Posts Tagged ‘carpal tunnel’
Too Fun
It is a good thing that I chose the 8-cubic-foot sized wheelbarrow when I recently shopped for one with two wheels. Anything smaller and we would be making a lot more trips in and out of the paddocks to dump it, and anything larger and we wouldn’t be able to push it when it was full. I have been removing between 16 and 24 cubic feet of manure at a time, every few days, when I get around to tending to the task. When that wheelbarrow is full, it is very heavy to push.
Unfortunately, my grip is failing me, which doesn’t help when moving a heavy wheelbarrow, because the inflammation through my carpal tunnel (both left and right) is raging day and night lately. It seems that everything I do is an irritant, and my thumb and first two fingers go numb when typing on a keypad, when gripping a rake or shovel, scooping manure, moving the wheelbarrow, holding a steering wheel, gripping the wood splitter, or sleeping at night. It even bothered me while trying to hold a fork during dinner last night.
One would hope that the sleeping wouldn’t be a problem, because my doctor prescribed wrist braces to keep the hands in a neutral position all night, but 4 o’clock in the morning is a time when the pain and numbness seems to bother me the most.
It probably doesn’t help that I have started to frequently throw a ball for Delilah to find. My arm is killing me from repeated attempts to throw farther than I am realistically capable. But hope springs eternal, and I continue trying to throw that thing as hard as I can. It is just so irresistible to watch Delilah use her nose to hunt the ball down, returning so proud when she comes back to me with it clenched in her jaw.
It took her a while to get the hang of the game, but now she behaves as if she understands exactly what I am saying. If she didn’t see where I threw it, I tell her she needs to find it with her nose, and she will start traversing back and forth across the yard in front of me, nose to the ground, as fast as she possibly can. At first, I would just throw into the mowed grass, but I quickly increased the difficulty by throwing into the woods. It boggles my mind that she can find it in there, especially when she has lost track of what direction I threw toward. I will go back to splitting wood while she hunts, often expecting she will never find it, and then suddenly, she is at my feet, with that ball in her mouth, hoping I will throw it again.
It is a game that has become too much fun for both of us.
Double Diagnosis
I was giving the hand specialist the full history of my thumb pain, and arrived at the part where I went to urgent care.
“The urgent care doctor told me the x-ray didn’t show any arthritis.”
“She was wrong,” he said.
“She said my whole hand falling asleep wasn’t what they see with carpal tunnel syndrome. It would be the thumb and first two fingers.”
“That isn’t right,” he said.
“She thought the joint looked odd, and that it might be a subluxation.”
“It’s not a subluxation.”
That was some visit to the urgent care clinic, wasn’t it? The specialist had full respect for the work the urgent care doctors do, and mentioned that they are a jack-of-all-trades, but master of none.
It seemed to me he already had a diagnosis, before he even listened to my whole story. I asked if he had reviewed my x-ray. He told me that he had, and saw my arthritis immediately. He did a few follow-up tests to confirm, and then told me that I also presented the symptoms of carpal tunnel.
He said that it is not uncommon to see the two afflictions together.
There are a few options available for managing my pain. Of course, there is no cure for arthritis. I am starting with the least invasive of choices: using braces.
It’s funny, just having a positive identification of the cause of the pain provides some relief. As long as I know what it is, and what I can do, or can’t do, my mind is more at ease, and the rest of me relaxes along with it.
Maybe by relaxing, Mozyr became inspired to get a little closer last night. For the first time since we brought him home, he hopped up on the couch by me and then laid down on my leg where I could reach out and scratch his head.
Either that, or he just feels sorry for me.
Relative Something 