Hand Update

For those of you who haven't heard, I've been having problems with my hand since May.  I woke up one day and it hurt and it hasn't stopped since.  I was worried that it might be carpal tunnel since a friend of mine just had surgery for it and said that it sounded pretty similar to what was wrong with her.  After procrastinating for months, I finally made an appointment with my friend's doctor.  They are hand specialists.  Since I never go to the doctor, I didn't want to mess around and waste money by going to a general practitioner and then have them send me to a specialist.  I was glad when the doctor told me that I didn't have carpal tunnel but he told me I have something called "de quervains".  Basically this means that the tendon that runs from the thumb to the wrist is inflamed.  You get it from a lot of repetitive movements such as lifting things, like children or stacks of dishes, at odd angles.  This condition is common in new mothers,  mail carriers, and librarians.  When I told Chris this, he promptly declared that it was from reading too much!   Silly boy!  I was instructed to wear a massive brace, which restricts movement of my wrist and thumb, for a month.  The good news is that I don't have to wear the thing all the time, pretty much only at work.  So far it's been a little more than a week and I've noticed little change in my hand.  It still hurts the worst in the morning when I wake up, and periodically throughout the day.  It's really hard to function with the thing on but I'm getting used to typing and using a mouse.  Since I don't know how exactly to take it easy at work, I still pretty much do most of the same activities that I usually do, such as lifting heavy stacks of books and sometimes moving fixtures.  Even with a brace, I can sometimes feel a little pain in my hand at times.  My hand gets really hot with it on all day and the first few days I had a mosquito bite on my wrist underneath my brace, which was really annoying.  If my hand still hurts after 3 weeks of moderate use of the brace, then I plan on wearing it all the time and taking it a bit easier at work for the last week before my appointment.  At this time they will reevaluate my condition and determine if surgery is necessary.  Scary!  Below is a picture of the atrocity.