club Wasabi  − 15 December, 2004

In July 2002, my doctor said there was some kind of injury, probably peripheral nerve. From yanking the leaves off of cob corn! Or maybe from a fall on rollerblades? Or perhaps it was repetitive stress injury from playing a musical instrument. No one knew why, during a quiz on the respiratory system, my right hand couldn't grip my pen. He put my right arm in a wrist brace.

I couldn't write, and had to learn to write with my left hand. I cried in frustration the first time I tried it. The crayon went crazily over the sheet of paper. How was I supposed to take notes during lectures? I thought angrily. I also had to be careful when I went to restaurants, because some food cannot be eaten with one utensil. Like steak, if my friend Ains hadn't been there to cut it for me. Once, Jaja, my dormmate, had to tie my hair back for my class in anatomy, or my hair would end up in formalin. Yuck! Four months before Clerkship, I was still wearing the wrist brace, and I needed pain meds, ibuprofen patch and oral meds. 

My dorm friends saved my sanity. Even though I wasn't into clubbing, they asked me to join them. I bet they thought I'd turn them down, but I was so down at the time, I just had to go.. Thanks, girls, for this memorable party!

* with some sessions of physical therapy, the pain subsided, and I was able to regain function in my right hand, just in time for Clerkship!