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[lydy]

They hurt. All day, now. And much more when I'm asleep, and reach to adjust the covers and bend them just wrong. I make piteous, barking noises when that happens.

It probably is the crochet. I've been watching my hands when I crochet, and while the hand position is very different between the right and left hand, both wrists twitch in time together as I move the yarn to catch it about the hook, and then pull it through the work, then catch the yarn again. That movement is pretty symmetrical.

I have a doctor's appointment on Monday. Sigh. I don't know what I'm going to do if she tells me to stop crocheting. That would make me very, very unhappy.

Comments

[lydy.livejournal.com]

Heat definitely helps. Feels wonderful. I don't have access to muscle relaxants. I'm using aspirin and ibuprofen in hopes that if there's swelling, they will help with that.

I'm trying to pace myself a bit, too. That may or may not be helping, hard to say. Exercises, huh. Bleah. Ok, then/.

[graydon saunders (from livejournal.com)]

Handsprings make a great nervous tick/stress reducer.

Everything's capability tends to be set by the amount of exercise you get; bodies don't build more muscle than you're using. It works better to do something general and a little heavier -- why they tell you to walk briskly, instead of just walk -- because fiddly kinds of handwork like typing[1] or fiber crafts don't seem to trigger the whole "hey, build more muscle here, and make the tendons denser while you're at" feedback.

Aspirin and ibuprofen don't get along, so far as I know; people on low-dose aspirin to reduce their heart disease/stroke risk get told not to use ibuprofen.

It looks like methocarbamol (the muscle relaxant I was thinking of) is prescription-only in Minnesota, which is a shame, but possibly something to ask your doctor about? It's good for "I really overdid that" kinds of muscle pain.

[1] electronic keyboard typing; old style mechanical typewriters sure did.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

There appear to be roughly an infinite number of devices to help with grip strength and one can apparently spend any amount of money on them. Some of them have individual finger springs, some are just grip handles with a spring. Any clue what might be best?

Oh, I am not combining the aspirin and ibuprofen. I am using one or the other, four or more hours apart. If I'm drinking alcohol, I use the aspirin, otherwise I use the ibuprofen.

[graydon saunders (from livejournal.com)]

Hereabouts, the recommended ibuprofen/aspirin spacing -- they're antagonists, ibuprofen will keep aspirin from working -- is more like eight hours than four.

As far as hand exercisers, there's a brand called Gripmaster I like; they come in a range from 5lbs per finger to 11 lbs per finger. They're not (at least not at my local co-op :) particularly expensive. (You only need one, one doesn't have to exercise both hands at the same time.)

Handles-on-a-spring work fine, but they squeak, sometimes in ways that cause irresistible curiosity in felines.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

There is something that doesn't cause irresistible curiosity in felines?