TODAY WAS THE DAY.....

.....when I was due to have a steroid injection in the palm of my hand to try and rectify my “trigger“ finger.  I had the first appointment of the day, as I thought it would be good to get it over with early! 

When we arrived at our doctor’s surgery, we sat opposite two seats which had a notice above them saying, “Please reserve armchairs for elderly patients”.  There were no arms on the chairs, and as Mr HCB and I do not class ourselves as "elderly" we decided to sit opposite rather than on these chairs. However, after a few minutes Alan, a friend of ours, came into the surgery and promptly sat down on one of the chairs, just under the notice.  I’m saying nothing about his age, although I did point out the sign to him, but you will see from his smiling face in the collage that he is just over 21!

I know that he sometimes sees my Blips on Facebook, so decided that I would take a photograph of him and laughingly said, “You could very well be my Blip today!”  He didn’t say "No", so here he is, embracing the sign.

Before long we were called in by the doctor who asked if Mr. HCB was coming in with me to give moral support, and we both agreed he was.  Having checked that I had signed a consent form when I had seen her a few weeks ago she got out all the equipment ready to do my injection.

Having said I had been taking ant-inflammatories, which had helped, for a couple of weeks since I last saw her, the doctor then asked if I still wanted to go ahead with the injection. I quickly told her I did - I felt there was no point in backing down now I was actually sitting opposite her!

When I took out my iPhone to take a photograph she looked slightly quizzical so I explained to her that I take a photograph every day that has a particular relevance to my day, then I write a journal and upload it to a website called Blipfoto.  Her comment to me was, “I’m so sorry, had I realised it was going to be photographed, I would’ve set everything out much better!”

I won’t say too much about the injection because it might upset people, suffice to say that although it took a few minutes for the injection to be completed, it wasn’t painful and was soon over.  I was told to ring her if I had any pain or swelling but that in any event she would ring me in a couple of weeks to see how things had gone because it could take that long for the steroid to work.  I did tell the doctor that I gave her 10 out of 10 for the way she had administered the injection, and she smiled.  I’m quietly confident that all will be well!  Mr. HCB then took me to Jack’s for a coffee and we met up with some friends, so that took my mind off things.

Under Door 6 on our Advent Calendar, through the Pathway Project  charity, it says, “Today you have helped a family escaping domestic abuse find a safe place to stay.”  Quite relevant today when we’ve been hearing that many more people are living in poverty, and particularly those who have left their homes after being abused,  so it’s good to know that our donation has helped in some small way. 

“…everyone needs a somewhere, 
     a place he can go. 
There comes a time, you see, 
     inevitably there comes a time 
          you have to have a somewhere            
               you can go!” 
Fyodor Dostoyevsky : Crime and Punishment

P.S.  I have dictated this to my iPhone (one of the wonders of modern technology) but won’t be commenting by typing today because the feeling has now come back into my hand and it is a tad painful at the moment, so please forgive me.