Yesterday I went to a hand therapist. She confirmed that I have RSI, and we worked out which muscles and ligaments were affected. It looks like my pointer, middle and ring fingers are the most painful to use, and I use them a lot to scroll up and down, use the arrow and delete keys. I’d already noticed that typing isn’t as bad as navigating around a document. So this is was probably caused by editing, not writing.
On Saturday, Paul and I bought Dragon Dictate, a dictation program. Unfortunately, it’s better at taking down spoken text than navigating around a document. Of course, it mishears things so the text needs lots of editing. Which could actually make things worse rather than better.
The hand therapist used ultrasound on my wrist and hand. I’m feeling much better today, so either the ultrasound worked or the prescription anti-inflammatory is starting to take effect.
My main priority now is to meet my book deadline at the end of this month. After that my plan is to take December and January off. I had a whole lot of DIY, home improvement, craft and art projects planned for my ‘holiday’, but I’ve had to cull the list.
My Sekrit Projekt
It involves doing twelve drawings – one for each month next year. I might be able to do it, if I only do one drawing each month instead of doing most of them in December. I’m also considering getting an illustrator to do them for me.
The Sketchbook Project
I still want to do this. I’ve finally come up with an idea that fits the theme (which is ‘Stitches and Folds’) and it only involves doing quick, simple daily illustrations throughout December.
Life Drawing
I’ll give it a try this week. My teacher sometimes gets us to draw with our ‘other’ hand as an exercise. I may end up doing this for all of the class.
Cat Tower
I’ve been considering how I can change my construction plans to reduce the sorts of tasks that might aggravate my hand. I was going to paint the tubes. Maybe now I’ll glue fabric around the big ones, and jute rope around the small ones for scratching instead of weaving a band around the whole arrangement.
Knitting
I finished River Tweed before the RSI started. I just need to sew on buttons. Surely I can manage that.
Otherwise I won’t be doing any knitting for a while. This pile of mending and alteration will have to wait.
Weaving
I’m going to try a small project on the rigid heddle, to see if it aggravates my hand.
Refashioning
I got an undercoat onto the Painted Vest before my hand started hurting. I can probably apply paint now, using my left hand if the right hurts. It’s not like the brush strokes have to be ‘perfect’. I’ve got a pair of runners waiting for a spruiking up, but that mostly involves glue. Projects involving sewing have been packed away.
Projects for 2011
Will have to become Projects for 2012.
Oiling the Deck, Painting the Fence
Will just have to wait. Or maybe I’ll pay someone to do it for us.
Reading
Fortunately, I can do as much of this as I want so long as it doesn’t hurt my back. I need to get Paul to rig something up so I can read while walking on the treadmill. The console is too low to rest a book on.
So glad to hear the hand is feeling better. A couple of months off is well deserved at this point and will probably help a whole lotta things 🙂
Yeah, I could definitely do with a holiday!
I have this theory about cat scratching posts. Most of them are covered with carpet or upholstery fabric, I know the one that my father-in-law made was, he even used leftover materials from their home and furniture projects. It matches the home perfectly but here’s the problem. The cat doesn’t see the difference in scratching it or the carpet or the couch! So when the hubby built our cat’s ‘nail salon’ he used old denim and jute rope. Nowhere else in the house do we have jute rope and the cat only hangs on his leg to sharpen her nails when she’s really fiesty. She doesn’t claw our furniture or our carpets, when she was young and gave it a try, we’d squirt her with water from a water gun and shout NO. She’s a year old and knows where to sharpen her nails. Who knows… she probably can’t wait for us to leave home so she can do her nails proper. Also a piece of bark covered fire wood is a favorite, the most important thing is that it’s VERY stable and doesn’t move even a tiny wiggle. They won’t scratch on it if it moves.
I have the same theory. The Towering Impurrno is covered in denim and jute, just like your ‘nail salon’ (love the name!). I hope Slinky wont start to view our legs as potential scratching posts, now!