My so called "vacation" − 13 June, 2008
I bought a Father’s Day card for my dad the other day. It almost made me cry. What it said was so true, and so sentimental. In the parking lot, I did begin to cry. But then I realized that the real reason I was crying was because my carpal tunnel is still with me. I am still unable to work. That is scary.
At least I am now seeing occupational therapists. I should have been given the option the first time around. I could be so much further along. Simply using the OT’s advice of not wearing my wrist splints 24 hours a day has already made a difference. This is the advice I have always gotten from OTs. It is not the advice I got from the physician’s assistant. Now that I’m wearing my wrist splints only at night and only when I do something that aggravates my wrists, my wrists feel better. I am not cured, but it is nice to feel so good so quickly.
My other frustration has been the whole process of getting an ergonomics specialist into my office. Without going into gory details, the process has been difficult, yet it is not exactly anyone’s fault. That did not stop me from feeling angry last night, and from feeling frustrated today. I will be glad when this whole sad period in my life is over. It is a strange limbo; I’m not part of the real world; it is a little bit like being on vacation; but there is nothing about it that resembles a real vacation.
My boss keeps referring to it as a “vacation”, and I think she says it mostly because she has no idea what it is like, and to her it probably does seem like a vacation. But one only wishes a vacation is over when that vacation is not going well. This is a “vacation” that I will be glad to see come to an end.
The only aspect of this “vacation” that I would keep, if I could, are the daily hikes. Assuming I come home at a reasonable hour after work, I can still have that. It would, however, put a crimp in my writing time.
At least I am now seeing occupational therapists. I should have been given the option the first time around. I could be so much further along. Simply using the OT’s advice of not wearing my wrist splints 24 hours a day has already made a difference. This is the advice I have always gotten from OTs. It is not the advice I got from the physician’s assistant. Now that I’m wearing my wrist splints only at night and only when I do something that aggravates my wrists, my wrists feel better. I am not cured, but it is nice to feel so good so quickly.
My other frustration has been the whole process of getting an ergonomics specialist into my office. Without going into gory details, the process has been difficult, yet it is not exactly anyone’s fault. That did not stop me from feeling angry last night, and from feeling frustrated today. I will be glad when this whole sad period in my life is over. It is a strange limbo; I’m not part of the real world; it is a little bit like being on vacation; but there is nothing about it that resembles a real vacation.
My boss keeps referring to it as a “vacation”, and I think she says it mostly because she has no idea what it is like, and to her it probably does seem like a vacation. But one only wishes a vacation is over when that vacation is not going well. This is a “vacation” that I will be glad to see come to an end.
The only aspect of this “vacation” that I would keep, if I could, are the daily hikes. Assuming I come home at a reasonable hour after work, I can still have that. It would, however, put a crimp in my writing time.
