I’ve had a number of tic-related injuries recently that have left me with a variety of strange lumps. I’ve got one on my thumb and another on the bridge of my nose. For the last couple of weeks there’s been a new one on my hand, near my wrist. It doesn’t hurt most of the time but when it’s squeezed, like when someone’s helping me up from the floor, it’s very painful.

I can’t remember exactly when it happened but I think it was probably on one of the occasions I’d dropped to the floor.

Because it still hurts I showed Fat Sister when she came round for breakfast this morning. She’s a doctor and experienced in tic-related first aid. She looked at it and said, “I’m pretty sure that’s broken.” She thought it was a ‘boxers’ fracture’, caused by punching a hard surface. In my case I think the hard surface was the ground.

She didn’t think it needed any particular treatment and said the bump is a sign that it’s healing, but she was a bit worried it might get worse if it gets squeezed or if I hit the ground hard again.

She’s having a think about ways to protect it.