I did too much. Way too much, and now I’m paying for it with full body aches.
When I’m this fatigued – and it is a bone deep dragging fatigue that pulls every bit of energy from your muscles and leaves you in agony – my good mood inevitably slides away to a numbness I associate with my depression.
I will shortly haul myself off the couch and put on my fluffy cosy socks. Then I’ll turn the heatpump on and cuddle up on the couch and read terrible fanfiction until the claws of fatigue retract from my muscles. It is important to coddle yourself on bad days.
Three weeks ago I broke the triangular fibrocartilage complex in my right wrist. This is, unfortunately, my dominant hand.
The triangular fibrocartilage complex as a series of cartilage, evidenced by the name, and also ligaments. It’s on the little finger side of the wrist and it deals with the interaction between your ulna and the bones in your wrist. It plays a crucial role in allowing you to turn your wrist, because the cartilage provides a smooth surface for the bones to interact over. It also prevents your bones from clunking together.
So it’s kind of integral to the use of your right arm. Which means in the middle of the year of all my practical work I do not have use of my right arm. And I will not have use of my arm for quite some time.
I don’t see an orthopaedic surgeon until September. After that, I need an MRI for them to identify where the damage is and how bad it is, and then I’ll be booked in for surgery. Damage to the cartilage between the ulna and the wrist bones must be surgically repaired. It does not go away with rest. So after surgery I will be in a cast for 7 weeks, and then I have physiotherapy for 6 to 8 weeks.
So in reality, it’s looking like I won’t have use of my right arm for the rest of the year. This also means I can’t actually type – I’m using Google dictation to write this, and I’m adding in the punctuation manually. It’s an interesting experience because I’m used to my fingers doing the thinking, instead of my mouth. I’m not used to speaking my thoughts out loud, and I’m certainly not used to writing this out loud, some of my most private and personal thoughts, available for the world to read but not for those in my life. In a sense it’s easier this way.
I’m having to relearn a lot of things now, using my left hand. I’ve never been even vaguely ambidextrous, and so using my left-hand for things is somewhat complicated. I have spent the last week sulking and generally feeling very sorry for myself over this. It’s hard not to when the hits just keep coming and they don’t stop coming. I don’t feel like I’ve had a break. I feel like every year there is something new, some new way of impact in my life and my ability to do things. It sucks, and I have to let myself feel that.
Now, though, I am back on my feet, more or less. I’m sorting out an MRI in advance of the orthopaedic surgeon’s appointment, I have sorted out physiotherapy already, and I’m going to interview a personal trainer to help me make sure I don’t lose muscle mass. And to improve my non-existent muscle mass. Ah the joys of doing nothing for 2 years. And being on Tegretol, which I’m now off (yay), but I still haven’t lost any of the weight I got while I was on Tegretol (not so yay).
It’s unpleasant, the damage to the joint. Not only is it painful to turn my wrist, but there is a distinct clicking which is always excruciatingly painful when it happens. I also can’t use my right hand to push off objects because that puts pressure on that joint, and I can only very carefully lift things. I can’t turn my key in my car. I can’t crochet. I can’t type, I struggle to use a mouse, and that’s all just pants.
So over the next few weeks I’m going to be figuring out what on earth I can do, because I will go insane if I don’t have anything to do for the rest of the year.
A couple of months ago I got a dog to train up to be my mobility helper.
He was terrified of men. So he was rehomed, and now lives the life of luxury, sleeping on beds and being spoiled. I had to seek outside confirmation that I couldn’t have made it work with him, because he was such a sweet dog, and he was the first one I had tried. But, ultimately, I cannot work with a dog who is terrified of men.
Last week I got another dog, also to train up to be my mobility helper. This time I took it slow. I went out and met him, I took my friend with me to assess his temperament, and then went home and had a long talk about him. I picked him up, and he was anxious, but he never put a foot wrong. He didn’t put a foot wrong the entire week I had him. He was sweet, lovely, willing, and just adapted to every situation thrown at him.
But he had some health quirks that could have been indicative of serious problems, and he smeared saliva everywhere. My amazing human isn’t able to cope with dog saliva, so we agreed he would not be joining us permanently.
I know it’s a process, I know the right dog is one-in-a-million, but I am feeling disheartened by this. It’s hard work to meet the dog, check them over, take them on for a bit, and then figure out how to explain to the old owner why their beautiful, lovely, fantastic, and genuinely amazing dog failed, because that’s what it feels like to them. The last owner didn’t understand, and was very upset by it, and I think that, more than anything, has led to me feeling so bad this time around.
I haven’t given up finding the right dog. Or rather, I have flights of fancy that I don’t need the extra help, that I’ll be able to figure out a way around all of this so I don’t need a dog, and life will continue on as it always has. But they are brief, and generally beaten over the head with a mallet with my leg doesn’t want to hold my weight, or when I have a dizzy spell.
But for now I am going to sit back and relax and rest up. The stress of the last few weeks is finally catching up with me.
A good few years ago I went ahead and got myself a pair of Bose Quiet Comfort II headphones. These were the top active noise cancelling headphones available (within my price range). I got these right as exam period started up, and I lived in them.
I have aspergers, or autism as they’re now calling it. I come from a long family line of aspies, and we all have our own quirks. For me, noise is hard. When I’m stressed, like during exam time, I can’t filter out noise and I can’t concentrate around that noise. The noise cancelling headphones were an absolute game changer – all of a sudden I could isolate myself from the outside world and hyperfocus on my uni work. It was amazing!
Well then trigeminal neuralgia happened. All of a sudden my one escape from the world was no longer there, and I had to deal with extra pain, extra stress, and noisy life. I haven’t been able to wear anything over my face since. I made do with noise isolating earbuds and bemoaned the loss of my peace and quiet.
Until now. I just splashed out and got myself a pair of Sennheiser’s new Momentum True Wireless 2 earbuds. I quite honestly cried when I put them in and turned on their active noise cancelling function – all of a sudden the world around me just dropped away, and I heard nothing for the first time in over a year.
This is bliss. I’m going to live in these for a while now!
Walk to Wellness 