Zip up that leg!

Couldn't resist this one :-) the wound is healing very nicely. I was thinking about how matter of fact we are about modern surgery nowadays, whilst reading an account of a battlefield amputation in the aftermath of Wellington's great victory at Vittoria in Spain. The poor soldier was given a piece of leather to bite down on and held in place by two or three others whilst his leg was removed at the thigh in a matter of seconds. Wiped down with a grubby sponge, he was sent to recover on a bed of straw with just some generous slugs of rough Spanish brandy for the pain!

Lying here in my clean bed with its electronic control mechanism for my own body shape comfort, my pain reduced to a dull throb by morphine delivered at the touch of a button, I do feel a great sympathy with the soldier at Vittoria, and an even greater thanks for the onward march of progress which allows me to benefit from surgical techniques to cure my knee problems, which might, two hundred years ago or so, resulted in it being me biting the leather and losing my leg...