Adventures with Cumulative Trauma Disorders

I finally gave in and saw a doctor about my horrible wrists. The verdict: thumb tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and possible arthritis in the finger joints. Whee! This means the doctor pulled me off of typing duty until I’ve seen a neurosurgeon, and I get to navigate the byzantine byways of our company’s medical leave and accommodation policies.

This should be fun.

I loves me nice, comforting ACE bandages, but they're no longer enough.
I loves me nice, comforting ACE bandages, but they’re no longer enough.

We’re not sure yet if I’m going to need surgery. I’m hoping to get away with physical therapy. At home, I can use Dragon, which means you may see some really fascinating typos while I train it on all our weird words. The nice gentleman at Nuance I chatted with assured me it should learn fairly quickly.

At least the blogs won’t suffer. And special happy bonus: I should be able to reply to email more consistently. Well, once the software’s trained, anyway.

I figure I’ll blog this wrist-fixing experience for the morbidly curious. The more squeamish of you may want to look away. It could get graphic. Some of you might actually enjoy that. If I can get the doc babbling, we’ll get some of the medical science behind it. Yay, more new words to teach Dragon!

In other news, my primary care physician is now monitoring the SAD I haz, so no worries on that front, either. Once we have the timing and dosage of Wellbutrin adjusted properly, it should be smooth sailing. I can tell you this stuff has already worked miracles. Despite some troubles, it’s been a huge help in keeping me out o’ the pit. Love it.

Modern medicine is teh awesome.

***I dictated this post with Dragon Premium Edition. It’s remarkably accurate for being brand-new. We’ll see how it does with scientific terminology, but I think it’ll do very well. I just taught it lolz and teh. That was fun.***

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Adventures with Cumulative Trauma Disorders
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5 thoughts on “Adventures with Cumulative Trauma Disorders

  1. 1

    AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!!

    This does not bode well for Dana the Author (or Dana the call center worker, for that matter). I know all too well, from recent and ongoing experience, what it’s like to be sidelined by illness. Hugs and Luck to you.

  2. 2

    Sorry to learn this, but I’m glad that at least you are going to be able to do something about it. I wish you a speedy recovery.

    I’m also glad that modern technology will allow you to continue blogging.

  3. 3

    Dana, there is only one chiropractor in the world I trust (and I think my guys have tried most of them). Depending how advanced your condition, Dr Gina Wolf in Spokane can be a miracle worker. Having said that, she deals in facts and physiology, unlike most chiropractors.

    I know Spokane is a long way, but it might be worth a phone call to discuss. You can find her info online.

    +1 on the Wellbutrin…

  4. 4

    Dang, seems like the world is out to get you lately. I’ve had carpal tunnel for a couple of decades now but never all that serious so I feel very fortunate.

    If you haven’t already, be sure to let your union steward know about the medical situation. That could be the kind of thing management will try to take advantage of.

  5. rq
    5

    Aaaaaahhhh…. I hope Dragon cooperates superly duperly well, but most of all – I hope your hands can be salvaged!!! *hugs* and may all go well in this quest for more-healthy hands and wrists. And yes, I will be following all medical details avidly. The perks of being an internet observer. ;)

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