Ha. Intrigued by the title, eh? Well, in this case, it is a play on words. This is not about the tunnel of love (I had a doctor sing that during a OB/GYN exam once . . . . very disconcerting but amusing). It's not a tunnel on the highway that I am here to advise you to drive around because it's not safe. It's not the tunnel some people see when they are dying, although I think I would probably advise you to avoid that one if at all possible as well. At least avoid any situations that might lead you to seeing that tunnel.
No, this tunnel is carpal tunnel, which I suspect I have in my right arm. I have had it for years and I have a half dozen drug store wrist braces lying about the house. This time around, however, the sore wrist has spread upwards to my elbow. I now have a spot that, when it hurts, feels like someone is holding a hot metal poker on it and pushing. (And man, I wish they would stop it!) It will hurt if I use the arm to lift anything at all, which I can protect against, but it also will just start hurting out of the blue and surprise me. (And while I like surprises that involve chocolate and presents, this one I don't care for one bit.) Pulling out my seatbelt, picking up my purse, etc. now suddenly cause the kind of pain where you stop talking and just breathe for a moment. When it isn't doing it's hot poker imitation, it just aches like a deep toothache, literally throbbing as I struggle to find any position to put it in that doesn't hurt. Sometimes the skin even hurts to the touch, so I wear short sleeves so nothing touches it. How ridiculous is that?
Of course, the good news is that I am left handed so I can still write. The bad news is that I use the computer mouse with my right hand and sometimes it hurts enough that I reach over with my left hand to use it. Joseph asked me why I didn't just learn to use the mouse with my left hand instead but I told him I was afraid then BOTH arms would end up hurting.
I am hoping that like in the past, my arm will just stop hurting for unknown reasons and I can ignore it again. In the meantime, however, I am wincing a lot and I desperately wish I had one of those slings to wear because taking the weight off it helps. Yes, I could buy one but I would look dumb wearing a sling . . . . What did you do to your arm? Ah . .. fight off lecherous men? Hold back flooding waters until children could get to safety? Rescue puppies from an evil witch? No. . . . . I type too much? I don't know what I did to make it hurt. I just want it to GO AWAY.
Of course, my hubby works with it, with me wincing throughout the process. And for a while, it does lighten up and relax. Usually just long enough for me to stop protecting it when I use it and then BAM. I am in pain again. I know my friend Ami is nodding away in sympathy throughout this post as she has a torn rotator cuff and a torn ACL so is lined up for two surgeries soon. I was going to call her doctor and ask if he could do a two for one special and fix my elbow before I resort to amputation but figured the paperwork would be too much to handle.
So, gimpy Tami will muddle through, wishing she was more ambidexterous and grumbling about avoiding this tunnel the next damn time around. It won't help but it will make her feel a little more righteous about it.
Send chocolate. That helps too.
2 comments:
I've never had a doctor sing to me.
But when we lived in Temecula, California there was an OB/Gyn by the name of Kuntz.
What is this?? Weeks between posts and I go away for two days and I am two posts behind!!????!!
The Voodoo donut thingy sounds really cool! What fun to drag everybody out of bed and off the computer.
Sorry about your carpel tunnel. I would say that living with a massage therapyst/chiro should give you an advantage over other folk. J probably held off the bad stuff as long as he could. Are you taking B vitamins. I heard that they helped. I'll be praying that you find some relief.
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