Man. Swollen pinky finger last night. Thought it was arthritis and I'd have to move to Finland and live on benefits the rest of my life.

Then I did some further research and saw that it could be an allergic reaction.

Still swollen today so I made an appointment with the GP. Saw a nurse. Showed her the finger, told her that I recently changed my diet, that I took allergy shots as a child, one of the things that I was allergic to was tomatos, and the last thing I ate last night was pasta with tomato sauce. So I suggested that it could be allergies.

"Yeah, maybe."

So not hugely helpful but I'm just somebody off the street showing this woman a swollen finger. I guess there's not much that can be done.

But she also suggested that if it were allergies my lips would also feel swollen. And they do. So that's almost certainly what it is.

I asked how long it would take to heal. She didn't know. Said it should be better tomorrow and should go away one day.

I asked if I should remove tomatoes from my diet. She thought about it for a long time. "You can."

I asked if it's common for people to be allergic to chicken because that's the only other thing that I've added to my diet. She said that people are allergic to eggs so it stands to reason that people could be allergic to chicken.

In the end, after some questioning by me, I decided to remove the tomatoes from the diet. She said I could try that first and if it's still a problem, get rid of the chicken instead. Take a wait and see approach.

I suppose my fears were allayed but I suspect that if I went to a doctor in the US, they would take tests to determine what exactly the allergy is to. Get this resolved. No experimenting on myself. This is serious stuff. I can't work with swollen hands. And once something gets swollen, it doesn't go back 100%. I had a swollen toe 15 years ago due to cold and it's still a bit bigger than the other one and a weird texture.

Anyway, also watched some Russell Howard's Good News yesterday. He's dreadful as always but he had a great comedian on. Really spoke to me. Norwegian guy. Everything he says about the problems anxiety are true. Nobody wants you to be their flatmate, you obsess over things that happened years ago, all the awkward social situations. I'm not sure if it's a rich stream for comedy but it's good that these issues are out there for public consumption.