blogcutter (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
blogcutter) wrote2025-01-19 03:12 pm
blogcutter) wrote2025-01-19 03:12 pm
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Day 19 after my NYE Adventure
I'm gradually recovering from the arm injury I sustained on December 31, as described in my blog post of January 5. In this entry I'll briefly describe my journey so far.
At first, I had to carry out basic tasks like brushing my teeth exclusively with my left hand. More advanced procedures like flossing were put off with a flick and a promise.Followed by a swish and another promise. A week later, I had progressed first to brushing with my right hand, and then to flossing using both hands.
Getting dressed and undressed has been another challenge. I've been wearing clothes that are fairly loose and stretchy and have a bare minimum of awkward fastenings. To put on outdoor clothing like my ski jacket, I had to sit on an armless kitchen chair and manoeuvre myself into the right sleeve and then do the rest pretty much one-handed. Now I no longer need the chair, although getting dressed to go outside is still a slower process than it once was.
So I'm doing more with my right hand and arm than I could in the beginning . I have a greater range of movement in the arm, and with far less pain. I can get up from a lying or sitting position without much pain, just a slight twinge at times. Same for picking up something off the floor. I can tolerate a bit more weight on my right, although any moderate-and-above lifting still has to be done with my left.
I'm keeping up with the laundry. It helps that we have a front-loading washer and dryer, both on drawer/pedestals to minimize the need for stooping or lifting. This is something we put in place round about 2006-07, shortly after I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I haven't had a serious flare-up of that since 2015 - it's under control with NSAIDs and DMARDs, which have likely helped with my recovery from the injury as well.
I've been able to get out of the house a bit too - around the corner to the community mailbox and for very short walks in the neighbourhood. I haven't been brave enough to take public transit yet - it would probably be OK, at least in off-peak times, but I'd be nervous about getting jostled on a crowded bus or LRT car or platform. But I'm OK with being driven around to get groceries and do basic errands, as long as I don't need to carry anything heavy.
I still haven't felt able to put my right arm up straight over my head, or all the way behind my back or at the nape of my neck, as I would normally do when putting on a hair elastic or putting on some N95 masks - these tasks I manage in an awkward, mostly left-handed way.
I tire easily. Healing is itself tiring and so is performing customary tasks in unaccustomed ways. But the good news is I'm on the mend.
And in a kind of cruel irony, the entire length of the Rideau Canal is now open for skating for the first time in years, even though skating is out of the question for me at the moment. Still, I I don't think BeaverTails or other Winterlude activities will necessarily be off-limits!
At first, I had to carry out basic tasks like brushing my teeth exclusively with my left hand. More advanced procedures like flossing were put off with a flick and a promise.Followed by a swish and another promise. A week later, I had progressed first to brushing with my right hand, and then to flossing using both hands.
Getting dressed and undressed has been another challenge. I've been wearing clothes that are fairly loose and stretchy and have a bare minimum of awkward fastenings. To put on outdoor clothing like my ski jacket, I had to sit on an armless kitchen chair and manoeuvre myself into the right sleeve and then do the rest pretty much one-handed. Now I no longer need the chair, although getting dressed to go outside is still a slower process than it once was.
So I'm doing more with my right hand and arm than I could in the beginning . I have a greater range of movement in the arm, and with far less pain. I can get up from a lying or sitting position without much pain, just a slight twinge at times. Same for picking up something off the floor. I can tolerate a bit more weight on my right, although any moderate-and-above lifting still has to be done with my left.
I'm keeping up with the laundry. It helps that we have a front-loading washer and dryer, both on drawer/pedestals to minimize the need for stooping or lifting. This is something we put in place round about 2006-07, shortly after I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I haven't had a serious flare-up of that since 2015 - it's under control with NSAIDs and DMARDs, which have likely helped with my recovery from the injury as well.
I've been able to get out of the house a bit too - around the corner to the community mailbox and for very short walks in the neighbourhood. I haven't been brave enough to take public transit yet - it would probably be OK, at least in off-peak times, but I'd be nervous about getting jostled on a crowded bus or LRT car or platform. But I'm OK with being driven around to get groceries and do basic errands, as long as I don't need to carry anything heavy.
I still haven't felt able to put my right arm up straight over my head, or all the way behind my back or at the nape of my neck, as I would normally do when putting on a hair elastic or putting on some N95 masks - these tasks I manage in an awkward, mostly left-handed way.
I tire easily. Healing is itself tiring and so is performing customary tasks in unaccustomed ways. But the good news is I'm on the mend.
And in a kind of cruel irony, the entire length of the Rideau Canal is now open for skating for the first time in years, even though skating is out of the question for me at the moment. Still, I I don't think BeaverTails or other Winterlude activities will necessarily be off-limits!