Holding On To A Smile

My poor brother has had a sore hand for a couple of days but this morning it had swollen up quite badly so he headed round to our doctor's surgery where he was dismissed by the receptionist within seconds (he didn't get to make an appointment let alone see a doctor) with the phrase "we don't do x-rays here, you'll have to go to A&E". Charming! It's almost like they take.delight in not letting you see a doctor!
Therefore, we headed to A&E where were greeted by another rude receptionist. Thankfully, it was quiet and we only had to wait for 15 or 20 minutes before he got to see a junior doctor in triage. She was very friendly and chatty and said she did not think it was broken (my brother did not remember injuring his hand) and suggested it could be an infected insect or spider bite but that he should maybe get an x-ray to rule out a break or fracture.
To make my brother laugh I started calling it his gammon hand (it had started to resemble a baked ham!) whilst we were in the waiting room for the x-ray department. Again we didn't have to wait too long before he saw the next doctor who said he didn't actually need an x-ray and diagnosed acute inflammatory arthritis. He was prescribed a course of anti-inflammatory tablets and signed off work for a week to allow the medication to take effect and reduce the swelling. 
In total we were only at the hospital for a couple of hours which all things considered wasn't too bad.
Today's image was taken on another local photographic safari after we got back where I found this smiley little fella discarded on a nearby basketball court/five-a-side football pitch. It also kind of represents our day. Although my brother has been in quite a bit of pain he managed to keep smiling bless him! Get well soon bruv.