The Right Hand of Pain!!! Aka Death of a Right Hand Round two!

Its been a few minutes since I have been able to write again, but Im back and  working slowly towards being more regular at writing and quilting and other adventures!  On a side note, speaking of adventures - Naughty Ike ate another TV remote!

We had this one a whole 24 hours!  I had just got it programmed right...... In his defense, the Kong toys are often made of hard plastic with soft areas for our "aggressive chewers" so he probably just thought it was his anyway!  We have learned - again- to put the remote where he cannot reach it!

 Ugh!! 55 has been hard!!  A few weeks ago, we were getting ready to move into the new school building and somehow I pulled some muscles in my back!  I have no idea how - seriously I dont - and I thought I had a Kidney infection, because although I hadn't had one for along time, I had been prone to them in years past.  I called our teledoc doctor that our insurance company requires and based on symptoms she thought I had one too!  She wanted me to go right then to the emergency room - 8:00 at night of course!  I said "Im not that sick", and she says "You might be and you just dont know it!"  Trust me - I know it!

So off I go the next morning - as instructed - to the doctor and lo and behold - I DO NOT have an kidney infection - or any infection - I have pulled muscles apparently!  Possibly the "transverse abdominis.  They hurt - just so's ya know - badly!  They also spasm if you try to do anything strenuous - like writing or stirring batter, or doing ANYTHING AT ALL!  So annoying!

My new office area sporting doughnuts on the counter!  Its a good way to start a new Friday in a new building!  Thats about as heavy a box as I could lift and I didnt bring them - bosses did!

Anyhoo - no new school box moving for me - which was also a big bummer, since I had most of my boxes in my car at the time!  I may have pulled muscles moving those?  It could happen!  So I was doing some working from home and data entry that needed done, and I also had some quilting stuff I was doing - and exciting new project called "Murder of A Viking"  A Quilted mystery!  More on that later - its a stay tuned!  Just doing "sit down stuff" and no lifting - should work just fine right?  Resting my back muscles that also wrap around to the front and squeeze the life outta me when they are spasming!

This is part of the "Viking" quilt and what I was cutting out using the rotary cutter. 96 individual pieces in this bad chicken O the sea (pretty sure it is waves - but it's a mystery so....could be something else)

So doing a bunch of finger movements (data entry) and cutting out quilt blocks is harmless right?  Not so fast sister!  Doing data entry and cutting while sitting (usuallyI stand up to do the rotary cutting for my quilts) while also compensating for the back muscles is a dangerous game!You end up with "Claw Hand" aka "overuse injury and nerve impingement"!

I didnt take a picture of it all curled up and "claw" looking, as I could not hold the stupid camera phone and click the necessary buttons with it like that!  Techno-zero here!  But you can see here some of the bruising and swelling....

You cannot open your hand when this happens!  It seizes up like a vise locked into position and it is very painful!

So..... off to the Chiropractor I went to see about getting "release" done for my back and my hand! UGH!!  He used all kinds of hammering tools that look like they should be in some of the naughty prank movies, and one that looked like a dremel tool on my hand and it hurt like hell, brusied the crap out of me but did the job!  You may have guessed by me not knowing how I hurt my back, that  I have the pain tolerance of a dead elephant - "dangerously high" my doctor (who passed away a few years ago) called it.  I was also (like Elaine in Sienfeld) a "terrible patient" because of it - I have no idea when to stay down!  And I don't like to either!  I got S&*t to do!

This is a few days after the "hammering" treatment to get my fingers to open.  The bruising is from the treatment- looks bad but works good!  Yes - it was sore from the bruising and treatment too - Tiger Balm worked pretty well on keeping the pain down and I also iced a few times a day, and "rested" my back by not doing other things while watching the new season of "Ted Lasso".  If you dont know who that is Google it - hilarious!  Still not great at laying around though......

I also had "cupping therapy" to help relax and release the nerve impingement that I had from all of the fun I was having!  It also looks painful but really feels good having it done and it works - and comes with a massage by the best!  Reeds girl Keyona is a massage therapist and she does wonders with me (shout out to  Back and Neck Center - Dr Mike and Keyona Mattson)!

This was all around March 9th that the muscles were pulled and I had the "claw hand" by the 13th, and I am just now able to resume some of my activities!  Cant lift stuff still or my back protests and spasms, and if  I type too long - Claw Hand!  So opening up the greenhouse has not happened yet, but it is getting better, and I was able to go to quilt retreat reasonably well last weekend (stay tuned for that post also with the Viking one).

It also looks like this still at my house even though it is getting warm during the day, so the greenhouse is not staying warm enough at night still to start anything in there, and with Naughty, Plant eater Ike I dont dare start them in the house ths year!  lol!  And cry too!

I hope you can see where you are going, know when you get there, realize when you are hurt, and rest when you need to.  Happy Spring and Blessed be!