When you can’t stand up and lean forward into/ over a kitchen sink, you either just don’t do things or you still do them but you do them differently. Today I was cutting up carrots and sweet potatoes, and doing them in my lap over a cloth, then putting them into a pot on the kitchen surface. I’ve done it often before but today the potatoes were harder to slice ( I didn’t have a chopping board. as for that you need to lean on it and cut with your weight – if you think about it ) I think I wasn’t concentrating properly and I accidentally cut into my left index finger, rather than stopping at the edge of the potato… mmmm ok then… an image I saw on Facebook yesterday appeared in my mind of a friend’s wife who had cut her face and been to A &E and had it glued together. …

SO … as I considered a trip to the hospital to be complicated at the very least, as well as practically very difficult with only one hand working properly, and added to that the consideration that I’d lose quite a lot of blood by then, as well as get my hand dirty via wheel pushing ( well I have no choice other than to use my hands ) I instead pulled open the kitchen drawer, whilst clutching a piece of kitchen towel to stem the blood flow, and scrabbled about for the superglue that should have been there. Why is it that it’s always bloody there, until the day you need it straight away and then it’s evaporated into thin air ..? I found some general purpose glue though. One handed I got the top off and squeezed it.. but no glue came out. Bugger me, my hand was bleeding a fair bit, I’m trying not to use it, but I can’t move without blimmin using it. I find a scissors and cut into the tube and squeeze glue out of the side of the tube. Obviously then there s quite a lot of glue… so I have a mixture of blood, glue, kitchen roll and I can’t move because I can’t walk …

Anyway, like you do ( I do ) I managed to stem the blood, get some disinfectant foam that was close by, clean the gash, get LOTS of glue on the area, and blow dry the lot with my mouth…. well it seemed to work anyway. I wrapped the clean bit of kitchen towel around my finger and secured it with an elastic band ( that was also in the drawer )

Hey Presto – home A &E procedure completed.
Yes, the kitchen towel is now glued to my finger, but it’s not bleeding or even hurting, and I’ll soak the tissue off later and put something clean on it.

I then went out and bought 4 tubes of Superglue that I’ll dot about the place for future emergencies. Well glue is something that’s very handy ( no pun intended ).

Other than that, my class size went up again. Before long I’ll be like Ghandi before a throng of non white people, holding court and receiving of rapturous attention… well either that or they’ll find something better to do on a Tuesday afternoon in Greenford and desert me. I spent the lesson going over visiting a restaurant/ cafe and booking a flight. They seemed to want to know how to do that despite ALL of the ladies saying that their husbands do that for them, as they have the credit cards and make those decisions.., perhaps I’ll inadvertently give them the know how to do midnight flits and flee the country by Easyjet? What a thought…

I must mention my buddy Dan White, who helped me loads in the early days of my injury, and this week is hosting 12 injured soldiers in the French Alps. 12 blokes with varying levels of PTSD and not many legs left between them he told me today. Dan does this because he sees that he can help people who have suffered terrible trauma. He doesn’t want thanks or any limelight shone upon him, he’s just doing good, and making a difference.
More people like him and the world would be different.