"I used to complain that I had no shoes..."

[denny]

Something I forgot to write about a few weeks back, but I've just been reminded of it by something cryx posted this morning.

I went into Wimbledon on the tram at lunchtime, to move some money around from my bank to my sister's bank (for reasons of phone banking incompetence, I had to actually withdraw a stupid amount of cash and wander up the road with it to physically pay it in to her bank account). I was in a bit of a hurry, so I'd jogged to catch the tram, and I'd been walking fast from station to bank, from bank to bank, and from bank back to station. My leg was really aching, and I was feeling quite stroppy and hard done by.

As I was approaching the station, I saw a Big Issue vendor, sitting in her wheelchair. I always buy it, so I stopped to grab a copy and chatted to her briefly. Already feeling slightly silly about my internal whinging about my aching leg, with her sat there with no legs at all - they were both missing from mid-thigh down.

She spotted my MAG 'life member' badge on my leather jacket and started talking to me about motorbikes. She used to ride herself, until some idiot pulled out in front of her and both her legs got broken. Not as badly as mine were mind you... but that didn't really matter for very long, because while she was in hospital being treated, she caught MRSA (the 'super bug')... and the infections became so severe that they had to remove both of her legs.

Those who visited me in hospital, or read my post here about the whole affair, may remember that I had open incisions for 8 days of my stay, due to complications with my initial surgery. They told me at the time that they were very concerned about infection, and they had me on IV antibiotics to try and prevent it. Of course, what makes MRSA a problem is that it is resistant to those antibiotics - that's what the MR stands for.

So yeah... my leg still aches, and it still doesn't move the way it should. I had to take a few painkillers while I was at the party this weekend, between the cool air, standing up for most of the night, and of course moving around a lot while performing... but somehow, I don't feel that much like complaining about it any more. Even the medical report I got last week, which said that the damage is permanent, seemed a lot less upsetting than I'd thought that verdict might be - and I suspect that this chance encounter is the reason why.

Comments

[cryx]

it does amaze me how you can get reality shifts like that. My example this morning was foolish and flippant, but i remember once having a bit of man trouble, which was taking over my mind at the time. Then I met a girl whose boyfriend had murdered her best friend. Suddenly my complaints seemed much more insignificant.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Good lord. That's the kind of thing you expect to read about, not talk to someone about.

[wood-rose.livejournal.com]

I understand that, my own attitude changed after spending a week on a neurosurgery ward when I had my spine op.

Rose
x

[cryx]

completely. it's the stuff of fiction, but it does happen. I'm still shocked by it every time i think of it.

[bluecassandra.livejournal.com]

Must explain my perky cheeriness late last week then: i spent monday and tuesday lisetning to people tell me about their childhood abuse and how odd it is when you get stabbed in the lung by your husband.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Yes, but you're one of those insane people who have a caring vocation. You only have yourself to blame ;)

[bluecassandra.livejournal.com]

Less gibbons, though.
I was actually fairly perky on Friday. pity it didn't last.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

*pets gibbons*

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Yes, a perspective shift is always useful.

Conversely, it just proves another human trait: we'll always find things to complain about - never mind whether they're worth complaining about or not. :)

[aillecat.livejournal.com]

I had MRSA last year, I got a bug bite in a cyst... it *is* treatable with Vancomycin. I had the cyst and the abscessed area removed, and my leg is not 100% better still, but I still have my leg, which is a Good Thing(tm).

We'll be in big trouble when staph. A. becomes vancomycin resistant though.... VRSA has already been spotted. This is why its very important that while caring for surgical wounds or anything else, that care is taken to keep the area as sterile as possible.

And yes, I am thankful every day that it didn't get worse than it was.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Scary stuff...

[jazzydan.livejournal.com]

Dude it seems that Chris has the email account of a small girl, I tried to email him a 20mb file and it bounced back!! Anyway do you have ftp details for his site, so I can upload it to there for him? Or any other suggestion gratefully accepted. Thanks Bud :)

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Hrm... I've managed to dig out the username and password from his old host, but it moved recently and I believe the actual hostname to connect to has changed. I can't seem to find it, I guess that must have been in the emails he sent to my work account that week.

If you can email the file to me (denny@ukfetish.info), I'll extract the info from him this evening and push the file up. I need to back the site up again anyway...

[jazzydan.livejournal.com]

Nice one mate. Just sent it to your email. Just need to put it somewhere so Chris can download it. I don't have anywhere online with enough space to upload it to at the moment.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Oh, I see. That's much easier... I'll throw it on one of my servers:
http://phoenixrising.ws/personal/denny/dan.mov

PS: .mov ? Ewww. :)

[jazzydan.livejournal.com]

sorry you know me I'm a mac boy. feel free to convert it to anything you fancy.

I will email you the fire juggling clips, when I get a mo to download em from the mini-DV.

P.S. what format do you reccomend/prefer?

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

MPEG is the usual 'works everywhere', but I can play most things, so do whatever you're happy with.

Quicktime on Windows is an evil abomination though, and should be exterminated. I hear you can use the codec in other players these days, which is probably much more pleasant.