by jphilo | Dec 31, 2015 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
- The hand therapist signed my official release from treatment almost 12 weeks to the day from surgery to reconnect my thumb tendon. I can now wear my wrist watch and wedding rings, type as swiftly and inaccurately as ever, drive, dress and groom myself, cook. and dust (sigh) like a a big girl. Life is good!
- Unfortunately, I still can’t use my good hand to lift chips with salsa to my mouth without dripping it on the only spot of white shirt showing beneath a woolly winter sweater. Many thanks to the staff of La Caretta and my husband for pretending not to notice my personal eating disorder.
- And, though the hand therapist’s office was mere blocks from the library, I totally forgot to check out the Downton Abbey DVDs in order and in time to watch all 5 seasons before the upcoming premiere of season 6. As if I haven’t already suffered sufficient consequences from the careless handling of kitchen knives.
How are you preparing for the premiere of Downton Abbey? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | Dec 22, 2015 | Top Ten Tuesday
This post is of the good news/bad news variety. The good news is that my hand is healing well and regaining function rapidly. Therefore my therapy appointments are down to one a week, and the therapist said I can skip some of my exercises if I’m using my hand to complete daily household activities. The bad news will become apparent as you peruse this week’s top ten list of good-for-the-hand household activites.
10. Hanging clothes on the line. Not that I’m hanging clothes on the line at this time of year. But since the therapist makes me squeeze giant clothespins at every appointment, this activity makes the list.
9. So does clipping fingernails. Though it only comes up every couple of weeks.
8. Squeezing the toothpaste tube. Always starting at the bottom, of course.
7. Dusting. Knickknacks are good exercise for pincher movement. And dusting furniture limbers up the wrist.
6. Cleaning bathrooms and the kitchen. Scrubbing sinks, wiping counters, swabbing the toilet bowl, and attacking that grubby bathtub ring are ultimate multi-tasking activities.
5. Mopping floors. As in the on-your-hands-and-knees variety. The hands and knees part makes the wrist bend as its never bent before. The wringing out the rag part puts squeezing Ther-a-putty to shame.
4. Washing dishes. What could be better than scrubbing pots, wringing out rags, soaking hands in warm water?
3. Cleaning the kitchen. Which would be as intolerable as #10 through #4, except that #2 and #1, the reasons why the kitchen gets dirty, are the only items on the list I enjoy.
2. Cooking and baking.
1. Eating. As in everything created in #2.
See what I mean? Good new, bad news, a clean house, and a balanced diet for the first time in months. Leave a comment!
by jphilo | Nov 10, 2015 | Top Ten Tuesday
The Man of Steel is back on his feet, and I’ve begun therapy for my hand. Here are a few final reflections on the double whammy of gimpocity we recently experienced.
10. Having no one in the house who can drive is a problem.
9. Having one driver, who is also a nursing mom, in the house with 1 baby and 2 gimpy adults is not a problem. However, it is a challenge that requires creativity and determination.
8. A back that moves without pain should never be taken for granted.
7. Ditto for having 2 opposable thumbs.
6. Hand therapists spend their evenings thinking ways to inflict pain on people careless enough to sever the tendon to a thumb with a kitchen knife.
5. The painful exercises hand therapists inflict upon people careless enough to sever the tendon to a thumb with a kitchen knife also engender healing at lightning speed.
4. Thumb therapy exercises every 2 hours pretty much consume a person’s day.
3. Pie makes gimpocity tolerable.
2. So does good coffee.
1. Babies make everything more tolerable.
What makes hard times tolerable for you? Leave a comment.
