10/11/2013

Hope

My brandy-new finger brace
The big occupational therapy appointment was on Monday. I have to be honest -- after taking my daughter to occupational therapy for nearly 4 years, I didn't have very high expectations. I'm not hating occupational therapists here -- far from it. A good OT can do wonders with time. But I'm flat out tired of waiting. I want a fix and I want it now.

Patty (my new OT) asked me a few questions about the old finger. I showed her what was going on and she got it. As a matter of fact, she explained to me that she is a knitter and she knows exactly how hard it would be to keep your tension with pain in your tension finger.

She also knew how important it is that whatever support I use be low profile -- after all, the yarn has to slide easily over that tension finger and it can't do that with a bulky brace.

Patty took a bunch of measurements to make sure my hand strength and flexibility were OK and then rummaged through a cabinet to find a red case with sections like a tackle box. Out of it she pulled a little plastic finger ring and we go to finding the right size.

So what does my brandy-new finger brace do? Apparently, after 22 years of crochet, I have begun to hyper-extend my finger. Not only does this tweak the ligaments, but it's also causing all the joint pain. The brace keeps me for hyper-extending and after using it for five days, I can honestly say that the pain has decreased. It's not gone and I'm still loading up on ibuprofen daily, but it's more manageable. Manageable enough, in fact, that I started a new design project today.






Who knows... maybe there is hope.

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