Categories: uncategorized
Date: 18 October 2008 17:55:12
To be fair, some of it could be considered to be good news. I went to the Dental Hospital on Tuesday and had a polyp removed from my tongue, not for the first time (the earlier one was on the other side). I knew what to expect, but still, having an anaesthetic injection direct into the tongue is not exactly fun. To make it worse, the surgeon had to dig around a lot, and then call her boss, because she was having trouble getting all of the lump out. So the op seemed to go on for ever, and I think the anaesthetic hadn't reached quite as big an area as it was meant to. And that, believe it or not, was the good news! Good in the sense that my polyp, which was causing me a lot of bother, is out, and all I have to do is rinse with hot salt water four times a day for a week, which is actually excessive as the wound seems to be healing up nicely, in spite of the stitches having fallen out within 24 hours before they even had the chance to dissolve.
Now the bad news - crossing the road yesterday afternoon (not at a crossing), I became aware that the parked car ear me (parked on the wrong side of a busy road) was reversing towards me at a not inconsiderable rate. So I stepped back onto the pavement and somehow missed my step and found myself hurtling rapidly in slow motion (as it were) towards the pavement. I grazed the knuckles on one hand, which was not too bad, but I also seem to have landed awkwardly on my right ribs, which are now hurting whenever I stretch, bend or breathe deeply. Because I was on my way to meet my Mum at a tube station (and she doesn't have a mobile, and mine was run down), I went ahead and soldiered through the afternoon taking her to the Vienna Café exibition - which was good apart from the pain, and the fact that I chose the wrong cake.
Now on the advice of various internet friends, in particular one who works for NHS Direct, I am taking painkillers and not going to Casualty because they wouldn't do anything anyway. Apparently, so long as there are no complications, ribs are generally left to heal themselves. I don't really think anything's broken, it doesn't hurt enough for that - it could in fact be a muscle strain from the way I fell. As to why I fell, I really have no idea. I seem to have lost the knack of recovering myself before I keel over - perhaps it's the higher dose of anti-depressants (I blame everything on that).
Meanwhile I had fortunately already written my sermon for Sunday - yes, I'm preaching yet again - and can probably get away with not revising it any more. I wonder what medical, transport or other emergency I'll have next...