Tunnels

Spot the danger.

This dress is her absolute favourite right now: a print with foxes, and pockets??? Who could ask for more from a dress? Not this girl.

I’ve been having a lot of pain and numbness in my right hand for the past little while so this morning I went to the doctor. He confirmed my suspicion that I have carpal tunnel syndrome. Like, I JUST beat Graves’ disease (or at least it’s in remission) and now this? Just one annoying health problem after another? Is this what getting old is? Because NO THANKS. Sign me up to become a non-corporeal vaporous being of pure energy. Upload me to the cloud.

CTS can be linked to hypothyroidism, so with my history of thyroid disease I will need to get my TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) levels tested, but my doctor thinks it’s more likely from the repetitive work of all the crafts I make. Kind of funny that my husband, who has worked in IT for like, fifteen years, is fine but apparently my pathetic median nerve can’t hold up to a lil crafting. Ok a LOT of crafting but still. Ha ha. Soooooooo funny.

Now I get to wear this cool and not-at-all uncomfortable wrist brace all day and night, or all night and as much of the day as I can. It’s pretty annoying because in my line of work (my day job, not my side hustles) I have to wash my hands 350 million times a day, so it’s put on brace, take off brace, wash hands, dry hands, put on brace, take off brace, wash hands, put on brace, repeat ad nauseum. Every time I prepare food or wipe a nose or change a diaper. So tedious! And wearing the brace for extended periods of time (ie ALL DAY AND NIGHT) makes my wrist and hand all sweaty and the sweatiness trapped under the brace makes my skin all irritated and itchy.

It’s also annoying because making things is what I really love to do, and now my ability to do it is seriously impaired. tbh my ability to do ANYTHING is impaired, like it hurts to do the dishes, it hurts to lift Gwen out of her crib, it hurts to hold up a picture book to read to her. I have to wear the brace for 6-8 weeks, and if it doesn’t improve then I might need surgery, which sounds super fun.

Over the weekend I made these cute bunny boots for Gwen, and I was going to give a pair away on my instagram, but after talking it over with Taylor it just doesn’t make sense to give myself extra work right now, which is so unfortunate. I’m in the middle of making some black leather boots with a double fringe, but I might put finishing them on hold. Idk. I have a bunch of open banner orders that need to get made, so I’ll probably focus on those, the things people have paid me money for. It’s going to be hard to not be making anything else though; I’m so used to working on something all the time that just sitting watching tv and not doing anything with my hands seems weird.

PS To add to the fun today, Taylor was working from home last night and discovered the source of the mystery puddle: a little crack in the ceiling, way at the back above the upper cabinet where we couldn’t see it before, with water the seeps/drips/pours out intermittently. So that’s great, I can only imagine what a joy this’ll be to have repaired.