Another update from the Land of Ow
Jul. 17th, 2006 08:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beandelphikiIf I don't post for a while (oh god, how many of my posts start like this?!), it's because I am having trouble typing. Heck...trouble using a computer. (Edit: Not like you can tell from the length of this entry. *eyerolls*)
The whole cut-my-finger-on-a-drink-lid thing? Where I got some hand-wrist hurtie like some sort of RSI?
Yeah, still have that. But it's gotten worse, and isn't leaving. It hurts from my armpits and shoulders down to my fingers on my right side. (And now, if I still have armpit pain from the ultrasound, I can't tell it apart anymore...if it IS apart. The timing is so close together, god knows what's going wrong now.)
First I bought an elastic wrist support when it hurt too much to let my wrist move freely. (And I was dropping people's food, which is generally considered to be a bad idea.) And then a brace, when it hurt too much to let my wrist move at all. And then a bigger, stiffer brace, because the smaller one didn't come far enough down my arm to cover all the main pain points. (Although the small one I can actually put on at work. Gloves even JUST fit over it, although I'm sure it's a comedy act to watch me try to roll burritos with it on.)
How do genuinely disabled people DO this? After one day of endless repetitions of, "What did you DO to yourself?" and disapproving/amazed looks at the brace, I was ready to CHOKE someone.
As I told my mother, the next person who asks me that gets told, "The batteries were dead."
So yeah...
Work yesterday was fun, trying to take people's orders, keep the store stocked, and put drinks and food on people's trays (without dropping them) when I probably had lost 30-80% of the function in my right hand, depending on what I was doing. That, and the fact that I was trying to hide that just about everything, including standing in one spot without moving, hurt to the point of nausea. I was my usual sunny self with customers because I am just a good actor like that, but I think my co-workers got dumped with a bit of crank.
Some customers were sweet about it; others infuriated me by putting their change on the counter and watching me with a dead stare as I struggled to pick it up, or glaring when I took too long to get them something, or moving their drinks to the end of the tray closest to me so that I had to lift all of their food over said drinks - and did so multiple times! - or...grr, I'm convinced half my customers are agents from hell, or some other realm of suffering.
(Along with my one very lazy manager, who put EVERYTHING out of my reach yesterday because she couldn't be bothered to hand it to me...and I do mean everything. And then kept reminding me, "Dan, your order's up on the end of the rail!" as if I could lean way over and grab it with my bad hand. I swear I nearly gave my notice then and there.)
The best part came last night...when I started to get shooting pains up and down my LEFT arm, along with pain in my left wrist. Oh, help.
Right now I'm trying to find some balance between not wearing them too much, and not wearing them enough. Supposedly, I shouldn't brace my wrist for more than a few hours at a time. Great, like I have nothing whatsoever to do with my time? What happens if I brace them too much? *sigh*
So...I have the elastic support thingie on my left wrist, and the small brace on my right wrist with the actual hard plastic brace thing removed, so it's supposed to just be a support. I don't know if that's okay or not, so every few hours I take them off for a while until I do something that makes my eyes cross, and then put them back on.
I don't know if it's okay to wear them at night...I didn't the first night this got bad (although I did attempt to elevate it on a sofa cushion), and woke up with my undershirt dripping in icy sweat...I think I rolled over on my damn hand.
Last night, I crawled into bed with the bigger brace on. I didn't actually intend to sleep, just rest body parts (my feet were killing me too, and I couldn't find a comfortable position to sit or stand in), and the pain was spiking so bad, I figured there was NO WAY I could fall asleep. The base of my thumb and palm were the worst...I can find a comfortable way to hold my braced wrist, but no matter what position I put my thumb in, it started to hurt like crazy after two minutes.
And then...I fell asleep! I woke up with my arm resting on a pillow, thankfully, and the brace beside it. Either I woke up at some point and pulled it off, or it slipped off because I had the top undone. (It felt like it was putting pressure on my thumb.) I felt SO MUCH BETTER this morning...no pain! Yay! I brightly thought that perhaps whatever this is had healed...but after an hour or so awake, the pain started coming back. And it's worse in the left now. Goddamn, I just don't know.
That's pretty much what's going on. I'm typing a lot by holding pens in my hands, and pressing the keys with them. And scrolling and whatnot as much as possible with "page up" and "page down," although for more precise scrolling I HAVE to use a mouse...I've got our rubber bottle-opener pad with me, and if I brush the scroll button with it, I don't have to move my hands much.
...This keeps up though, and I'll be pushing keys with my NOSE.
Things that do not seem to help significantly:
-elevation
-ice packs (maybe just because I can't feel it, it seems better, but the second my wrist warms up, it's as bad as before)
-Advil Liqui-Gels (I almost took the daily maximum yesterday, with no notable change)
-my asthma meds, which are corticosteroids (I had to take them anyway, I wasn't abusing them, but I DID watch for a change and saw none)
...And bracing basically only seems to help because movement hurts, and there's not much movement in a brace. Other than that...nothing's worked.
*sigh* Good thing I have a doc appointment tomorrow for the ultrasound report.
I think maybe I'll go try treating this with alcohol. You know, like vodka or something. Lots of vodka.
Before I go, though! I want to throw out a big e-shoutout to the asshole who BODYCHECKED me on the obviously-braced side so that he could beat me to the last seat on the C-train on the shaded side.
GO FUCK YOURSELF, ASSHOLE. I hope some little old lady "accidentally" hits you in the groin with her cane.
