temporarily disabled
Oct. 6th, 2003 07:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
memevectorI've strained a muscle in my right arm. Or shoulder or both. I was lifting a lamp at arm's length to illuminate the back loft for house-data-cabling purposes (the big DIY theme of the moment), on Saturday. It wasn't specially heavy, just some kind of wrong angle or something.
After the initial "OW!", at first I was like "carry on as normal", but that was wishful thinking and eventually I had to concede injury and rest it properly. So this is my second day of having my right arm in a sling and doing things one-handed (or one-hand-and-one-footed, etc., depending on the task).
Typing is very slow and I am mostly not doing it. Handwriting is also slow, but perversely entertaining in small doses. I switched to left-handed mousing some years ago so that's unaffected, except for where you have to hold a keyboard key while you click the mouse, which requires some care and dexterity.
Luckily there's some quite mouse-heavy stuff I wanted to do in Cubase, so I've made good progress on that yesterday and today - more than I probably would have made if subject to the rival temptation of writing text.
In the book where it showed how to do the sling, it predicted maybe two weeks for a strain to heal. If I need the sling that long, I suspect I'll be fairly fed up of it by then. But so far I am mostly not too grumpy despite some frustrations. I've been extracting a certain amount of entertainment from devising ingenious ways to do things one-handed.
I have successfully wrapped two birthday presents (using both feet to hold things steady) and cut the fingernails on my left hand (using my right foot to squidge the nail clippers).
My arm only hurts if I move it the wrong way - the main downside is that wearing the sling is quite uncomfortable on my neck and back. It has to be alternated with lying or sitting down without the sling. Hot baths are the best.
I once went on a course where one homework was to experiment with doing everyday tasks slightly differently from how you normally would. Like brush your teeth with the toothbrush in the other hand. And we talked about things like habits and learning.
I've thought of that quite often in the last couple of days, and also about the drummer from Def Leppard (Rick someone?), who got one arm smashed up in a car crash and had it amputated, but still plays drums. Saw a TV prog about that one time with some interesting stuff about ordinary life with one hand.
Writing this I'm now entertained on another level by the characteristic me-ness of this whole little exposition - "Oh, I can only use one hand at the moment, how interesting". ::haha::
By the way, thanks to everyone who helped me check my web site the other day.
After the initial "OW!", at first I was like "carry on as normal", but that was wishful thinking and eventually I had to concede injury and rest it properly. So this is my second day of having my right arm in a sling and doing things one-handed (or one-hand-and-one-footed, etc., depending on the task).
Typing is very slow and I am mostly not doing it. Handwriting is also slow, but perversely entertaining in small doses. I switched to left-handed mousing some years ago so that's unaffected, except for where you have to hold a keyboard key while you click the mouse, which requires some care and dexterity.
Luckily there's some quite mouse-heavy stuff I wanted to do in Cubase, so I've made good progress on that yesterday and today - more than I probably would have made if subject to the rival temptation of writing text.
In the book where it showed how to do the sling, it predicted maybe two weeks for a strain to heal. If I need the sling that long, I suspect I'll be fairly fed up of it by then. But so far I am mostly not too grumpy despite some frustrations. I've been extracting a certain amount of entertainment from devising ingenious ways to do things one-handed.
I have successfully wrapped two birthday presents (using both feet to hold things steady) and cut the fingernails on my left hand (using my right foot to squidge the nail clippers).
My arm only hurts if I move it the wrong way - the main downside is that wearing the sling is quite uncomfortable on my neck and back. It has to be alternated with lying or sitting down without the sling. Hot baths are the best.
I once went on a course where one homework was to experiment with doing everyday tasks slightly differently from how you normally would. Like brush your teeth with the toothbrush in the other hand. And we talked about things like habits and learning.
I've thought of that quite often in the last couple of days, and also about the drummer from Def Leppard (Rick someone?), who got one arm smashed up in a car crash and had it amputated, but still plays drums. Saw a TV prog about that one time with some interesting stuff about ordinary life with one hand.
Writing this I'm now entertained on another level by the characteristic me-ness of this whole little exposition - "Oh, I can only use one hand at the moment, how interesting". ::haha::
By the way, thanks to everyone who helped me check my web site the other day.
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-10-06 12:30 pm (UTC)The Def Leppard drummer is Rick Allen, and somewhere I have the band biography which talks in detail about his accident and recovery. It's quite out of date, 'cos it's from my teenage years when I liked Def Leppard, and a lot more has happened to the band since then (e.g. another band member dying of alcohol abuse), but it's extremely moving. I should probably read it again now from the perspective of a disabled person, and see whether I still find it moving/moving in the same way.
Get well soon, anyway.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-10-09 11:24 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-10-09 01:57 pm (UTC)