MonoMonday: The Waiting Game

It's rather lovely - our family members are beginning to arrive for Christmas: yesterday evening Son #2 and his partner arrived from Bath, and on Wednesday Son #1 is due to arrive from Detroit. Son #2 timed his arrival to match up with an appointment at Freeman Hospital here in Newcastle. When he was born 32 years ago he was found to have a problem with his heart, which required an emergency operation at Freeman at 5 days of age and another bigger procedure at 9 months. Since then he's been very well apart from a few occasions when his heart rhythm has gone haywire for a while. Over the years he's had several "24-hour tape" recordings to check on his rhythm but now there's a tiny implantable device (a "Reveal" device) available (about the size of a matchstick), and today he went to have it inserted in his chest wall. It's amazing what it can do: it monitors his hearbeat constantly and starts recording it if it detects an abnormality - the recording can then be transmitted over the internet to the hospital. The battery lasts 3 years so the device won't need replacing too often.

At breakfast I was asking for ideas for my blip, on the MonoMonday theme of "Game", and I was pleased that our son (acting as my Sub-Editor!) suggested "The Waiting Game". So here he is waiting at the hospital for the procedure - which went smoothly, I'm pleased to say (and he didn't actually have to wait all that long). I chose a "silhouette" effect in Silverefex for the photo, taken on my phone.

Many thanks to JohnEdward for hosting MM this month.