New levels of functional ability

palo

Well my functional level is now about 2-3 hours before the arthritis pain in my hands makes it too hard to do anything. It used to be about 5 hours fairly reliably and that was due to the myasthenia gravis.

It is proving to be a hard adjustment to make and I have felt close to despair at times. How does one earn a living with such a limited ability? As well as learning to accept being in daily pain and dealing with it without getting too despondent?

Well I feel I am making headway, the pain levels are currently manageable and I have worked out a long term strategy to deal with the condition worsening, it seems pretty quickly currently. There are bound to be ebbs and lulls.

I have reviewed my working arrangement and am looking at new products that are easier to make and sell with better margins so I may still be able to pay the bills. Of course whether they sell or not remains to be seen but I am determined to be optimistic. Where there's life there's hope, and never say die, and if at first you don't succeed try try again and all that.

This acceptance thing never gets old does it...

Slosh

I have to wear a wrist splint on my right hand(I'm right handed) as otherwise it's only about an hour before my fingers and wrist get too painful. I don't find it too much of a nuisance, only thing I tend to find tricky is typing. I sometimes also need a wrap around my left wrist too, and at night if they're bad I have some stretchy ones to wear.
I have also just found a great site called KUVRS who make colourful and patterned lycra covers.

I tried a variety of splints after being given my first by a physio and just buy a new one every so often.

Once you adjust it makes a huge difference so it might be worth trying, although my pain is due to my Chronic Pain Syndrome.

palo

I finally saw the hand physiotherapist yesterday and she gave me wrist and thumb supports for both hands and compression gloves, and well as a paraffin wax bath and lots of exercises.

Felt a lot better after seeing her, felt as though I was finally getting some support from a medical professional, instead of being told to get on with it!!

I am booked in to see her again and let her know how I get on. I tried all the exercises she gave me and today my hands do feel more flexible and easier to use, although they were very painful yesterday after the exercises!

So it is looking better. I did get compression gloves in the winter - I had to and they do help.

Slosh

Hope they help.

stickywicket

palo wrote:

This acceptance thing never gets old does it...

Definitely not, palo, but you seem to be dealing with it all in a very sensible way which certainly deserves success.