Pain relief

I can't believe that it is June already, where does the time go? Again the week has been quite busy, I have been working on a few family portrait photographs that I have taken and Pat has been manufacturing more jewellery we have caught up with a few friends from our previous and less desirable life in the rat race, some of which looked very well and some which looked quite ill. There was a hectic family celebration over the weekend (Saturday) for our eldest granddaughter who is now nine years old, her Mom made the most wonderful cake on which the candles would not stay lit in the balmy summer breeze and Rupert the young Yorkshire terrorist had a feast cleaning up on discarded morsels from the barbecue. Sunday we went and raided the local car boot sale and returned with quite a haul of "booty" one item of which was a new radio/CD player for the truck. Under normal circumstances I would not buy electronic items from a car boot sale, but this guy seemed honest and genuine. I have since fitted the radio and it is marvellous, remote controlled too.

Well, since our stay in Criccieth I have been tolerating severe pain in my right shoulder and numbness in my right arm, probably caused by fruitless and frantic fishing forays, during the week I visited the doctor who had great sympathy and gave the useful advice to take paracetamol, brilliant aren't they, my nine year old granddaughter would have told me that. A nearby friend is a physiotherapist and on Sunday, in desperation, after hearing me whinge relentlessly for weeks Pat went and asked her if she could perhaps help me. Well for a good half an hour or so I was subject to torture at the hands of this very kind lady. (Strange how onlookers bear such a broad grin) and she said that she would return on Monday with some acupuncture needles if I didn't object. By now, I was desperate and would probably have agreed to amputation without anaesthetic. Monday saw me hobbling around the shops like Quasimodo's apprentice carrying a bunch of flowers for my saviour and if the worst came to the worst they could have been placed at my headstone. At 1700 hours the sport began. I sat slumped over the table and had 16 needles stuck in various parts of my back, shoulders and hand none of which caused me any pain or even discomfort. We all chatted for 15 or 20 minutes while the magic needles did there work. I then had a further 8 or 9 needles inserted directly into the point of pain, Oh my God...............did they hurt? I think that they had been preheated to red hot on the gas ring. Another 15 minutes or so and they were removed. Did I feel any better? Boy, you bet I did, mere muscle spasm pain was heaven compared to those little red hot devils of Chinese torture. Now I know there are those of you out there who will doubt the magic of this ancient art form, well let me tell you................it did absolutely nothing for me except stimulate the tear ducts and the desire to express high volume and random expletives, but don't let my experiences put you off, you may well get some sort of distorted pleasure from such agony. We both thanked our friend for her efforts, gave her the flowers and I then sat speechless for half an hour while the sweat and tears dissipated along with any thoughts that I had about groaning. Sometimes.................it is better to suffer in silence. Do you get the point?