreign object. This piece of metal was in the shape of a bullet.  So, for all intents and purposes, such as insurance forms, it was labeled a "bullet," but in Elizabeth's mind it was a mysterious thing so alien to her that she refused to label it anything but a "piece of metal" whose primary entrance was unknown.  She feared people would think she was an alcoholic or drug addict, because who else could get a bullet or equally-massed hunk of metal internally without knowing when or how this happened?  She tried to remember times she drank alcohol.  LIz could only think of a few times when she was in pain and had a little wine.  She knew she was always more a work-aholic than an alcoholic.

Diane Meeks was a painfully shy housewife and had always admired her daughter's diligent attitude towards a career that resulted in a very comfortable living.  Upon hearing her offspring's  last minute idea of taking a taxi to the hospital, Diane made reservations to fly there.  No child of hers was taking a taxi to the hospital.  She knew her fear of flying was irrational, so she "sucked it up" and boarded the plane, only needing to use the barf bag for a little hyperventilation.

The hospital turned out to be a surgery center.  Diane found the building slightly creepy, because everything happened in the basement of the building, as though it was a dungeon. She was glad she brought a book, because of course there weren't any windows, and she was too shy to change the channel on the television in the waiting room.  Liz had missed the call with instructions to fast the eight hours prior to surgery, so she ate a big breakfast at a restaurant with her mom.  When asked if she had fasted, Liz only smiled, and this was taken as an unspoken "yes". 

The best part of the operation was the hot blanket draped over the patient's body.  Easily the worst thing was the pain Elizbeth felt before additional local anesthetic was administered.  She would later explain, "It felt as though he was moving the bones in my foot in a twisting fashion and silently breaking them."  Following the surgery, there was no prescription medicine for pain, but Liz told her mother she had a cold, and pretended to cough so she could drink her drug-of-choice.

The doctors saved the foreign object removed from Liz's foot.  It had broken in half when it exited the body.  This thing was like no bullet anyone had ever seen.  Inside each half was an intricate web of material that appeared to be plastic.  A government agency involving space, airplanes, and engineering offered her $50,000  for the object.  She accepted the offer and sold it to the agency without any hesitation that she was doing the best thing for herself.  

Chapter 4

Three months after the operation, Elizabeth felt completely healed.  In the fourth month following the surgery, the subject started having pain in her other foot.  Upon getting an x-ray of this part of her body, it was believed she had an object similar to the one removed just months ago.  "You've got to be kidding me, " she exclaimed upon hearing the news.  The only positive thing was the government agency who bought the first "bullet" was willing again to pay for her portion of the medical expenses, as long as they could have the second strange item from Elizabeth's body.

Diane kissed her daughter's forehead, before watching her grown child be wheeled off on a gurney for a second surgery.  As a matter of convenience, Elizabeth chose to have the procedure done in the same location as the first time, though this time the government was paying all of the bills.  She did request a new doctor, who promised to write a prescription for pain medicine.  

The operating room was identical to the first one, but it had a light bulb blown out, casting an eerie shadow on the wall.  Unlike during the initial foot surgery, this time nobody was talking to her once she was wheeled in the room.  She did not even hear anyone talking to each other.  Nobody came to shake her hand as had previously happened.  Absent was a caring anesthesiologist walking her through what was to be expected.  All she saw was masked faces, and she did not recognize any eyes to be those belonging to the woman who was her new surgeon.  Someone draped the blue sheet, blocking her view of her feet.  Terror filled her as she felt pain in her foot and heard a sound like an electric saw.  She screamed, and nobody comforted her. The operation continued.  Finally, she saw a second "bullet-shaped" object being held in the air by a tool resembling tongs.  Instead of a human voice, she heard pig grunts. Elizabeth fainted.

Chapter 5

When Elizabeth Meeks awakened, she was in a hospital room with a window overlooking a sunny park on her right side.  On her left was a woman dressed as a nurse who had a look of compassion on her round face.  Elizabeth felt sweat drenching every inch of her body.  All of a sudden, everything in sight turned blurry, and Liz saw her own body shaking violently.  As the sweating turned to a sensation of  severe itching, the round faced woman spoke, "Welcome to the first day of detox."     

Author's Note

I wrote the first part of this story before having foot surgery. Like my story's protagonist, I had a metal foreign object removed from the top of my foot. I have been doing more reading the last few months, but now am finally returning to the keyboard after my hiatus.