
Well, after only 24 hours' grace, I was back at the hospital again today to once more meet interesting new people - an A&E consultant, an orthopaedics doctor, an orthopaedics registrar and, finally, an orthopaedics consultant.




The upshot of this four hours of flesh pressing was that I now have new legwear, albeit slightly less sleek and sexy than my original Ann Summers support stocking.
Oh, and I almost forgot.............they managed to work out what was wrong with me - physically, that is, not psychologically. It turns out that, as the orthopaedic consultant explained it to me, "Terry tendon has snapped and come away from Nigel kneecap". How naughty of him, I said.
To rectify this latest mechanical mishap to hit Pither's otherwise highly-tuned, athletic and God-like body I have to go back to the hospital again - supposedly tomorrow - to undergo an operation which involves stitching up Terry and inserting a length of wire to stop him going walkabout again.
If the orthopaedic surgeon's hangover is not too acute, the anaesthetist can keep his hands off the theatre sister long enough and there is a temporary lull in the raging epidemic of MRSA then there is a chance I will pull through. I will then have four to six weeks of wearing a cast to look forward to before I have to return to the Theatre of Blood to have the wire removed.
Nothing for Grantham today - except possibly the sad, pathetic, shambling joke which is my entire existence at the moment! Oh, and self-pity as well.