Possibly

Have you ever broken a bone?

I did once kick my husband in the foot in bare feet whilst he was wearing leather shoes. The pain was rather emphatic, the toe immediately went several shades of pink to purple, and I had trouble with shoes for a while.

Fortunately it was summer so I could wear sandals, and people rarely scrutinise you to toe level.

I’ve also dropped a paving stone across my toes, and don’t even want to think what that did. The other week I walked into the leg of our sofa, which is recessed, and although nothing was broken the bruise was spectacular.

The funny story

Is the time I walked into the bathroom door, in the middle of the night. I have hammer toes, they curl at the top, and one took a real bashing. So I arranged to see my GP, who was running the minor injury clinic at the cottage hospital that morning.

Interesting aside

Yes I’m that old, and that was the NHS at its best. You had ‘major’ hospitals and local hospitals. Big treatment at the Big hospital, as soon as you were well enough you were transferred to a local hospital for ongoing care.

It was genius, it cleared the beds for operations etc., and people also got time to recover with proper care. I’d bring that system back tomorrow.

In Beckenham the cottage hospital had verandas so in the good weather the nurses just reversed the beds, opened the French doors, and pushed the patients outside. They would come home beautifully tanned, rested, and very relaxed. Generally the healthiest looking in the whole family.

Back on track

Anyway…we’re in the consultation room:

Dr asked how the accident happened, walked into door frame.

“The door was closed?”

“Ermmm…no…I missed the gap!”

“You missed a 3 foot gap?”

“Yes.”

Sigh “We’d better have an X-Ray”

Minutes later I’m sitting in the room with him and the X-Ray is delivered.

“Damn! It’s not broken!”

Nurse “Doctor Finer!!!!”

“What? She has hammer toes, if it were broken I could have straightened it!”

Unexpected benefits

I was young in the times of toe pinching stiletto heels, which I could rarely wear. They were just too tight on bent toes. The corns! Ouch. So I avoided them as much as I could.

One GP told me when I was 30 that most women of my age had bent, twisted toes, that folded inwards into a point due to those shoes.

That’s when I learned that something which doesn’t appear to be perfect, can be exactly as it should be.

🤣

Happy Sunday

Deb xx