There is a round patch of it on his bottom sheet but no sign of scratch or scab on his back. I try not to make him feel uncomfortable about it while I wrestle with what to do it. ‘Just leave it,’ he says, ‘it doesn’t matter.’ And I know that he is right, it doesn’t. It’s my blood, it’s not foreign. Just leave it until it’s the usual time to wash it.’ OK.
We always smile about it when he recounts his mother saying about his family that ‘we’re not big bleeders’, as if bleeding a lot or not bleeding a lot was some sort of genetic trait. We smile mostly because she was wrong. He is a big bleeder (not in physical size, I might add) and has been for as long as I’ve known him and even more so now that he takes his daily aspirin. These things, as they say, are sent blah blah…..x
