(no subject)
Dec. 8th, 2006 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I just heard a report on NPR that said more than 800 completely new species were cataloged this year in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.
That is so cool.
In other news, I had a wonderful birthday, and got a new keyboard which is much easier to use than the old one.
Remember when I built a canoe? Well, trying to get the varnish perfect, I spent a lot of time bent over with my head cranked around in an awkward postion sighting along the canoe to spot runs or sags in the varnish. This led to a stiff neck, which I never considered might be a bad sign, and subsequently to my noticing that the tip of my right index finger kept going numb. Okay, that got my attention because that seemed like it might be some kind of nerve damage. When I finished my canoe (about a week later--okay, maybe I should have called the doctor right away, but my canoe was almost done.) Anyway, my doctor had seen the article in the local paper about my canoe, and knew what I was up to, and first ascribed the numb fingertip to tendonitis, since I'd been doing all that hand sanding and polishing trying to get the finish perfect. I didn't give the stiff neck much mind--I'd been bent over with my head cranked around for two weeks; of course I had a stiff neck.
So we treated for tendonitis with anti-inflammatories and a splint for a week or two, and it made no difference. So she referred me to a neurologist. It took more than a month to get in to see the neurologist, by which time the stiff neck, while not bothering me very much, had been joined by all kinds of neurological symptoms triggered mostly by walking, oddly enough. The tingling in the palm and up the arm, the pressure in the upper arm, the golf-ball-under-the-shoulder-blade sensation on that side--by now I was pretty sure that something was messed up pretty high up the nerve that ran to that arm. I was also becoming kind of restricted in my daily life. Walking wasn't working for exercise because it made the arm symptoms worse. I couldn't use my laptop because spending that much time looking down at something on my lap was making my arm worse. I had to rearrange things.
The walking problem was actually pretty easy to solve; Kip works at Carson-Newman college, so as a faculty spouse I can use the gym for free. I made a habit of driving out there to use the stationary bikes, most of which are recumbents (craning my neck to look forward while riding a normal bike would have been quite impossible for much of this time--it just hurt too much). The nice thing about the stationary bike is that I can read at the same time. I have read everything from _Personal Finance for Dummies_ to the Temeraire series while puffing and sweating on the stationary bike, and I'm happy to report that my general physical conditioning is quite a bit better than it was before I hurt myself. Now it's no particular problem for me to hop on my recumbent and ride up the hill (it's a one-mile long hill) to the hospital or even continue the four miles into Jefferson City. Except that breathing all that cold air makes me cough, so if it's cold, or if I have something I want to read, I still go to the gym. The gym will close for the Christmas break, and I'm kind of bummed about this.
The laptop problem also proved solvable--I got _The CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics_, the 1991 _Physicians' Desk Reference_, Stryer's _Biochemistry_, and _Molecular Biology of the Cell_ and piled them up on my desk. I then put the laptop on top of the pile, to put the top of the screen at eye level. I then plugged in Kip's old USB keyboard and a mouse I had left over from molecular modeling. Now I had a setup on which I could read and type without aggravating the arm symptoms too much. (It still aggravated them a little, but it was much better.)
The physical therapy went nowhere (note--it can happen that physical therapy makes you hurt--I hadn't experienced it until now, but the phenomenon does exist), until I had an MRI. With the location and nature of the lesion known, I was sent off to an orthopedist, who cheered me immensly by announcing that surgery was probably unnecessary. I had a couple more months of physical therapy, which went much better now we knew what was wrong, and was put on an anti-inflammatory that is stronger than ibuprofen, (and more expensive) but does the job with a single pill in the mornings, so I guess I can't complain.
The physical therapists have released me into the wild with a home exercise program involving large colored rubber bands and a strength training program for my arms and shoulders at the gym (it is common to strengthen muscles around a joint for the purpose of protecting a joint. I don't understand why this works, but it does seem to, so okay). One benefit of the strength training program is that now that I'm allowed to canoe again, canoeing is much less tiring. (The neurologist didn't want me to canoe, so I didn't, but the orthopedist he handed me off too didn't see why I shouldn't, so I went straight out and canoed the day I heard that, and have gone ever since whenever the weather is warm enough.) I have been doing the strength training at the Carson-Newman gym also; see above for Christmas break and being kind of bummed.
