Relaxation & Taking Things For Granted

Six more weeks in a hand/wrist splint with topical anti-inflammatory cream, my wrist is feeling better but still not functional.....EXCEPT for ply-splitting.  Can't work with it all day, or even more than an hour at a time, but at least I can do something.  So I'm learning twists, plies, making patterns and learning about the history of ply-splitting - all while gaining patience with my clumsy hand.

And even as I struggle to type with my splint on, I am slowly realizing just how much I take the use of my hands for granted.  I'm usually adept, quick, and efficient.  My hands just seem to know how to move to create and manipulate materials, write, type, cook.  For now it is either impossible to do some things, and what I can do, I'm awkward and slow.

My best friend keeps pointing out the word RELAXATION.  It's even the theme of Oprah's latest magazine.  One would  think that simply by living on this glorious island, I would know and understand that word better.  Obviously not.  Possibly it has something to do with the fact that I'm not in control of this?

But I'm working on this patience thing.  Not perfectly, but gaining a little ground.

                 

Hand or Wrist Injury

What oh what do you do as an artist when you have a hand or wrist injury?  Self-diagnosis doesn't seem to be working (so neither does the icing and splint routine).  Internet research simply adds to the confusion of tendonitis, tendonosis, stress fractures, repetitive motion issues - need I go on?

But the worst part is that I can't weave, or crochet, or bead, or type, or really use my right hand at all.

Obviously, patience isn't my virtue, and I can't see the doctor until later in the week.

Too much to do, no hands to do it with.  So reading it will have to be.