...I would also like to report that I can use a can-opener backwards, and I have new respect for the left-handed. Fear my skillz.
The whole cut-my-finger-on-a-drink-lid thing? Where I got some hand-wrist hurtie like some sort of RSI?
Yeah, still have that. But it's gotten worse, and isn't leaving. It hurts from my armpits and shoulders down to my fingers on my right side. (And now, if I still have armpit pain from the ultrasound, I can't tell it apart anymore...if it IS apart. The timing is so close together, god knows what's going wrong now.)
First I bought an elastic wrist support when it hurt too much to let my wrist move freely. (And I was dropping people's food, which is generally considered to be a bad idea.) And then a brace, when it hurt too much to let my wrist move at all. And then a bigger, stiffer brace, because the smaller one didn't come far enough down my arm to cover all the main pain points. (Although the small one I can actually put on at work. Gloves even JUST fit over it, although I'm sure it's a comedy act to watch me try to roll burritos with it on.)
How do genuinely disabled people DO this? After one day of endless repetitions of, "What did you DO to yourself?" and disapproving/amazed looks at the brace, I was ready to CHOKE someone.
As I told my mother, the next person who asks me that gets told, "The batteries were dead."
So yeah...
Work yesterday was fun, trying to take people's orders, keep the store stocked, and put drinks and food on people's trays (without dropping them) when I probably had lost 30-80% of the function in my right hand, depending on what I was doing. That, and the fact that I was trying to hide that just about everything, including standing in one spot without moving, hurt to the point of nausea. I was my usual sunny self with customers because I am just a good actor like that, but I think my co-workers got dumped with a bit of crank.
Some customers were sweet about it; others infuriated me by putting their change on the counter and watching me with a dead stare as I struggled to pick it up, or glaring when I took too long to get them something, or moving their drinks to the end of the tray closest to me so that I had to lift all of their food over said drinks - and did so multiple times! - or...grr, I'm convinced half my customers are agents from hell, or some other realm of suffering.
(Along with my one very lazy manager, who put EVERYTHING out of my reach yesterday because she couldn't be bothered to hand it to me...and I do mean everything. And then kept reminding me, "Dan, your order's up on the end of the rail!" as if I could lean way over and grab it with my bad hand. I swear I nearly gave my notice then and there.)
The best part came last night...when I started to get shooting pains up and down my LEFT arm, along with pain in my left wrist. Oh, help.
Right now I'm trying to find some balance between not wearing them too much, and not wearing them enough. Supposedly, I shouldn't brace my wrist for more than a few hours at a time. Great, like I have nothing whatsoever to do with my time? What happens if I brace them too much? *sigh*
So...I have the elastic support thingie on my left wrist, and the small brace on my right wrist with the actual hard plastic brace thing removed, so it's supposed to just be a support. I don't know if that's okay or not, so every few hours I take them off for a while until I do something that makes my eyes cross, and then put them back on.
I don't know if it's okay to wear them at night...I didn't the first night this got bad (although I did attempt to elevate it on a sofa cushion), and woke up with my undershirt dripping in icy sweat...I think I rolled over on my damn hand.
Last night, I crawled into bed with the bigger brace on. I didn't actually intend to sleep, just rest body parts (my feet were killing me too, and I couldn't find a comfortable position to sit or stand in), and the pain was spiking so bad, I figured there was NO WAY I could fall asleep. The base of my thumb and palm were the worst...I can find a comfortable way to hold my braced wrist, but no matter what position I put my thumb in, it started to hurt like crazy after two minutes.
And then...I fell asleep! I woke up with my arm resting on a pillow, thankfully, and the brace beside it. Either I woke up at some point and pulled it off, or it slipped off because I had the top undone. (It felt like it was putting pressure on my thumb.) I felt SO MUCH BETTER this morning...no pain! Yay! I brightly thought that perhaps whatever this is had healed...but after an hour or so awake, the pain started coming back. And it's worse in the left now. Goddamn, I just don't know.
That's pretty much what's going on. I'm typing a lot by holding pens in my hands, and pressing the keys with them. And scrolling and whatnot as much as possible with "page up" and "page down," although for more precise scrolling I HAVE to use a mouse...I've got our rubber bottle-opener pad with me, and if I brush the scroll button with it, I don't have to move my hands much.
...This keeps up though, and I'll be pushing keys with my NOSE.
Things that do not seem to help significantly:
-elevation
-ice packs (maybe just because I can't feel it, it seems better, but the second my wrist warms up, it's as bad as before)
-Advil Liqui-Gels (I almost took the daily maximum yesterday, with no notable change)
-my asthma meds, which are corticosteroids (I had to take them anyway, I wasn't abusing them, but I DID watch for a change and saw none)
...And bracing basically only seems to help because movement hurts, and there's not much movement in a brace. Other than that...nothing's worked.
*sigh* Good thing I have a doc appointment tomorrow for the ultrasound report.
I think maybe I'll go try treating this with alcohol. You know, like vodka or something. Lots of vodka.
Before I go, though! I want to throw out a big e-shoutout to the asshole who BODYCHECKED me on the obviously-braced side so that he could beat me to the last seat on the C-train on the shaded side.
GO FUCK YOURSELF, ASSHOLE. I hope some little old lady "accidentally" hits you in the groin with her cane.
...I would also like to report that I can use a can-opener backwards, and I have new respect for the left-handed. Fear my skillz.
