consequences of a high pain threshold

I couldn't get myself to the doctor, but I finally got the splinter out in the bath this morning. The thing I had been (not)walking around with, stuck under the callous on the ball of my foot, is three-quarters of an inch long. It is seriously as long and as thick as one of those short pins you use to put beads and sequins on styrofoam balls for Christmas ornaments.

A whole week, I had been saying "it doesn't hurt much, but it makes me really feel like not walking to work on it." I have a high pain threshold, but only a mediocre pain tolerance. That is, I don't easily notice that something hurts but once I do notice it, I am not the bravest person out there.

I guess it's just as well that I'm not. It's not a long way to work, but I am very heavy, and some of it is quite steep: I could probably have hurt my foot quite badly if I hadn't been a wuss about "not much pain."

Also, my immune system? Not as reactive as one might hope. For the suze of that foreign object, there wasn't all that much pus, probably the reason it took me a week to get the thing out. Note to my body: that's what pus is for. If there is a next time, please do your duty.