surgery, recovery, and life (or carpal tunnel, part 1)

My blog is doomed.  You know how I know?  I have been not working for almost a month now, and I still can't find time in my nothingness to write.  Sure, there is a bit of needing inspiration, but mostly, its lacking in motivation.  And if I'm not motivated to write when I am desperately bored, how in the world will I find motivation when I am caught up in the throes of summer?  Perhaps in my "nothing to do" in the next two weeks, I can find motivation to write.  Its worth hoping, right? 

Oh right.  Maybe not everyone knows about why I haven't been working for almost a month.  Since I have time, I might as well tell you the long version of the story. 

Last winter, I would wake up at night with a numb hand.  being not entirely coherent, I didn't have much clue as to what was going on, so I associated it with having circulation cut off somehow by how I sleep.  As it became more consistent, I paid a little more attention to it.  I realized that it was always my left hand, and it was specifically my thumb, index, middle, and not as much in my ring finger. 

Armed with a little more definite symptoms, I took to the internet.  And what I found scared me.  carpal tunnel syndrome.  Really?  I thought that happened to old people who worked at computers all their lives.  The more I read, the more i discovered that it has everything to do with using hands, specifically repetitive motions.  The thing that scared me the most about it is how much I use my hands.  As a mechanic, my hands are my primary source of income.  Would I have to find something else to do with my life?

I called my ever faithful personal nurse (aka mom) to tell her about what was going on, ask advice, and see what she thought.  She talked to me about taking anti-inflammatories, and sent me a brace to sleep in.  The first night I slept in the brace, I slept better than I had in weeks, and realized that it was the numbness waking me up.  After a few weeks of sleeping in the brace, it got a lot better, and I didn't have to sleep in the brace.  Numbness and pain came on and off throughout the next year, but it was completely managable with the brace and ibprofen when it did come up. 

Then this last winter, we started on our big winter project in the hangar- our 207 overhaul.  Anyone who knows anything about silver bullet projects like this knows that it involves a lot of sheet metal fabrication, which involves a lot of rivet guns, drills, and die grinders.  Around Thanksgiving, symptoms were back in full force, and home treatments weren't effective anymore. 

(this post is getting rather long, so I will break the story up.)

To be continued...