But oh, yes, the keyboard. Kip's old keyboard, while much better ergonomically than putting the laptop on my lap, was hard to type on. I had to hit the keys quite hard or they wouldn't register, and I had a lot of trouble with skipped letters, which slowed my writing down a lot. So I asked for a new keyboard for my birthday. It's much easier to use (though now I hold the keys too long and get doubled letters, but that should pass), and as an added bonus, its little fingertip-dots are not worn off, so I can tell when my hands are in the right position without having to turn on my desk light and look. That's really nice. I can look down without pain now, but that's still really nice.
I have also taken up knitting again--I had laid it aside for quite some time because while I was working so hard on the canoe I was concerned about RSI or tendonitis from working too much with my hands, and after the canoe I didn't go back to it because it hurt to look down. But I'm getting back into it now, with some of the beautiful yarn
cflute gave me for Christmas. I'm swatching a complicated lace pattern called "Oriel" from _Sensational Knitted Socks_ by Charlene Schurch. I've done lace once before, so this isn't the first time. But yeah, it's completely like me that my second attempt at it is a 12 stitch 28 row pattern. But it's so pretty!
That is so cool.
In other news, I had a wonderful birthday, and got a new keyboard which is much easier to use than the old one.
Remember when I built a canoe? Well, trying to get the varnish perfect, I spent a lot of time bent over with my head cranked around in an awkward postion sighting along the canoe to spot runs or sags in the varnish. This led to a stiff neck, which I never considered might be a bad sign, and subsequently to my noticing that the tip of my right index finger kept going numb. Okay, that got my attention because that seemed like it might be some kind of nerve damage. When I finished my canoe (about a week later--okay, maybe I should have called the doctor right away, but my canoe was almost done.) Anyway, my doctor had seen the article in the local paper about my canoe, and knew what I was up to, and first ascribed the numb fingertip to tendonitis, since I'd been doing all that hand sanding and polishing trying to get the finish perfect. I didn't give the stiff neck much mind--I'd been bent over with my head cranked around for two weeks; of course I had a stiff neck.
So we treated for tendonitis with anti-inflammatories and a splint for a week or two, and it made no difference. So she referred me to a neurologist. It took more than a month to get in to see the neurologist, by which time the stiff neck, while not bothering me very much, had been joined by all kinds of neurological symptoms triggered mostly by walking, oddly enough. The tingling in the palm and up the arm, the pressure in the upper arm, the golf-ball-under-the-shoulder-blade sensation on that side--by now I was pretty sure that something was messed up pretty high up the nerve that ran to that arm. I was also becoming kind of restricted in my daily life. Walking wasn't working for exercise because it made the arm symptoms worse. I couldn't use my laptop because spending that much time looking down at something on my lap was making my arm worse. I had to rearrange things.
The walking problem was actually pretty easy to solve; Kip works at Carson-Newman college, so as a faculty spouse I can use the gym for free. I made a habit of driving out there to use the stationary bikes, most of which are recumbents (craning my neck to look forward while riding a normal bike would have been quite impossible for much of this time--it just hurt too much). The nice thing about the stationary bike is that I can read at the same time. I have read everything from _Personal Finance for Dummies_ to the Temeraire series while puffing and sweating on the stationary bike, and I'm happy to report that my general physical conditioning is quite a bit better than it was before I hurt myself. Now it's no particular problem for me to hop on my recumbent and ride up the hill (it's a one-mile long hill) to the hospital or even continue the four miles into Jefferson City. Except that breathing all that cold air makes me cough, so if it's cold, or if I have something I want to read, I still go to the gym. The gym will close for the Christmas break, and I'm kind of bummed about this.
The laptop problem also proved solvable--I got _The CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics_, the 1991 _Physicians' Desk Reference_, Stryer's _Biochemistry_, and _Molecular Biology of the Cell_ and piled them up on my desk. I then put the laptop on top of the pile, to put the top of the screen at eye level. I then plugged in Kip's old USB keyboard and a mouse I had left over from molecular modeling. Now I had a setup on which I could read and type without aggravating the arm symptoms too much. (It still aggravated them a little, but it was much better.)
