Reason for Prolonged Silence Revealed

 

Sadly, the reason I haven’t been writing is not because I’ve been so busy traveling to exotic locations and going out continuously (although some of that has happened). Rather, it is a question of inattention and consequent injury. The somewhat tedious story is that I was planning to knit a long dress from a fine cotton yarn. Cotton is very inelastic, so it seemed important to learn a new technique for throwing the yarn that would cause less stress on my arms and/or shoulders. The recommended technique is that practiced in Peru, where the yarn passes around the back of the neck and allows a minimum of hand movement. I was so smitten with this technique, because apart from anything else, it looks really cool.

 

I alternated (diligently!) with my traditional hold for two days’ worth of work, ending on a Saturday. By Sunday morning, my hands were in agony and completely unworkable. After tests and therapy, the general (but not undisputed) conclusion was tennis elbow in both arms. Whether or not it was those specific tendons is not unanimous, but there is unanimity that tendinitis it is, and complete rest was/is required.

 

Good luck with that. Chopping onions? The first few weeks, nearly impossible. But it’s very hard to create a menu with any flavor that requires no knife work whatsoever. Carrying groceries? Similarly tough, although the kids were helpful with that the first few weeks. I pursued Tecar treatment for several weeks, and have been icing and popping ibuprofen (which I have now stopped because of concerns for long-term nsaid use). The only recourse now is rest, attention to pain levels, and generally just waiting. Bleah.

 

Hence my lack of keyboard use. I will be trying to catch up with the blog; “rest” does not mean “never doing anything fun”, so of course I want to share!

 

Love,

 

Alexandra