UGH.

This is going to be an entry about my left hand. Recall last entry when I said that my thumb felt less sprained and that was good. Well, that turned out to be a false alarm. Oops. Let's talk a little bit about the history of my left hand.

In my earliest recollection, I threw out my wrist one summer afternoon when playing tennis with Kieran and Karin. Karin taught me how to properly wrap my wrist with an Ace bandage which turned out to be a very useful skill. My mom seems to recall some point at which I hurt my wrist again while rock climbing in Darwin, Australia. I do not recall this specific incident, however, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Senior year of college I had some sort of carpel tunnel situation and had to get an EMG where my doctor asked me where I went to school and then proceeded to inform me that CMC was not as highly rated as Pomona. I got angry and asked him where he went to school, then informed him that Yale was not as highly rated as Harvard. Ironic, how that turned out. However, I can't remember if that was my left hand or right hand so that might not be pertinant.

Then, first year of grad school, I was building my IKEA desk on very limited sleep. I accidentally turned the top board around and when I went to pull it off, I hurt my wrist Very Badly. I instantly went into denial and ended up tearing most of the deep tissue in my wrist. I wore a brace for a year and it sucked.

Then, last Thursday, I did something. Something, but I don't know what. I've been telling people I dropped an exhibit model and then tried to catch it, bending back my thumb. This did happen, but I don't remember it hurting. Anyway, the next day it felt like I'd gotten stung by a bee, or gotten a shot in my thumb. Identifying this as problematic, I wrapped my wrist using the aforementioned skill I learned. Things got better, and then they got worse. Now my thumb pops when I rotate it, hurts Very Much and I have lots of funny nerve things happening in my first three fingers, the most annoying of which is a lot of itchiness underneath the skin.

I'm sure that was all very interesting but the basic point I'm trying to convey is that hurting your hand sucks a lot. Colleen's mom looked at it today and suggested I get an MRI. That sounds frightening but I am willing to do it. Because I am realizing lately how, even though I'm right-handed, I use my left hand a lot, especially for things like driving, making jewelry, playing guitar, mini-golfing...you get the idea. Things I do all the time.

I have no solution for this problem except going to the doctor, like a logical person. This would be easy except I don't have time to go before I leave and I can't go at Stanford until I get back from Houston. I also don't have a solution for this problem. Let me know if you do.

In the meanwhile, I'm going to go get reacquainted with my old wrist brace. UGH.