Plastered

After our last few days of unexciting meals - some positively off-putting such as the fish & chips or the sole I mentioned in my last blog - we decided we'd have a few old favourites, something reassuring. We decided to opt for the tin of corned beef that lurked in the cupboard. We thought first we'd have some corned beef hamburgers & finish the tin off with a Hampton pie on the second day.

Needless to say one of the first things you have to do with a tin of anything is to open it. Corned beef tins have always been problematic with their keys near one end of the tin. I always found them preferable to those on sardine tins which I always got stuck half-way along, often discovering then I'd put the key on the wrong way in the first place. At least with a corned beef tin, or for that matter a ham tin, I never had that difficulty. The danger always lurked in not catching your fingers on the sharp edges of the tin. This tin, however, was a newer, more modern design - a ring pull.

I'm never that keen on ring pulls either. Usually I manage to pull the rings off before getting the lids off. Nonetheless I thought I'd best have a go. The ring came up. The lid remained firmly attached. I pulled longer. The ring began to tear off.  Eventually the lid started to move. I changed the position of my hand &, you've got it, I catch my hand, not on the lid put on the ring. Blood starts bursting out. I wash the cut quickly, dry it & press firmly on the cut, then rush, inasmuch as I can rush, to the plasters. I find an appropriately sized one. Then came the problem of getting the plaster out of its sheath with one finger pressing on the cut to staunch the flow of blood. I tore off the end. Would the plaster fall out? No, it resolutely stayed in. I try tearing the sheath somewhere else. Still no movement. I went & found some scissors. I more or less had to cut all round the plaster in order to get it out of the sheath. To do that I'd had to let go of the cut so I was starting to drip blood. I washed my finger again, dried it again, put on some antiseptic disinfectant cream since a food covered tin had  caused the cut & tackled the task of getting into the plaster itself. Eventually I managed & went back to complete the burgers. Thank goodness I didn't have to open another tin for today's Hampton pie - a potato topped pie, a bit like a cottage pie but with corned beef underneath the mash.

Why do they have to make getting into corned beef tins so dangerous? And why do they have to make it so difficult to get at a plaster when you are bleeding? There definitely seem to be some design faults here.

So yesterday I went to see the GP. He decided I should have some blood tests done. When I went to make the appointment, the receptionist told me the nurse had just had an appointment cancellation would I like to have it. Since the doctor had thought I needed the tests doing fairly promptly I jumped at the chance.

As the nurse goes to put a plaster on the spot where the blood was drawn she asks me if I'm okay with plasters. I couldn't help pointing out that the finger holding the cotton wool on the entry point to stop the bleeding had a plaster on so I must be okay. So now I'm going around with two plasters, though I think both could probably come off now.

My benefit form arrived on the day I fought the tin & lost. One of the questions is "Please tick the box if you can keep yourself safe when doing everyday tasks such as cooking". I can't see me ticking that box somehow much as I know the cut finger is not the result of my ill-health but rather of faulty tin design.