Welcome to Weird Wednesdays, hosted by It’s OK to be WEIRD!

well, you caught me one-handed… it’s the weirdest thing being one-handed, or mostly one-handed anyway.

one-handed typing, one-handed cooking, one-handed driving, one-handed getting dressed, one-handed everything.

i have a lot of respect for one-handed people now.  wow.  this is hard work, being one-handed.

fortunately, i’m not REALLY (how did you like the use of caps lock there?) completely one-handed.  i will regain use of my left hand – in fact it’s getting better even today.

why am i one-handed?  well, i wish i had some cool story to tell you about how i became one-handed on saturday.  i wish i could say that i was saving my children from a charging wolf, or that i got my hand caught in the food grinder while processing all these apples we have to deal with, or some other good tale….

but, i can’t say anything like that and i don’t have a story – not even a little bit of a story – about how i got this way.  i woke up saturday morning with severe pain in my left hand, and limited range of motion in my wrist.  it didn’t get better all day, and kept me up in the night on saturday night/sunday morning, being to the point of excruciating.  i don’t recall doing anything to it… i just woke up this way.

before i go on, no – it’s not from peeling, chopping or stirring apples since most of what i do is with my right hand.  and no – it’s not from texting, as that again is mostly done with my right thumb.

the real story comes from the weirdness that has happened after this pain started…

anyway, i spent 2.5 hours in the ER on sunday afternoon for the doctor to come in and spend all of 40 seconds with me.  apparently, i have tendonitis.  you can tell that’s what it is, just by barely touching the part that doesn’t even hurt  – if you are a very good doctor you can diagnosis it that way, or so it seems. sheesh!  he said to ice it, take ibuprofen, and if it wasn’t better to go see my family doctor. done.

nice.  weird – but not in the best way….

i kept bumping my hand and trying to move it in normal ways, and that would result in major pangs of ouch.  so i went and got a splint for my wrist, just to protect it from being whacked and jarred.  having it immobile helped with that and with the pain a bit.

monday was by far the worst day so far.  i woke up with the most awful feeling i have ever felt in my hand.  and i am not a whimp.  i have a fairly high tolerance of pain from all my years of dealing with pain, but this has been pretty awful. extra strength ibuprofen every 3 hours was doing little more than taking the edge off the pain.  i could use my hand even less than on sunday – much diminished range of motion and ability to grip anything.  any pressure or attempt to hold something sent me into agony even with the splint on.  i could do little of anything – being one-handed is tough!

i called to get in to my doctor’s office, and today (wednesday) is the first opportunity i will be able to get in (even after a visit to the ER).  i’m doing exactly what the ER doc said to do, and it just wasn’t getting any better.

monday night my sweetie reminded me about a herbal supplement we used to sell back in our home-business days, an anti-inflammatory something… so i took some of it before bed. and after being advised by a friend to keep my wrist flat and elevated to avoid swelling, i made sure that i laid in a position that helped with that all night (i.e., i didn’t sleep great having to remember to stay in the same position all the time, but better than the night before).

i don’t know if it’s the supplement or the elevated resting position through the night and all-day immobilization on tuesday (since i’ve all but stopped using my left hand even for little bits of typing or anything), but my hand is starting to feel better, a bit. tuesday night i could say that it was no longer excruciating pain, even when it was time to take another dose of pain killer.  i’ll see the doctor early in the day today and see what she says.  it still hurts like crazy and i can’t bend my wrist very far in any direction.  yah, it’s weird.

do you realize how many things you do with 2 hands?  it’s very very weird not to be able to do those things.  opening bottles, holding the phone in one hand while taking a message with the other one, squeezing the toothpaste from the tube in one hand onto the toothbrush being held in the other hand, zipping your coat, taking a shower (holy cow is this tough with 1 hand), styling your hair, putting on deodorant… you get the picture… see – weird!

i am SO looking forward to this getting better.  i need to get stuff done!  it has hurt so bad – no exaggeration there – and it’s not easy trying to do with 1 hand all the things you are used to doing with 2 hands.  i miss getting all my regular stuff done.  i miss easily buttoning my pants.  i miss carrying the pot of apple butter from the stove to the table (it’s way too heavy for 1 hand). i miss the ease of switching hands on the steering wheel when turning or navigating into a parking space.

i even miss simple things like typing quickly and with expression!

this post is definitely one-handed.  it’s taken me forever to type this much with one hand, even utilizing minimal and random capitalization and punctuation.

so, you see, you caught me one-handed.

*** Join me in the weirdness… I KNOW you’ve encountered SOMETHING weird somewhere this week!! Leave me a comment and tell me all about it!! ***