Back Again

My apologies for not putting anything up for a while. Lack of a connection to the interweb is my excuse. I now have a nice shiny new broadband connection so should be back on a regular basis.

Hypatia

I have indeed received instructions from Hypatia; these are to display some pictures of her at her regal finest and/or cutest (being a disobedient and somewhat wilful owner I’ve also included some embarrassing ones too).



A new home with owner to train (7 weeks)



Me! Shred the Metro? Never!

My Chair!

What?

Relaxing in the sun (12 weeks)

Total mastery (I’m allowed on the bed) (6 months)

Recovering Nicely (so far)

The days following the surgery have been great, absolutely no pain at all. As a Christian I put this down to God and the power of prayer of course. For none believers I’m happy for you to cite the skill of the surgeon and so on (but would point out that it's normal to pray for God to guide the surgeon’s hand etc). I do have to report a little stinging overnight last night continuing today but it is no more than that and compared to what I was expecting nothing of consequence.

A Neat Dressing

Above is the offending foot with dressing which is not as large as I was expecting (I get the feeling the whole thing has been widely exaggerated). If you look closely just below the dressing you can see the several puncture marks from the local anaesthetic; there are also some in the arch of the foot one of which can be seen in the photo with Hypatia giving it her expert examination (below).

Dr Hypatia’s examination

Indecently the body is a remarkable device, I’ve been googling the foot’s nervous system (I seem to have developed an interest there for some reason). It turns out feeling in the outside of the big toe (great toe if you a medical person) is controlled by a different set of nerves to the inside. One, the outside, comes across the instep of the foot the other from behind the achilles tendon and across the arch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorsal_digital_nerves_of_foot). Hence why I look like a pin cushion; there are other injection sites closer to the toe under the dressing too.

Toenail Ablation

At last something solid to tell you about. For some years now I have suffered from something called ‘involuted toenail’ which is similar to an ingrowing one, hardly life threatening but it can be quite painful and does get infected from time to time. The photo above is the offending digit at its worst. The inflammation can clearly be seen from the redness around the nail as can the shape the nail grows into, slowly pinching the flesh. How much is demonstrated by the next photo showing the nail after a bit of ‘home surgery’.

I’ve put up with this for years now (as we blokes tend to do – we truly are terrible at looking after our health) but finally I decided to consult my GP, the result of which was a trip to the hospital today to have the nail removed permanently (ablated).

After some confusion I had the procedure done under a local anaesthetic (they were quite keen to put me under). It’s the same stuff as used by the dentist and as with the dentist it took about twice the normal dose to ‘numb me up’ but despite feeling like a pincushion it was better than a general. Once properly numb I didn’t feel a thing and it was all over in about ten minutes. Bit strange seeing my nail in a pair of forceps though.

Several hours later the anaesthetic is wearing off but there is surprisingly little pain so far, the hospital issued me with some industrial strength painkillers though ‘just in case’. I now have a surprisingly small dressing and have to use something called a ‘darco’ boot for a couple of weeks, this keeps the pressure off the toes apparently and makes me walk as though I’ve had about three doubles.

So far the experience has been, if not agreeable, at least not grossly unpleasant. I’m told anecdotally, semi confirmed by the nurses/consultant, that it will almost certainly turn a bit ‘manky’. I’m also intrigued as to life toenail less so I’ll keep you posted.

Dangerous

This blogging lark is dangerous; I’ve spent far more time than I have just trying to get the ‘About me’ feature as I want it. Without success by the way.

Great day at work. Between BT and myself we have managed to get all the phones and internet connection up and running in my office, something that has at best been intermittent for months and months. The best bit though is we have got it all going on half the incoming lines which if repeated across the estate will be a considerable cost saving for the charity.

Day 1

Hey my first blog. Welcome to the 21^st century Ray you might say and I’d be inclined to agree.

I’m not sure how this site will develop yet, I’m certainly not sure I have anything interesting to say and I guess it will take me a little while to learn to drive it. Oh well here goes.

Wren at the London Wetlands Centre

Ah so that’s how to add an image. The above photo is one at random from my collection; it was taken in April last year at the London Wetland Centre, a fantastic place to see wildlife right in the heart of London.