Mommy By The Book » whining

It’s all in the wrist

Rachel — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 17:51:08 +0000

A few months ago I discovered a new workout program that I loved. It was challenging, it was interesting, I could do it at home, and I was seeing results! At last! An exercise routine I loved! Only there was one problem: after a couple of months I started noticing this weird pain in my wrist and hand. The exercises are kind of a bootcamp-style routine, so I was regularly doing push-ups and other weight-bearing exercises on my hands.

I kind of worked through the pain for a bit, thinking I had just tweaked my wrist and that it would heal in a few days. It wasn’t getting better, so I figured I should rest my hand and wrist for a while and start back up in a week or two. Right around that same time, we were running around the house with the toddler, just being silly, and I happened to accidentally run right into my husband with my right hand extended, jamming my wrist. Oh, it was excruciating! The whole next day every single little movement hurt. Typing, writing, eating, driving, dressing, lifting…I couldn’t do any of it. Even without use, the whole area would throb with pain. Being right-handed, this seriously got in the way of things.

I started icing my wrist, hoping that this weird injury would go away. Luckily the pain subsided a bit, but daily activities continued to hurt. I couldn’t put ANY weight on that hand unless I made a fist in order to keep my wrist straight. Little things like chopping vegetables or doing my hair were unpleasant to say the least. (So I just don’t do them! Ha!)

I came to the conclusion that after 10 years of working on the computer I had finally developed Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Not the end of the world, obviously; there are much worse ailments. But a nuisance. I promised my family that if things didn’t start to feel better by April that I would see a doctor. Naturally, my over-active imagination began to spiral out of control in the following weeks. What if the pain becomes so bad I can’t use my right hand ever again? What if it is arthritis that is slowly spreading through my body, leaving me in a wheelchair by the time I’m 50? What if this is a beginning sign of MS? What if it’s bone cancer? What if…what if….?

Sure enough, over 6 weeks went by and no improvement was made, so I visited a hand and arm specialist. Within a minute of describing my pain and feeling the joints he knew what it was.

“Does this hurt right here?”, he asked, pressing his thumb firmly on the top and center part of my wrist and sending shooting pains through my hand and arm and causing me to momentarily go a bit cross-eyed.

The problem, he said, is not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, but a ganglion cyst growing within the joint and putting pressure on the nerves. Nothing dangerous and potentially fixable, but a bit inconvenient.

(FYI- don’t do a Google Image search for ganglion cysts if you are squeamish. Hoo boy! You’re welcome.)

Ganglion cysts are not necessarily uncommon and can present in a variety of ways. You can’t really see mine as mine apparently is smaller and located deeper within the wrist, but those also tend to be more painful.

The doctor injected it with a cortisone shot (ouch!) and told me to give it a month. If it isn’t better in a few weeks, come back for another one. If those don’t work, they can try to aspirate it (drain the fluid) or remove it surgically. However, there is always the risk of the cyst returning later on.

One other method of removal that I read about online is to whack it as hard as you can with a heavy book, rupturing the lining and therefore getting rid of it (until it grows back…). Um, hello? NO.

I also learned that I have what are called “lax joints”, and that my wrists and fingers are hypermobile, or in other words, they have an extended range of motion. The doctor was quite rushed (I waited for an hour in the waiting room) so I wasn’t able to ask him much about it, but he mentioned that things like push-ups are bad for a person with joints like I have. I did some research online and learned about a syndrome called Joint Hypermobility Syndrome that has a crazy array of symptoms, some of them can be very serious (spontaneous rupture of the heart or lungs, anyone?), but it seems like there could be varying degrees of the severity of the symptoms. Anyhoo, if I do indeed have this syndrome, it would explain a LOT over the years. Ever since I was a kid I have seen doctors for ankle, knee, hip, back, fatigue and headache problems and never received any answers. I’ve always felt like I had an “old” body and just dealt with the pain, and often ascribed it to the fact that I danced competitively and was always very active. I’ll have to dive into it all a little more and maybe consult with the doctor again, but it’s almost like a weight off my shoulders to know why. There isn’t much that can be done about it all, but it’s kind of nice to know it isn’t all in my head or that I’m just a big baby, you know?

So. There you have it, whether you wanted to know or not. I’m grateful to have a generally healthy and functional body, and even though this wrist thing isn’t exactly a party, I still consider myself lucky. In the meantime, I have this super-cool accessory to wear:

I have to wear it at night to keep my wrist from being slept-on funny, which kills, and during the day as much as needed to manage pain. You don’t have to tell me, I know it’s way hot. Try not to be jealous

P.S. This is a wretched picture of me that I took a few days ago while chatting with a friend to show her what was up. I feel the need to explain that I had to be at work extra-early that day, hence the hat and bloodshot eyes. But really, let’s face it, it’s not like I really get much fancier for work on days I have more rest.

P.P.S. After sending this pic my friend said of my office ,”It looks like you’re in a closet.” Yes, yes it does.

