uploading an image (BLOB) to mysql

Well I got it up there. Turned out to be fact that the primary key was in the
$BLOB_insert = array(
"id" => $primary_key, <<<<here
"img_BLOB" => $data
);

What finally worked was:
$this->db->set('img_BLOB', $szFile3);
$this->db->where('id', $primary_key); <<using id in the where statement instead of the update
$this->db->update('word');

proof that an old dog can learn new tricks