400 yards of hedging....arthritic hands.

happymags

I am feeling guilty as I have always cut all the hedges with secateurs/shears but am finding that every time the shears cut my wrists complain. The pain lasts several days after I've done the job, which takes me a long time in itself to do...and some is too high for me to reach. My g.p. has said not to use my hands but craft is my favourite hobby, so whilst and when I can I do it.

Hubby said this morning that he was thinking of buying a hedge trimmer at £400. He won't do the job by hand. this is money we can ill afford so I don't know what to do. An arthritis flare has been avoided for two years and am permanently on steroids...two years ago when I had a flare I couldn't even turn the key in the ignition.

if I continue to cut hedges, am I doing any lasting damage, or not?? After last flare I was on 40mg steroids per day...as could hardly walk/move hands due to 'sausage fingers'. However, £400 is a lot for us...!! thought about someone coming in to cut hedges, but that wouldn't be cheap as none is tractor accessible. Just feeling guilty?? What would you do??

stickywicket

Briefly – don’t feel guilty. Guilt is a useless emotion. Do what you have to do.

Less briefly, I don’t know if you’re doing permanent damage or not but you’re certainly not doing your wrists any good with such heavy, awkward work. Keeping things moving is essential but constantly straining joints is not. What will do damage, one way or another, is having high doses of steroids as a regular thing. It really is not worth it.

We have to give some things up with arthritis in order to preserve our joints and strength for the more important things in life. However much you may love your hedges, and even hedge-cutting, I’m sure, in the grand order of things, it’s not an essential. I have given up tons of stuff in my many arthritic years and always tried to ensure I took up something else to replace what was lost.

Your GP has advised you not to do it and your husband is happy to spend money on a trimmer though they, too are heavy. And dangerous. (The surgeon who put my first TKR in later sliced the palm of his hand with a hedge trimmer.) Have you ‘had the chat’ about why (a)your husband won’t do it but (b)is willing to buy a trimmer? Is he himself not up to the job? (Men are usually reluctant to admit to physical weaknesses.) Would he do it with a trimmer? Does he not like the hedges in the first place?

Something has to give here. Don’t let it be your health or your marriage. Perhaps someone locally would be willing to do it with the right equipment ie the trimmer. £400 is a lot of money but savings can usually be made if we are adaptable.

Personally, I’d find out exactly what my husband thought and felt about the hedges and go forward from there on the basis that you should no longer be doing it. If he’s happy to do it then you could do ‘one of his jobs’ in return, maybe a relatively easy one which he dislikes.

KazandNoo

Buy the hedge trimmer and save your joints for other activities that are less likely to cause great pain/flare.👍

Crookesey

Our son is a professional gardener at a stately home, and has private clients. He has all the gear, is 6’x4” tall and is as fit of a butcher’s dog, so it’s pay back time, all the trees, bushes and hedges are down to him, we can manage the rest. 😄

Lilymary

Crikey, even when I was younger and fitter I wouldn't dream of tackling a hedge that size with hand held shears! There's really no shame in admitting defeat when you have arthritis and it puts you in pain for days!

I agree, let your husband buy his hedge trimmer, and allow him to do the hedge. Boys need their toys!! He'll probably even enjoy it. It's amazing how much vacuuming my husband does once I let him go out and choose his own vacuum cleaner. He really enjoys the new window vac to clear condensation from the windows. Funny man. He can also be persuaded to trim the hedge - I find our hedge trimmer hard to use as it's so heavy, so I let him "do the manly bit" with the Big Dangerous Hedge Trimmer. It'a bloke thing.

If money really is tight, you can almost certainly get a good second hand one on line. But they are worth their weight in gold.

But I agree with the others, if it hurts, don't do it. It's just not worth it. Find something less painful to fill your time instead.

Saltmarsh

I appreciate your dilemma, Happymags. How about getting a couple of estimates for a professional trim, as a possible compromise, to help you make a decision?

happymags

Thank you for all your comments...my husband is 73 and doesn't particularly like hard work, which is why I have always done the hedges...once with only a pair of secateurs!!! I think I will leave it up to him and 'opt out', of any decision, however frustrating I may find it. I have already opted out of cutting the very steep bank the other side of one of the hedges as it goes down to a busy main road....I always did that with shears and secateurs too, and that land doesn't belong to us....just feel it reflects on us!!

N1gel

If you've been doing the hedges by hand until now, why not compromise and get a small battery powered hedge trimmer.

I used to loathe doing my hedge by hand until I spent about £120 on a reputable make of hand held trimmer (the name sounds like bush) five years later it's still going strong; I'm not however!

julespa

Hi - I am a fellow sufferer. I work for a garden machinery company.

Edited for advertising - you can message this person for further details if needed.

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Brynmor / Community Administrator

Airwave!

I have similar issues, I find that leaving the hedges to grow and then using a small 10” extending chainsaw Works well, I chop it back every 12-15 months. Paying someone to do it might be cheaper than buying tools and doing it yourself? Or find a local ‘Greengym’ who could help?

its a grin, honest!