Friday, March 09, 2007

eye at the door, medical prose, shaking

This morning, as I pick up the paper from under the letter box, I see a blackbird on the hedge. He is watching me, with one curious eye, through the panelled glass of the front door.

Medical matters generally leave me cold, or uneasy. But I am taken with the prose in the letter, which the surgeon wrote to my GP after he operated on me on Tuesday. It strikes me as precise, succinct and unambiguous, as good prose should be. So, although I understand so little of it, I feel I should share it, if only on account of its elegance.:
"I operated today under local anaesthetic attending to his left inguinal hernia. I found a large indirect sac and a small, laterally placed, direct one as well. I have divided and high ligated the former and inverted the latter, I have carried out a Lichtenstein tension free hernioplasty with light-weight open weave Ultapro mesh between the conjoint tendon and inguinal ligament. There are no problems with the procedure and he is due home later the same day.

On the steps of the Down Town Fish Bar, the fish and chip man, flirts with the girl in the car workshop opposite. He sings and perform a little dance: "I'm available.. " he says. "You're shaking my baby ... you can dance with the guy, who gave you the eye."

3 comments:

Lucy said...

Bless you, Plutarch, this was brave. Get well soon.

Anonymous said...

Plutarch, glad you are ok and continue on the mend.

The Down Town Fish Bar - 20-plus years ago a redoubtable woman called Lil used to run this. She was 80 if she was a day and could quell giggling, joshing etc among the after-closing-time crowd with a single glance or bark from behind her permanently-lit fag!

Unknown said...

Thank you Lucy. And thank you Jennny. I remember Lil, and her perpetual fag, at the Down Town Fish Bar.