Chapter 172 - A Spot of Bother

Just that. A bother. On Monday the nail on the first toe of her right foot was removed under local anaesthetic. She had taken her meds at 11:30 and fortunately kick in had occurred by 12:30 when she entered the Procedures Room at the surgery. As an additional aid, she took her MP3 player to listen to the relaxation therapy which we bought from Belleruth Naparstek (http://www.healthjourneys.com/ a plug for something that worked for this PD patient) quite some time ago and hasn't been used in ever so long since she was able to relax and sleep soundly without help. She said later that she didn't quite go to sleep while her toe nail was removed. Of course, she well & truly felt the injection of the local. The surgeon came out to the waiting room to say the job had gone well. I asked "How were the wobbles?" "No problem at all" he replied. He had threatened to have her taken up to the hospital if the leg had shaken too much. So with her bandaged foot in a scuff a nurse took her in a wheel chair to our vehicle parked in the Disabled Parking slot at the front door That disabled parking sticker on the windscreen comes in useful at times like this. Later that day she needed to adjust her meds timings somewhat. By the time she returned on Tuesday to have the dressings changed her toe was throbbing a little due to the very tight bandaging. Back again for a dressing change on Thursday just after the pathology report had arrived. The surgeon came out to the waiting room to give me the "all clear" and almost apologised for having to do the job. Much better to be assured that it was not another melanoma.

Yesterday she said that her fingers had stopped tingling. So was that due to Lipitor? I will suggest she begin taking Lipitor again to complete the experiment. Of course, since last Sunday she limited her exercises in the Wii Fit programme because of the toe job, which is unfortunate since the reports suggest there is a relationship between vigorous exercise and the Lipitor effects. On Thursday we demonstrated the Wii Fit to our PD Group. Her fingers tingle a little this morning.

And yesterday evening we began our Progression 50 short years ago. We were both dis-interested participants in attending a Baptist Youth Fellowship meeting in the city on a Saturday night. In those times, BYF was a church socially acceptable place for testosterone primed youths to meet attractive young things. She was induced to attend because her younger sister wished to meet her potential boyfriend. The son of my boarding house lady had told me that it would be to my benefit to attend BYF; I had never been before, being new in church circles. Although he had other plans in mind; not as things turned out. She had had a bad hair day, came stomping down the ramp at the railway station (none of us had cars in those days) hair flying in the breeze, her dress spread like an open umbrella, damp rope petticoats beneath (which had not dried completely; any female younger than 60 today has no knowledge of such things). I must have been smitten because without hesitation I asked to sit next to her in church on Sunday morning, just 50 years ago today. Those were the days when our lives were fresh & exciting yet almost forgotten today only remembered in fuzzy snatches.