A New Challenge

This week, I finally gave in to the pain I was experiencing in my left wrist.  It got so painful that I thought it might be broken. I've been ignoring the pain thinking it would go away and have been wearing a wrist brace at nights and some during the day to try to see if I could make it go away, but finally had to give in.  My husband threatened to take my stitching away if I didn't get it looked at.

The last thing I want to hear from a doctor is, "You have to cut down on stitching."  But really I didn't expect to hear what I heard at all.  I have what is commonly referred to as Mommy's thumb.  Now keep in mind, I'm not a mommy, but a Mimi, totally skipped the Mommy title - the boys call me mom, now, but always called me Miss Marsha when they were little, so I have changed the common name of this condition to Mimi's thumb.  It's real name is deQuervain's Tenosynovitis and is basically a form of tendinitis that has a fancy name all to itself.  So it really needed a common name.  It is specific to the two tendons that operate the thumb in connection with the wrist.  Lovely.  It started when my grandson started walking and I would bend down and pick him up under his arms cradled between my thumbs and index fingers. Evidently, mom's can get this from picking up a child 100 or so times a day.  I only do that twice a week, and not 100 times, so I asked if I just needed more strengthening exercises since I have developed this from limited picking up action, and the doctor just laughed and said, if you think this is bad, it would be 10 times worse if you picked him up everyday.  YIKES!  So anyway, after a painful shot of cortisone in each tendon yesterday, and a day in this contraption:

I've determined that my stitching may have to slow down.  I've been contemplanting how to bling this out without taking away the vent holes which are a must have.  Perhaps a little beaded edging would be appropriate.  Hmmmm.

My wrist isn't much better yet, but they did say it would take a couple of days.  I have totally been good about not using it especially out of the splint.  Only because I do NOT want to ever have to go through that injection again.  It gives new meaning to the word painful.  This is a repetitive motion injury, so anything that requires a repetitive motion will require many breaks to rest if it is something I must do.  Darn, it!  Well, I must stitch.  I will just have to do it with one hand.  Since I'm right handed mostly, it won't be as bad as it could be, but I do stitch with both hands, so it's a definite slow-down devise!  My stands will get lots of use.  I can do no pinching in this contraption, so I may have to teach hubbie how to thread a needle.  I will just have to ensure I don't let this happen to my right hand.  Perhaps I need to find an alternative to my keyboard at work so I won't wear myself out typing.

Well, I did clean out my stitching room and closet and found a bunch of stuff I need to either finish or take to the finisher/framer and could perhaps focus on that for the next four weeks.  I must find fabric, trims and beads and pull out the Bernina to do what I can and take a couple of pieces in that I'm not brave enough to try on my own.  Probably need to take the machine to the shop for a tune up anyway.  I guess there is more than one way to stay connected to my needlepoint through this ordeal.  And a trip to High Fashion doesn't sound bad at all.  I could lunch and Van Loc and make a real journey out of it!  I love living in Houston!

Hope everyone has a happy stitching weekend!