8th April 2000

Well, there I was, thinking the worst of it was over, how wrong was I? I had come home from hospital on the Monday and in the early hours of Tuesday morning I had climbed out of bed to go to the little boys room and the gradually increasing pain I had been experiencing in my foot had grown to sheer agony. As the blood rushed down to my broken limb the throbbing was something akin to a Tom and Jerry cartoon so I decided I had to go back to hospital and let the doctors take another look. On arrival a doctor told me to go to the plaster room to remove the plaster so he could have a better look at it so I toddled in and jumped up on the bed. When the plaster was removed it was not a pretty sight. My foot looked like a 10lb sausage in a 5lb skin and was a very dark purple. The verdict was something called "cellulitus" which is not the "cottage cheese" skin effect on old ladies thighs but an inflammation of the cells and tissues ( as you can tell my stay in hospital has made me something of an expert ). I was admitted straight away and that is where I have been for the last ten days. The doctor said it would take 2-3 days of intravenous antibiotics to rid me of this pain but this turned out to be hopeful and I spent the next ten days in bed with my foot on a pillow and the end of the bed tipped up to keep the blood out of my foot ( I am surprised I did not get cellulitus in my head!!!). Unlike last time when I was on a modern part of the hospital I was placed in the Dickensian part which was very depressing. The stay was made more bearable by the nurses, who were wonderful, as always. My buddies called in and kept me supplied with a small library and large amounts of chocs so I have been eating and reading for England!! I met a variety of characters during my stay, some great guys and some boring bastards, one particular gentleman should be glad I was discharged yesterday as he was in serious danger of being discharged through the first floor window by your correspondent. The people who I mix with are generally liberal, fun loving, intelligent folk and this lures one into thinking that the rest of the population consists of like-minded individuals but it is only when you are forced into the company of strangers that you realise you and your friends are in the minority and a large part of the world is made up of ignorant, racist, homophobic fucking idiots, especially in the older generations. That said I met a couple of diamond geezers during my stay so this helped me ignore the morons and help me get through my time ( sounds like Alcatraz ). I met one guy who I will call Randy Old Goat , in his sixties, who did not miss the opportunity to chase a bit of skirt and was asking nurses to pass notes into the female part of the ward to certain ladies who had caught his eye. I would describe him as a typical "lovable rogue" and he and I had a few good laughs during the first three days of my stay but then he was discharged and I was left in the company of "Drop Dead Fred" who was the guy who nearly met the window. Anyway, I am glad to be back and hopping around on the crutches again and hopefully my next note in this section will have something about music instead of being another version of "Emergency Ward 10".