A couple of days ago I momentarily trapped my finger in my wheelchair’s footplate the result was a sizable blood-blister on its tip.

Earlier today I had a ‘ticcing fit’ and, as often happens, I lost my speech. Fortunately I’m still able to communicate ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ using the blinking technique, and most of my support works can tell how much pain I’m in by the noises I’m making.

When Leftwing Idiot went to uncurl my fingers, which had formed a tight fist, he accidently pressed the blood blister. He realised immediately what he’d done, and keen not to hurt me again, he started trying to identify which finger it was by touching them one after the other and asking me ‘Is it this one?’ This sent me straight back to being a child.

When I was a little I used to have help from physiotherapists because my motor skills weren’t properly developed. They also thought my hands, feet and tongue weren’t as sensitive to touch as they should be. Of course I’ve no idea how true this was because I’ve never known any different.

Testing this theory did lead to the physios giving me strange exercises to do, like seeing how long I could tolerate squeezing ice cubes, or rubbing my fingers with an electric tooth brush, or asking me to identify, without looking, which finger they were touching.

It was the memory this exercise that Leftwing Idiot inadvertently summoned up this afternoon. He uncurled my fingers, carefully avoiding my index finger which, using blinks, I’d identified as the injured one. But it didn’t stop me feeling pain, and when he’d got my hand open he found out why: ‘You told me the wrong finger, it’s your middle one that’s got the blister on it.’

This also took me back, and despite being locked up and finding it hard to move the muscles in my face, I had to smile. When my speech returned I explained the whole thing.

It would seem that I’m just as bad at the finger-guessing exercise now as I was back in the 80s. Perhaps there’s some truth in the physios’ theory after all.

I reckon it also probably means I can add ‘holding ice cubes till they melt’ to my list of super powers, but I’m in no rush to prove it.