Slow-hiatus

[wings-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Hey, guys. Just a heads up.

I'll be taking a slow-hiatus for an undetermined amount of time. I've been having hand problems that result in a lot of tingling and pain and it's really pointing toward carpal tunnel. I've been slow and easing up on it as it is, but it's not really enough.

Unfortunately, I can't go to see a doctor about it yet. Due to a work situation that just came up, I'm the only one who can do my job now, which unfortunately relies severely on hand work. Until someone else is trained in to fill in for emergencies, I can't possibly take any time off, so I'm going to have to tough it out.

I'll still be around with Ahiru. Just. Slow. I'm sure a few people have noticed my sporadic tags as it is. I apologize for that.

Thanks for your understanding.

Comments

[would-be-knight.livejournal.com]

/hugs forever

/until you get uncomfortable

/and then bows out and offers ice cream instead

[wings-of-hope.livejournal.com]

/hugs baaaaaaack

YAY ICE CREAM.

[wings-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I will when I can.

[smokeeasy]

I hope your hands feel better soon! I've experienced the same thing years back, ultimately with the same diagnosis as you're expecting and yeah, it's very much no fun at all.

Until you can get to your doctor, you might try getting some inexpensive wrist braces from a drug store--they're not as effective as the specialized ones your doc might tell you to get, but if you can wear them at night while you sleep, you might find that makes it easier to get through the work day when you do have to be using your hands.

/hugs

[wings-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Due to matching so many of the symptoms I looked up online, I'm preeeetty sure that's what it is. Surgery isn't the only way they can fix it, is it? Kind of deathly afraid of that.

I do have a couple wrist braces, though. I had a wrist problem awhile back that was different and I DID go to the doctor for that. They found nothing at all wrong and I ended up wasting $400 on an x-ray. But yeah. I've been wearing my wrist brace pretty regularly to work. Though I don't generally sleep with it on, since I wasn't sure if that would be beneficial or not.

[smokeeasy]

I never had surgery, and mine got very bad for quite a while. It always got worse in waves depending on what kinds of actions I was most often doing with my hands, but there were weeks at a time when it was so bad that I could barely hold a toothbrush or brush my hair.

Even without surgery though, I did find that it improved over time with careful management. The wrist braces during the night seem to be really key, if you can tolerate it. In fact my experience was that I actually got far more benefit wearing them at night and leaving them off during the day than vice versa, but I suspect that varies a bit person to person.

I also found that the kinds of activities that aggravated it the most were not the ones I might have expected--for example typing, in the long run, turned out to be pretty benign. (I got mine from braiding horses' manes for horse shows, if you can believe that, and doing that still always brings it back for a few weeks after, but mucking stalls also tends to make it worse, I think because of the repetitive lift-turn, lift-turn of the pitch fork.)

The other thing that definitely helped me (though it's not the cheapest thing to do) was taking joint supplements--glucosamine and MSM in particular. (Glucosamine tends to be more effective than chondtroitin. You can also add vitamin C or esther C, both of which help with absorption.)

/rambles at you, hoping some of this might be useful

[wings-of-hope.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. D: That definitely sounds unpleasant. I don't think mine has gotten that bad yet. I get some nasty jolts once in awhile, but I can still do things day to day.

Well, I think that's definitely worth a try. I'm already tolerating the tingling and the pain as it is when I'm trying to sleep, so the wrist brace shouldn't make that much more of a difference. XD;

Yeah, what I think is the cause of mine is my job. I've been doing it for almost six years now and it's the same hand motions over and over and over. That's also when it starts to hurt the most and my middle knuckle gets bright red by the time I come home. (That's pretty crazy, though. o.o I never would have imagined that being a reason. I guess it really can be anything.)

Oh! My dad takes glucosamine already, so we have some. I'll definitely give that a try!

That definitely helps a lot, thanks! :D