Saturday, January 29

 

I might have mentioned that the new doctor at our practice was one of my junior staff when I ran the boarding house at Friends School in the late-1970s.  He remembered me although I had no memory of him at all.  I went to see him because I was having pains in my hands;  the left one was clearly arthritic but the right one was a different kind of pain entirely.  He sent me to get an X-ray of my left hand and an ultrasound of my right elbow.  I wondered why he was looking at my elbow when it is my hand that’s painful, but he said it’s all related.

 

I had to go back to see him yesterday.  I don’t know whether it is worse if the doctor gives you bad news or if he gives you good.  Today, it was a bit of both.  Yes, I have arthritis in my left hand and not much I can do about it, and they can’t see anything wrong with my right elbow.  That’s all very well, but my hand is still sore.

 

“I could give you anti-inflammatories,” he said, “but they often cause other problems.  We could fuse the bones in the left hand but you would lose the use of it.  You should probably just continue as you are.”

 

I’m not sure I like a doctor who gives up so easily.  He didn’t even offer me some of those new hi-tech designer opiates.

 

“Thanks for your help, doc,” I said. “I’ll see myself out.”

 

Marilyn came in yesterday with a plate of small cakes made by Mellany, one of Nera’s filipina friends.  They were clearly for Australia Day because some of them had little flags stuck in them.  Very patriotic!  I noticed that one of the flags was upside down and I remembered from my Scout days that this was a sign of distress.  Was Mellany alright or was this her way of asking for help?

 

Or, perhaps a mistake had been made in the Chinese factory where the flags were made, and that’s more likely.  I can imagine the consternation when the mistake was discovered.  “What shall we do?  Do we need to scrap them?”

 

“No, send them to Tasmania; they’ll never notice the difference.”