David felt so weak all the time his parents made him see a physician. His hands and feet were numb most of the time.
"Mariah, your blood sugar and related statistics are terrible. You should've lost a lot of weight a long time ago. There's not much we can do for you now."
David felt numbness in his hands (his sister's hands) and his feet (his sister's feet).
"Well, what do you mean?"
"You have severe diabetes."
"Well, that's not fair!" exclaimed David. "They just put me in this body a few weeks ago! I didn't have a chance to lose weight!"
"Look, let's not debate the past. Your body is so obese and diabetic that your hands and feet are basically dying. If you got any kind of infection, it would spread like wildfire. Your body literally can't support them. If you keep those hands and feet, any papercut could result in such a severe infection that it would hit your heart and brain and skeleton and kill you. As long as you continue to be obese, you can't have those hands or feet. It's irresponsible of us to allow you to have them. It's just asking for a fatal infection. By the way, I've been poking your hand with a needle this whole conversation. Did you notice?"
David looked with horror at Mariah's fat left hand. No, he didn't feel that needle at all. He really was in bad shape.
He spent the rest of the day crying hysterically as the emergency surgery was scheduled. He had to keep reassuring himself, "It's to save my life... It's to save my life..." but what kind of a life was it? To never have hands or feet again?
"What's it going to be like?" he asked his surgeon as the anesthetic flowed through his body. "How can I unbutton my pants without fingers? How can I scratch an itch with just... soft, blunt nubs? How can I wipe my butt after I poop? I'm never going to use a cellphone ever again..."
The anesthesic started to knock him out.
"No penis, no fingers, no toes... Can people walk without feet? Wait, am I going to be stuck in a wheelchair forever? Can I ever drive a car...? Can I even hold a fork? Oh, god, no, of course not. You can't hold a fork without hands... You're taking my hands? Why?" he continued crying. He looked at his right hand, and realized how beautiful it was. He wiggled his fingers for the last time. He could've done anything with this hand, with these fingers... but he didn't do much of anything with them. And this would be the last time he ever felt them. He wiped his eye, feeling the wetness against his slightly numb fingers wiping his tears away, and then he was unconscious.