Would it catch your attention if your occupational therapist (I said occupational therapist, not physical therapist, in case my occupational therapist reads this, so she’ll know I learned that she’s not a physical therapist) suggested that if you follow your present trajectory, your thumb might well end up looking like this?
She sure got my attention. I’m working on those thumb exercises like crazy, now, not hyperextending my thumb, and begging my occupational therapist for more that I could do to fend off the Boutonniere thumb pattern she envisioned. Meanwhile, I’ve become acutely aware of (a) how weak the second tendon in my thumb is (not the one down at the end that hyperextends, but the one that draws the thumb away from the palm); (b) how generally I had been relying on a hyperextended thumb for everything from washing dishes to mouse-padding to turning keys; (c) how swollen the base of my thumb is. My occupational therapist was very nettled that my muscles are still inflamed, after four or five weeks of treatment.
Posted by AKMA at June 7, 2004 10:29 PM | TrackBackMan, that is gross... Really. Ick!
Remembering your thumb in my prayers...
My grandmother had horrible arthritis, and I hope that being two generations removed will save me from its scourge myself.
Posted by: Pascale Soleil at June 8, 2004 12:10 PMAt least I ate first. Oh, wait . . . maybe that's not such a good thing afterall.
Posted by: Reverend Ref at June 8, 2004 02:11 PMWow,
My mother's mother died when I was 13. That's twenty years ago and since my memories of her are those formed by a child or nascent teenager I must confess I don't think of her often. So what a rush this morning ... because that is exactly how her thumbs looked.
The alternative ending is something like Thumb Wars or the entire Thumb Cycle: http://www.oentertainment.com/InsaneO/Thumbs/thumbmain.htm.
Posted by: Jack Vinson at June 8, 2004 11:11 PM