Surgery was scheduled immediately. I will install it on my mantle shelf. Ultimately, he got his wish. But the despised leg had the last laugh. Barwick suffered phantom limb pain.
Phantom limb is a common experience with amputees.
Somewhere, locked in their brains, a memory lingers of the nonexistent hand or leg. For a few, like Barwick, the experience includes pain. Doctors watch helplessly, for the part of the body screaming for attention does not exist. Barwick suffered phantom limb pain of the worst degree. The wound healed, but he could feel the torturous pressure of the swelling as the muscles cramped, and he had no prospect of relief.