"Is it serious?" William asked the question the priest cared about most. The fat priest was already sweating. Discovering half a basin's worth of water in his belly, it was hard not to think of it as the Heavenly Father's supernatural punishment for evil deeds.
Adrian studied Kraft's expression. It didn't look like he was about to deliver good news. Sure enough, a terrifying recommendation came from the mouth that had just laid out the diagnosis, and Adrian's vision went dark.
"To put it plainly, for the sake of your life, you have to stop drinking, Father Adrian." While Adrian gasped for breath, his belly heaving with each breath, Kraft placed a hand beneath his ribs and added a palpation of the liver and spleen.
A healthy liver should be soft and smooth. What his hand found behind the right ribs was hard, with an uneven, slightly lumpy texture.
The spleen beneath the left ribs could be felt just below the rib cage. Excess blood had stagnated there, leaving it congested and enlarged. This was an early sign of portal hypertension caused by an obstruction in the vein leading to the liver, and Adrian's condition was more severe. Kraft estimated that the spleen was moderately or even severely enlarged.
Kraft didn't dare examine it closely. A congested spleen was as fragile as a water balloon; if it ruptured from an impact, the resulting hemorrhage would be fatal.
"And you need to be careful not to bump into things or fall. I doubt you'd be able to stop the bleeding easily." Kraft finished the brief examination, straightened and smoothed his white coat, and covered the priest's swollen belly.
The situation was dire, and there was nothing they could do about it. Frankly, even if the priest stopped drinking, it might not