Southeast Hospital—Cape GirardeauT
he flash burns weren’t too bad. He’d have an ugly ridge of scar tissue on top of his right ear to compliment the others he’d picked up over the years, but the salve the doctors applied twice daily was working and the pain meds were fairly effective. He was concussed and shaky on his feet for a day or two, but that was stabilizing, and the Docs weren’t overly worried about it. The headaches were diminishing despite raging tinnitus that constantly jangled through his brain. There was an ugly smudge of black powder burn that made an interesting contrast to his white hair, but that would grow out and disappear in time.
The real problem was his hearing. An audiologist said the eardrum was shattered, and he had some serious high-frequency hearing damage on to
