Darla G. Denton | Author Platform Coach

O k, If I’m being honest then there are many pitfalls of being a writer right along with many benefits 🙂 It’s a double edged sword at times.

However, there is one pitfall that has taken me by surprise.

If you are one of my regulars you would know that I’ve been absent for over a week.

Thank you to all of my caring followers who have sent me “Are you Dead??” emails lol.

No I’m not dead.

Yes, it was a busy week in regards to family… but that’s not what has kept me off any and all social media, my website/blog, the computer and even my writing (yes,even that!).

I woke up one day and my right hand started to ache. Big whoop right?

I took a shower to loosen it up and instead it got worse.

Over the course of the day it literally started turning into a claw. My husband and kids joked with me about my “claw like” hand but in reality it was actually pretty painful.

If I held my hand out or even just laid it down on a flat surface you could see the nerves in my hand making almost all my fingers twitch back and forth….Nonstop.

I wasn’t too worried. Before getting married I was a CNA (Certified Nurses Assistant) working my way to an RN so I’m not completely dumb in regards to my body. I just figured I had slept on it wrong or even pinched a nerve in my shoulder.

I went to bed that night after a great hand massage (thanks to the husband) and woke up the next morning to both hands being claws…. both. Yup.

Not only was it like having a rubber band wrapped around my whole palm and fingers (when I opened my hands they seemed to snap back to the claw position) but both hands were now very week and ,well, holding small things like pens looked hilarious and was extremely frustrating.

Long story short… I have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Dun Dun Dunnnnnn……

You all know I’m a “link hoarder” and have been working on creating pages on my website to house these links. Well, it turns out spending hours upon hours performing that repetitive motion of categorizing and entering them in, along with my regular computer use is a recipe for disaster. Especially since I’m not use to working on a keyboard all day long. Who know!

So now I’m to wear wrist splints to help immobilize the area until the swelling goes down and I’m to refrain from using my hands to type on the keyboard and even playing on my smartphone… for a month.

lol Yeah right Dr!  I don’t think that’s going to happen. As you can see, I’m already breaking that rule but I was good for a week, I promise!

My hand is still numb but thankfully the pain is pretty much gone. The constant twitching has calmed down too (Thank God!).

I’m no fool. I know Carpel Tunnel can get pretty serious, affecting way more then one realizes in our daily lives. Therefore, I do plan on refraining from using my computer and phone…. as much as possible.

I’m sure there are many of you who suffer with this so here are some simple hand exercises to help prevent or alleviate the symptoms:

 

I have found that cold packs work wonders!

So if you see me on twitter, facebook, commenting on your blogs, or working on my website, yell at me. I’ll probably need the tough love and intervention.

My husband has already taken my phone from me.

Apparently I treat my phone like my baby (according to my husband) because I felt compelled to check on it like a worried mother over and over until I drove him nuts.  By the time evening rolled around he let me have it back but only while I was sitting next to him. Lol That way I would know if there was something to respond to or check.

So basically all I was allowed to do was hold it. Which, oddly enough, made me feel better. :-/ Hmm… maybe I am slightly addicted to the thing!

Oh BTW: Do you remember the post I did titled “Make It Stop” ? The article about my horrific dental experience? Well, it turns out that dentist cracked my tooth while she was “repairing” the cavity. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thankfully she is no longer there and the dentist that has taken her place is actually pretty amazing. Unfortunately, he will have to go back in and not only repair the crack but drill out everything she put in there first.

Yeah, I’m sure you can imagine just how much I’m looking forward to that experience…