Ragtag Daily Prompt: Diverticulitis

It was after eating a bowl of peaches that the old King began to complain of pain in his belly. Several of his servitors had begged him to stop, but he ignored them as was his wont. Four of the palace guards had lashed their pikes under his chair and in this way, carried him to his bed. Once there, he curled into a fetal position and began to moan most piteously. His physicians were summoned immediately.

The doctors, mystified by his condition, which included a mild fever, recommended bleeding. So severe was his malady that Princess Pirouette was also summoned to his bedside. What the medical team didn’t know, couldn’t know, was that His Majesty was suffering from diverticulitis. This ailment had progressed so far that the lining of his large intestine had been perforated and its contents even then were spilling into his viscera. Because major surgery was unheard of at this time, this was a death sentence.

Published by Russell Smith

I was born at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. I find inspiration in the lives of so many people from Joan of Arc to Oscar Wilde. While my primary avocation is photography, I also enjoy philosophy, theology and most of all, history. My beloved wife, Robin Anne Smith, who passed away in 2013 is an inspiration to me. My beloved partner, Dana is also a great support and inspiration to me. I'd be remiss if I did not mention my cats: Maxwell, Nigel, Pirouette and GarGar.

One thought on “Ragtag Daily Prompt: Diverticulitis

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: