What happens when you suddenly don’t have access to one hand and have to make do with the other?
I’ve been quickly learning the answer to this question during a weekend in which I’ve had only very limited contributions from the right as a result of Friday’s little incident.
So here are my initial answers.
What’s hard?
• Blogging.
Search & peck typing with my left hand takes a lot of concentration, and the focus on the mechanics puts content at a serious disadvantage. I find myself thinking letter-by-letter, and from there word-by-word feels like the Big Picture. This makes coherent blogging very difficult. And those capital letters are a real pain.
• Photography.
I couldn’t deliver a new Feline Friday last week, even a late one, because I couldn’t hoist and control the camera. My shutter finger took a hit in Friday’s incident, and I’ll have to develop a workaround, at least in the short term.
• Signatures.
I couldn’t sign myself into the emergency room, or sign the charge card bill when I was discharged. It seems that I am very low on the ambidextrous scale.
• Eating.
I’ve obviously taken the use of a knife and fork for granted. Big mistake. Now that I’m effectively unable to deploy both at the same time, which is really when they are most effective, figuring out how to get that food where it’s supposed to go in manageable pieces is a challenge. Even soft boiled eggs as most defeated me yesterday.
• Flossing
You can just forget it.
• Cooking.
If anything needs to be chopped or sliced, forget it. I’m temporarily getting promoted into management. I’ll have to direct while Meda cooks.
• Buttons.
What an awful little invention! At least that’s what I’m thinking as I fumble with the buttons on my shirt, and the pants are no easier. The “could you lend me a hand?” approach could be interesting.
• Shoe laces
I’ll face this for the first time this morning. Even with plenty of time to devise a strategy, I don’t know how this will play out.
And so it goes on this Monday morning.
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Fortunately, it sounds like you will make a complete recovery. In the meantime, one-handed pianist Nicholas McCarthy might serve as some inspiration.
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-19179499
Blogging – what about voice recognition software?
Dragon is supposed to be pretty good.
Having a temporary disability can be a valuable learning experience. About 30 years ago I had a broken leg which forced me to keep the leg in a cast for 6 months while using crutches to get around. It was extremely hard for me (and dangerous!) to go up or down stairs, or to drive a stick-shift car. I learned to appreciate the problems faced by people whose disabilities are permanent, which made me more supportive of laws like the Americans With Disabilities Act. I adopted strategies for my living arrangements which I have implemented at every opportunity, just in case of a similar problem in the future. For example, I now live in an apartment which is entirely on one floor (no interior steps), in a building with an elevator and which has an entrance that is at street level; and my parking stall is very near that entrance. My apartment was previously owned by an elderly lady who had very strong grab-bars installed in the shower. Although I’d enjoy a car with standard transmission, I now always buy cars with automatic “just in case.” Over the years I’ve paid more attention to the lifestyles of people with severe disabilities who nevertheless continue to contribute greatly to our knowledge and joy, such as Stephen Hawking and the late Peggy Chun. So, as the saying goes, when life hands you a lemon, make lemonade. Important lessons can be learned from temporary disabilities.
Well said Ken. I have been walking with a leg brace since May after surgery for a torn meniscus. Started out in a wheel chair in Japan for a week. I have never looked “through” a person with a disability since. I am also in favor on making that dog make do with one less paw for a while….
“Important lessons can be learned from temporary disabilities.”
True words. And it brings to mind the saying: “I complained because my feet hurt, until I met a man with no legs”
For more inspiration: Tisha Unarmed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD-VuwulVgI
One more thing to put on my gratitude list today: fingers!
For encouragement you might play Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D Major which he wrote for a pianist friend who lost his right arm during World War I. Motivated by your comment above, I just tried to sign my name with my left hand, and the result looked exactly like my first signature when I was 8-years-old.
First, full disclosure, I am not a doctor or physical therapist but a just guy who has worked through his own share of injuries. I have found that it is really easy to lose function due to inactivity while healing. I would recommend getting a soft foam ball about the size of a tennis ball and start squeezing it as soon as you can do so without undue pain or ripping open stitches or whatever. Then keep that ball next to your laptop and squeeze it while you are thinking about what to write. After you are fully functional you can pass it on to the cats.
I too am a layman/consumer. My concern would be that excessive exercise could further damage the injured tissues. I trust that Mr. Ian will ask his medical providers about this.
The speech recognition software is excellent, even without popping for Dragon Speak, which is also supposedly excellent.
Ian:
You left out a key one. I had rotator cuff on my right shoulder, and for the immediate post-surgery, my right hand was unusable. Once the pain meds wore off, the constipation departed and it soon became painfully obvious that being right handed was going to be a problem of sanitation! And, while I could ask my wife to help me chop the vegetables, take a photograph or sign my name, this new challenge was completely up to me to solve. So training my left hand became the goal! And it worked!! BUT, it was a lesson in how we become so reliant on one body part……
“Flossing: You can just forget it.”
Oh, I usually do, Ian. I usually do.
Speaking of flossing, at the drug store you can buy Oral-B Glide “floss picks” and probably other gadgets to hold the floss to allow you to do at least some flossing with just one hand.
But who knows what you will come up with. Somehow, not talking of flossing here, I see you with a band of velcro around your forehead and with a pecking extension attached to your nose.
Those are OK, until one gets stuck in a problem tooth… minor point.