So why have I been conspicuous by my absence?
Well, first of all there was NaNoWriMo. My hairdresser was interested in it and my dentist offered to review the finished article. I didn’t take him up on his offer.
Having achieved the magic number (and a little more) I floated around in a bit of a haze – that is to say, more of a haze than usual. I had noticed a niggling ache in my shoulder for a couple of weeks but disregarded it until it became impossible to ignore because pain was radiating down my arm. I recognised that as referred pain.
If you remember, early in the year I was impersonating Long John Silver minus the parrot, crutch and peg leg. Looking at illustrations of LJS I notice that some show him with just a crutch and others with a crutch and wooden leg and yet more with a peg leg and no crutch. In some he is missing the left leg and in others it is the right leg that is no more.
I digress. At that time, in the dewy days of the New Year, the referred pain in my leg was comparable to that of sciatica.
Suffice it to say that the soreness in my arm was remarkably similar, waking me at night and making me prone to grizzling during the day – I say ‘prone to’ but I assure you I was a brave little soldier and didn’t yield to the temptation. For a few days I was to be seen with wires sprouting from my clothes as Compex (electrostimulation) alternating with TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) machines did their damnedest to deaden the pain. On occasions I turned the levels up so high I was jumping like a frog in a dissection dish.
I tell you this, not to elicit sympathy but to explain why I was unable to dazzle you with my scintillating wit; quite why I need to explain this I have no idea for the said wit has never dazzled yet and is unlikely to do so in the future. (That’s a cheap play – or should it be ploy? – to make you gainsay me!) Using my arm was difficult and so I refrained from using my laptop. Also, I’d used up all my thoughts . . . J