Imagine tiny, melancholy violins playing in the background as you read this post

Rachel — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 23:46:21 +0000

Have you missed me? I haven’t blogged for a whole week. Trust me, I thought about this blog and writing and all that jazz, but I just couldn’t bring myself to write anything. Why? Well, any post I’d currently write would just sound like one big long whhhiiiiinnneeee.

For instance, as I mentioned before one of our cars broke down on Christmas Eve. Turns out it was the transmission which is like, the worst news ever because even if you don’t know anything about cars (such as myself), you know that a transmission will cost you an arm and a leg or perhaps your firstborn. Fortunately they let us keep our limbs and our child, but they demanded $2,200 instead. And, uh, we do not have $2,200 to shell out, not even close. So there’s that. And it took them 3 weeks to fix the car, only for us to drive it home and hear a strange clinking sound as we drove, so today the husband had to trek back downtown 30 minutes away to have it looked at again. I have not heard the verdict on the car because we are attempting to watch our pennies (see above: $2,200 transmission) and the husband is already over on his minutes for the month and almost at his text limit, so we go most of the day without any communication save for the occasional email. It’s quite odd.

Had enough whining? No? Good, I have more! So, the husband started school again recently, his last full semester (wahoo!) and it is a killer. The man is stressed out of his mind. He has school every morning, Monday through Friday. I work, every morning, Monday through Friday. This poses a problem since we have a darling dependent. In the past we have employed kind and generous neighbors with children of the same age to watch her one or two days a week, but I can’t in good conscience impose on anyone 5 days a week. I cannot tell you how much I LOATHE begging people to watch our child, I feel so guilty. We have tried to recruit two (2) paid babysitters to help us out, and both have fallen through. I am at a loss. I have looked into daycares, but hesitate due to two factors: 1) We have no money (see above: $2,200 transmission and start of new college semester); and 2) our once-independent child has hit an exceedingly clingy stage, and it pains me to drop her off in a sea of children while she is crying. Still not quite sure what to do about the whole childcare thing. Ideas?

And can I just say January sucks big time? Fer reals, I cannot wait for this blah month to end. We all have cabin fever and are desperately longing for the warm summer days. We’ve all been sick thanks to the glorious cold and flu season that dominates this time of year and we’ve all turned into cranky-pants because we’re cooped up in a snow-covered house. Boo.

All this complaining is exhausting, I’d better wrap this up. If anyone is still reading this obnoxious and pathetic little post, my sincere apologies for the negativity. The good news is that when you’re at the bottom, things can only go up, right?

Oh hey, I do have a tiny tidbit of good news that is keeping me going. Those few extra pounds I gained over Christmas are gone, hooray! I feel much better now that I’m not double-fisting Christmas cookies and fudge (even though it was soooo tasty…). I’ve also found some great workouts to do at home and my muscles are good and sore (but not too sore), a feeling I actually rather enjoy because it means I did something. Hopefully I can keep this up and be all toned up when summer rolls around

Have a good weekend everyone, next time I hope to write a post full of butterflies and sunshine and rainbows!

One of those days

Rachel — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:21:05 +0000

Here I was, looking forward to the weekend with the naive hope that it would offer some relief from the stress of the workweek. Sadly, my hopes have been dashed. Here is how the last 24 hours have gone:

- The kid wakes up over and over in the night for unspecified reasons. When I demanded an answer at 3:00 AM as to why she insisted on waking me up again all I got was an “eh?” in response. I think she’s faking that she doesn’t understand the question.

- The kid decides after not sleeping all night that waking up for the day at 6:15 AM is a great idea.

- Husband leaves for work at 7:45 AM, leaving a tired and very grumpy mama with a teething and also grumpy toddler. Brewing a recipe for disaster commences.

- As I am attemtping to make myself decent, I realize the house is eerily quiet. No noise from the kid in the next room. I go to inspect and discover her emptying my purse and being particularly taken with the bright red lipstick in there. In order to investigate this exciting new product further, the kid decides to taste it, smear it on her jammies, and rub it on the carpet. Awesome.

- The kid spends the rest of the morning ignoring my attempts to distract her with fun items (“Look, honey, a plastic spoon!”) and fakes that she doesn’t understand the word “no”. I know she is faking because the entire time she is doing something naughty she says “no” repeatedly. Multiple time-outs ensue.

- The kid decides that the mild whining and grunting over the last couple of hours has not been sufficient and decides to screech incessantly at the top of her lungs, over NOTHING.

- Oh, did I mention that through all of this mama has PMS= the overwhelming feeling that I am completely unable to cope with life in general? I didn’t mention that? Silly me, since that has made everything exponentially worse.

- 1:00 PM. I’ve had it. The countdown to when daddy gets home has begun. Thankfully, the kid is taking a nap.

The bright beacon of hope shining through all of this today has been the knowledge that tonight I get to go to the SYTYCD live concert. YEAH! If I can just keep that in my sights, I think I’ll make it through the next five hours…