The carpenter in our team has a mini-van, and drives me to the hospital in Hemel Hempstead, where my foot is placed in a foaming bucket of antiseptic for an hour or so. Then the medical staff ask me if I have any allergies. ‘Not as far as I know,’ I say. They administer anti-tetanus serum. (At that time, I would be unlikely to have received routine anti-tetanus injections as a baby or later, though this became normal practice afterwards, not using the more aggressive live horse-serum, but the toxoid.)
The hospital keeps me for an hour in case any signs of an allergic reaction appear. None do. I go back to work the following day. About five days later, my abdomen starts itching in the evening, while playing Scrabble with my parents.
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