Chapter 17 — The Diagnosis

The pediatric specialist arrived a short while later, and she explained the medical situation with a calm, plain clarity that Martha would be grateful for the rest of her life, because it was the first voice in five weeks to treat Irene’s pain as simply, unarguably real.

The imaging had confirmed a structural blockage in Irene’s right kidney — a narrowing that was obstructing the normal drainage of the organ.

That obstruction was the source of everything: the recurrent, severe flank pain, the bad mornings, the guarded walk, the long hot showers Irene had been using to dull an ache she had been told she was inventing.