{"id":9014,"date":"2017-07-24T10:42:57","date_gmt":"2017-07-24T00:42:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/?p=9014"},"modified":"2017-10-24T16:45:46","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T05:45:46","slug":"wrist-pain-scare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/2017\/07\/24\/wrist-pain-scare\/","title":{"rendered":"Wrist pain scare"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the past month, I had a bit of scare. My wrists started to hurt. For me, that sort of thing could be career ending!<\/p>\n

When I realised that it was definitely a thing, and I wasn’t imagining it, I was very scared. So, off to the doctor I went. He diagnosed – and this is a wonderful mouthful – de Quervain’s tenosynovitis. Impressive name, isn’t it?!<\/p>\n

I was actually so relieved that it wasn’t Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. He prescribed some anti-inflammatories, and told me not to do anything that made it worse. Easier said than done, seeing you don’t know that it’s going to make it worse until it is worse…<\/p>\n

He said not to have physiotherapy, because a physiotherapist wouldn’t do much to help, and may make it worse.<\/p>\n

With the use of the anti-inflammatories it has definitely been improving. I’ve been careful to stop stitching if it starts hurting. I’ve been using my embroidery hoop on a stand<\/a> (I normally do anyway!) and alternating between having my dominant (left hand) and my non-dominant hand on top.<\/p>\n

The Gymnast broke another finger about six weeks ago, and was under the care of a hand surgeon and a hand therapist (physiotherapist specialising in hands and wrists). When she was there, getting the all clear last week, I had a chat with the hand therapist about what I do.<\/p>\n

I realise that for me, good hand and wrist health is absolutely imperative if I want to have a long and enjoyable career in embroidery. I explained what I do, and why I was wondering if they could help me – to see what I do when I embroider, and show me what I can do better in terms of movement. She assured me that they would be able to assist me.<\/p>\n

So this morning, I went to see the hand therapist. She agreed with the doctor’s diagnosis of de Quervain’s tenosynovitis. She showed me that some of the shapes I was able to make with my hands were not quite what they should be, and that continuing to use them in that way would mean that I’d be likely to develop arthritis in my thumbs as I got older. She also said that I have quite a lot of hypermobility in some places (which is not a good thing for stability of joints). I suggested this might be one reason why my daughter is such a good gymnast – because she inherited that hypermobility from me.<\/p>\n

We’re thinking long term here – I want to be using my hands well so that I can continue using them, without pain, for a very long time yet!<\/p>\n

She’s given me some exercises to do, which will help strengthen some of the muscles. While getting me to do them, I was thinking how appallingly badly I was at doing them. I could get hardly any of the movement she wanted to me to make at all. Some of the movement was barely perceptible. Conversely, she said I was catching on extremely quickly, whereas other people could take weeks to make the improvement I had already made while with her. She suggested this was another reason why my daughter might be such a good gymnast!<\/p>\n

She then got me to put the needle into my hand and make the same shapes again, that she’d been trying to get me to make before. I couldn’t do it! So we dispensed with that, and I’ll continue to sew as I always have, but regularly do my exercises, and when I’m better at making those shapes without the needle, we’ll try it with the needle. And when I do, it will definitely slow me down as I try to do it with the right hand shapes!<\/p>\n

It’ll be slow progress, but as long as I regularly do my exercises without cheating, I’ll make progress. I officially give you permission to email me, comment here, or comment on my FB page to ask “Have you done your exercises yet today, Yvette?!” I’m investing in a long and enjoyable career, and while it will be hard, it will be totally worth it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the past month, I had a bit of scare. My wrists started to hurt. For me, that sort of thing could be career ending!<\/p>\n

When I realised that it was definitely a thing, and I wasn’t imagining it, I was very scared. So, off to the doctor I went. He diagnosed – and this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,12,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embroidery-musings","category-left-handed-embroidery","category-white-threads","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9014"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9017,"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9014\/revisions\/9017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vettycreations.com.au\/white-threads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}