Monday, November 19, 2012

Trucker's elbow stinks

Two weeks ago if you told me about the Ulnar nerve I would've thought you were just making up fancy medical jargon to impress me. Now I know that it is the nerve that controls your pinkie and ring finger and it runs through the outside of your elbow. I also know that if you damage or pinch that nerve you will not be able to feel your pinkie or ring finger and they will be a bit weaker. They call it Trucker's elbow because it usually happens to truckers who lean their elbow out the window as they are driving. Maybe your recliner broke and you are more comfortable putting your feet up underneath you during a knitting marathon and leaning on the arm of the chair - yep that will do it too.

So I have damaged my Ulnar nerve. My right ring finger feels different. I can move it and I can feel with it but it is just different. Like I have had a rubber band around the first knuckle for the last two weeks. I asked the doctor about it and she says there is nothing that can be done but rest. i.e. no knitting. YIKES.

So it has been about 5 days now. No needles have touched my hands and no hooks have passed through my fingers. I did wonder if I could just switch to crochet but decided to just rest. And it is a horrible time of year to be yarn-free. I have so many present ideas that I'm itching to start but I can't. If I had been smart I would've been working on presents through the summer too but I got wrapped up in my own projects and then re-doing my projects because I'm still working on my sizing to fit any presents in there. Now I'm paying for it.

On the bright side - I do think that my ring finger is slowly going back to normal. But at this rate it will be Christmas before I get to knitting again. Merry Christmas to me!