Well, because of my disease (I like to think of it as a disease as diseases are often curable or manageable at best), I now have tendonitis in my right wrist. :( It started back in December 2013. First, I was in denial, thinking that I must have hit my wrist on something or lifted my (often heavy) bag funky or something ... I mean knitting isn't dangerous or anything, right? Wrong! Because I was finally getting the hang of knitting and started to really enjoy the process (as well as the progress), I had Just One More Row disease bad! I would often stay up late for "just one more row" ... the next thing I knew, the late evening news was over and I should have gone to bed at least an hour or more ago! :P
So, I finally conceded (mainly because my wrist got so sore). I was going on vacation anyways (for the holidays) so, that should help, right? My knitting was getting too big to take with me on my trip so, no knitting for me for two weeks. :(
Did it help??
Sadly, no. It got even worse on the trip and I wasn't even knitting! That royally sucked. :( It was bad enough that I was forced to see my doctor who confirmed that I did have tendonitis and I'd have to lay off knitting for good for at least a month (i.e. No knitting and take some ibuprofen to help with the inflammation). That meant that I needed to lay off knitting for the rest of January.
Well, let me say, ibuprofen was a god send. I took it religiously for a week and half and my wrist almost felt brand new. I knew that it wasn't quite back to normal yet because I noticed that my range of wrist motion wasn't like how it used to be as it still hurt when I did certain things (like putting on my bra - who knew that you needed full range of motion to do a simple thing like that?! :P).
In short, I waited the month out and February finally rolled around. I started knitting again (*yay!*) ... just slowly. Here's what else I did:
- Bought new (longer) circular interchangeable knitting needles (Chiaogoo's!! (that's the brand) I love it!! So light and smooth). This has helped to keep all the weight of my shawl in my lap.
- Had a mini lesson/revelation at my new favorite yarn store (Yarn Story - Thanks, Kimberly for the great advice and the needles - loving it!!!). Kimberly taught me a different knitting technique and more importantly, helped me realize that I was clutching my needles (i.e. need to relax more - maybe have a drink (drinks?) while I knit! :P) and that with variation (of how I knit), I could ease my wrist tension by simply knitting a bit differently.
- Started only knitting one (1) row a day (hey, I was happy I could simply start knitting and not hurting! :P).
- MAJOR REALIZATION: read other people's blogs about wrist pain + knitting and conceded - if I was going to continue knitting, I couldn't do marathon knitting sessions anymore; no more coming home from work, eating dinner, doing chores, taking a shower and knitting for the next three hours until bedtime (or beyond). I needed to take breaks and more importantly, I needed to control the disease. :P
So, now I try to knit during my lunch breaks (that often doesn't happen but I try) and I only knit three (yes, count 'em 3) rows at a time before I take a 15-30 minute break; three rows = 30 minutes for me (at least with my current shawl project). And, I wear a wrist brace at night and do some (very) light wrist exercises in the morning and afternoon. It's helped a lot and have saved me from myself (as well as preserved my ability to explore knitting more!). :)
Ok ... so I lied ... this was an epic blog (again) but, hey! I'm still catching up ;) ... one day (soon? ok - not sure about that), it'll be short/shorter (I hope)! :P
Knitting is our drug of choice.
ReplyDeleteLOL ... Just gotta be careful to not OD on this! ;) lol :)
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