Brave lady

I don't know many people who are as quietly brave or plucky as the Minx. Last year, in an unusual domestic incident, she managed to end up with half a cocktail stick wedged into her right foot. It entered laterally, between her toes and it was every bit as ouch as it sounds.

After a number of visits to A&E and futile prescriptions, she was finally operated on but they didn't find anything. There was some talk of her body having broken down and absorbed the stick already but her ongoing problems with the foot belied that theory.

Still, once we did get her readmitted to hospital after Glastonbury - in clear need of intravenous antibiotics - she was sent home after one night by a consultant who turned out to be one of the "your body's probably absorbed it by now" brigade. Fortunately, this action caused a bit of a ruckus with the Minx's consultant and the upshot was that she was offered another operation.

I'm a big fan of the NHS and I'm not going to knock it here but, as a critical friend, I have to wonder why this time 'round they decided to carry out some proper scans beforehand to locate the little bugger as opposed to just opening her foot up and ineffectually rooting about. 

It turned out the cocktail stick was still there and was lodged just beyond where the other operation ended, which makes me wince just thinking about how hard the Minx must have inadvertantly kicked it to lodge it quite so deeply.

We went down for a final scan, this morning, before the operation and the chap said it was the most interesting thing he'd ever seen (and also how he could not believe that they'd missed it previously). 

This time, though, they did find the stick when they operated and even though it needed to be disposed of, they did bring it back up to the ward so I could see it first. (Don't follow this link if you're squeamish!) 

It was completely intact.

We had to hang around for a while before I was allowed to take the Minx home but it didn't matter. In fact, nothing really mattered right then other than the fact that the bloody cocktail stick is finally out.