The physical therapy went nowhere (note--it can happen that physical therapy makes you hurt--I hadn't experienced it until now, but the phenomenon does exist), until I had an MRI. With the location and nature of the lesion known, I was sent off to an orthopedist, who cheered me immensly by announcing that surgery was probably unnecessary. I had a couple more months of physical therapy, which went much better now we knew what was wrong, and was put on an anti-inflammatory that is stronger than ibuprofen, (and more expensive) but does the job with a single pill in the mornings, so I guess I can't complain.
The physical therapists have released me into the wild with a home exercise program involving large colored rubber bands and a strength training program for my arms and shoulders at the gym (it is common to strengthen muscles around a joint for the purpose of protecting a joint. I don't understand why this works, but it does seem to, so okay). One benefit of the strength training program is that now that I'm allowed to canoe again, canoeing is much less tiring. (The neurologist didn't want me to canoe, so I didn't, but the orthopedist he handed me off too didn't see why I shouldn't, so I went straight out and canoed the day I heard that, and have gone ever since whenever the weather is warm enough.) I have been doing the strength training at the Carson-Newman gym also; see above for Christmas break and being kind of bummed.
But oh, yes, the keyboard. Kip's old keyboard, while much better ergonomically than putting the laptop on my lap, was hard to type on. I had to hit the keys quite hard or they wouldn't register, and I had a lot of trouble with skipped letters, which slowed my writing down a lot. So I asked for a new keyboard for my birthday. It's much easier to use (though now I hold the keys too long and get doubled letters, but that should pass), and as an added bonus, its little fingertip-dots are not worn off, so I can tell when my hands are in the right position without having to turn on my desk light and look. That's really nice. I can look down without pain now, but that's still really nice.
I have also taken up knitting again--I had laid it aside for quite some time because while I was working so hard on the canoe I was concerned about RSI or tendonitis from working too much with my hands, and after the canoe I didn't go back to it because it hurt to look down. But I'm getting back into it now, with some of the beautiful yarn
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
no subject
Date: 2006-12-09 02:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-09 03:11 am (UTC)Although to be fair it has a lot of information in it too.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-09 02:40 am (UTC)I'm partial to IBM model M keyboards, which have the same action as the Selectric typewriter. A little stiffer than modern keyboards, but longer travel and an action that keeps your fingers from bottoming out painfully. They were designed to be used 8 hours a day by professional typists.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-09 03:14 am (UTC)My new keyboard is definitely softer on my fingers than the old one. But I may have to check out that software fix; almost all my n's are coming out doubled.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-09 05:09 pm (UTC)Model M's are still being manufactured, though not by IBM. I acquired my stock of them at surplus joints for a few dollars each, but they may be getting hard to find now. Wikipedia has an article.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 01:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 02:12 am (UTC)It's probably not your finger bouncing, but the keyswitch. You might be able to prevent it by typing slower and more rhythmically (the way my summer-school typing teacher taught us to, back in the days when high school typing was taught on Underwood and Smith-Corona manuals).
There's a reason why I have almost a dozen surplus IBM keyboards in my garage! They don't make 'em like they used to.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 01:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-09 05:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 01:54 am (UTC)Glad to hear you're feeling better
Date: 2006-12-11 05:07 am (UTC)Vertical,
Split & sloping,
Mysterious,
and Lots
More.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-17 09:27 pm (UTC)By carefully exercising the otherwise weak sections, it stabilizes the support system and thus protects it from injury.
For wonderful information and Quick Time videos of safe exercises per the American Arthritis Association, check at this article and related page links at the Sports Medicine Clinic at the University of Washington (http://www.orthop.washington.edu/uw/livingwith/tabID__3376/ItemID__83/Articles/Default.aspx)
I found them when I trapped a nerve in my rotator cuff area - couldn't reach out with that arm 'cause it kept sticking ... and jabbing me with a sharp pain when I used it. The Quick Time videos are helpful; describing a 3-D maneuver with words doesn't always make it clear to me!
BJ