It's the latest essay followed by the latest episode

[sovay]

Holy God, is it inconvenient typing with one hand in a brace. Somehow when the nurse practitioner said "splint," I envisioned something smaller. I've seen vambraces that were less hardcore. I do not know if I will get any movies written about today. My keyboard-intensive job is going to be fun. I think I'm going to see about lying down.

Comments

[cmcmck]

It's at times like this that you really come to understand how important thumbs are!

Hugs

[sovay]

It's at times like this that you really come to understand how important thumbs are!

I already believed they were quite an important stage in our evolutionary development!

Hugs

Thank you.

*hugs*

[davidgillon]

It may actually be quicker to revert to two or four fingers, which is what this keyboard reduces me to.

Or you could download the 30 day trial version of Dragon Dictate, he says sneakily.

[thistleingrey]

Yes, when I've had relevant flare-ups, one-handing or using a hand with only a finger or two of the other hand has been ... passable.

(I love the idea of Dragon and am glad that it works for many people. After I stymied it during grad school with "historiography" versus "historiographical"--it didn't count enough syllables to distinguish them, at least back then--I decided that even one finger would be faster than spelling a correction every single time. sigh.)

[davidgillon]

Yes, the time before last I tried it, Dragon couldn't distinguish between me saying garage and carriage (garij and carij in my accent), but that was quite a few years ago. I spent a day playing with the current version a few months ago and it seemed a lot better.

[thistleingrey]

and it seemed a lot better

I'm glad!

[sovay]

It may actually be quicker to revert to two or four fingers, which is what this keyboard reduces me to.

I don't know how to type with two or four fingers! I learned to type ten-finger when I was eight; it's about seven-and-a-half-finger these days, but it's the only way I know to interact with a keyboard.

Or you could download the 30 day trial version of Dragon Dictate, he says sneakily.

Heh. Thank you. My mother earlier tonight said she wished she could just transcribe me on a movie. It would certainly be easier right now.

[shewhomust]

Did you get a diagnosis, at least? Is it, as you thought, as sprain?

Hope the splintage works, and recovery is rapid!

[sovay]

Did you get a diagnosis, at least? Is it, as you thought, as sprain?

Whatever the original injury was, it was long enough ago that it was not immediately obvious when examined by the nurse practitioner. She thought what had probably happened was that I'd pulled or strained something in the course of ordinary life a couple of weeks ago, but not so badly that the pain kept me from using my hand, so I compounded the injury without knowing and by the time I noticed, it wasn't just going to calm down with ice and restricted use. She did not send me for X-rays because she agreed with me that even my stupid ideas of pain thresholds were unlikely to have missed fracturing a thumb.

Hope the splintage works, and recovery is rapid!

Thank you! Fingers crossed on the hand that'll do it, the brace is actually helping so far. It just really slows everything down.

[sillylilly_bird]

Yeah, it can be tricky. With 5 hand/wrist surgeries in my past, I'm very familiar with it! Especially as 2 of the procedures required a thumb/spica splint post-operatively and I learned how to do everything without a thumb. On my dominant hand, naturally.

[sovay]

On my dominant hand, naturally.

Of course! How are your hands doing nowadays?

[sillylilly_bird]

Well, that's a story. 2 of the procedures were guyon's canal and carpal tunnel releases on both hands - both now well over 10 years ago and the left hand is doing fine. I also had a ganglion cyst removed from my left pulse point - right between the nerve and the artery. The other two were both on my right wrist - scaphoid non-union repair [bone graft and screw] and then screw removal when part of the bone died. The procedures were less than a year apart ~9-10 years ago. I have greatly reduced range of motion and since I'm hyper-mobile, it's really noticeable to me. It's been temperature and weather sensitive the whole time - can't handle cold at all and I've made dozens of wrist warmers. In the last year, the pain episodes have gotten seriously awful - to the point where I can't use my right hand at all. I still have my post-surgical splint and it's the most comfortable, supportive thing for when the pain is bad. I went back to my hand docs in January for a look-see and ended up getting a steroid shot in my wrist. Really not something you'd go for unless you're without other options; the actual injection wasn't bad, a little weird and uncomfortable, but then the lidocaine wore off..... It's really helped though. I don't expect it to completely free me of weather related pain, but if I can even get things toned down, that's a win. I also have an exercise from the hand therapist that's helping. That side of my wrist is arthritic - it's hard to make out the bone shapes in the x-ray. If the steroid shot [only can get 1 a year] + exercise can't control the pain well enough, then I'll go back for an MRI to see what the connective tissue is doing. If the pain gets bad enough that I can't control it or rein it in, the only other option is a proximal row carpectomy [PRC], where they remove the scaphoid, lunate, and triquetral bones. I have a strong feeling that I'll end up needing that in the next 10-15 years. I'm also getting arthritis in random knuckles - not horribly painful yet, but dammit, EVERYTHING I do, work and hobbies, is with my hands. Today, the wrist is pretty sore as there's weather. Weather sensitivity is weird; I'll feel something in any one of my weather sensitive bits before, during, and/or after a front moves through. Never the same twice. But my grip strength is good - my non-dominant hand is now ~30lbs stronger than my dominant one.

[dewline]

*winces in empathy*

[sovay]

*winces in empathy*

Appreciated.

[ada_hoffmann]

As inconvenient as it may be, I'm glad that you got the thumb looked at, and received some proper medical care! I wish you a speedy recovery.

[sovay]

As inconvenient as it may be, I'm glad that you got the thumb looked at, and received some proper medical care! I wish you a speedy recovery.

Thank you! Immobilizing the thumb for as much of the day as it's been so far has actually made it feel less horrible than it did at the equivalent hour last night, so I'm hoping.

[choco_frosh]

Ouch. Multiple levels of ouch. However:

I've seen vambraces that were less hardcore.

The librarian (I was printing a thing) asked me why I was losing it laughing.

[sovay]

The librarian (I was printing a thing) asked me why I was losing it laughing.

". . . our hard work ain't been in vain for nothing."

[kate_nepveu]

oh no! I hope you are able to shed it quickly, as I was my neck brace. (Chad dislocated his thumb a few weeks before SteelyKid was born and got the full-out bandages-all-around (like so: http://scienceblogs.com/principles/wp-content/blogs.dir/467/files/2012/04/i-9b963589e35f1092c5df1237286a01a5-sm_cast1.jpg ), so, uh, it could be worse?)

[sovay]

oh no! I hope you are able to shed it quickly, as I was my neck brace.

Thank you! I have been told to wear it [edit: interrupted by Autolycus] as much as possible for a week, so you should probably expect it to put in an appearance at Readercon.

(Chad dislocated his thumb a few weeks before SteelyKid was born and got the full-out bandages-all-around (like so), so, uh, it could be worse?)

That does look like not a lot of fun!

[kate_nepveu]

It was definitely not, but he got his bandages off in time for SteelyKid's appearance, so it could've been worse!

Glad to hear it is helping.

[dhampyresa]

I've seen vambraces that were less hardcore.
I would love pictures!

Hope you get better soon.