So lately, I’ve had two favorite things to do: blogging and knitting. But because that wasn’t enough, I went and decided to better myself … by taking a web design class at night. Perhaps I was tempting the carpal tunnel gods.
I purled and clicked and hunched with great delight. And then my wrists said:
“You think you can work on a computer eight hours a day, take a three hour computer-intensive class at night, and knit the rest of the time? You’re a damn idiot.”
I think I’ve developed carpal tunnel syndrome.
I’ve gone to the chiropractor, a massage therapist, and got the wrist brace suggested by my primary care doctor. Turns out knitting isn’t nearly as fun while you’re in pain.
I stopped knitting for a whole week and I’m pretty sure I died from boredom and am writing this post from the afterlife. Thankfully, my husband did not lose patience despite my persistent whining.
And here I thought I was a total ergonomic nerd! I taught myself to knit both continental and with loose tension because I thought it would help prevent carpal tunnel. If that wasn’t enough irony, I’d also been thinking about buying a new book on ergonomic knitting, Knitting Comfortably — which I heard of from Marly Bird’s podcast — but put it off. And then the numbness and pain set in.
The really scary part to me is that once I started wearing a wrist brace at work, all of my co-workers starting stopping by my desk to announce that their wrists hurt too. That they have a brace. That their whole arm went numb even when they weren’t at a computer. That they’d gone to the doctor and had surgeries. Seriously.
Surely the Internet can heal me, though. Even if my wrists hurt too much to research it. So, I ask you, how do I overcome my body trying to crush all of my hopes and dreams? What do you do to get your body to cooperate?
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