A Matter of Perspective

I never realized how much I take certain parts of my body for granted—most of us probably don’t. Take for example my left thumb.

I’m right-handed, so I don’t think about how much I use my left hand and certainly not my left thumb.

But, since my carpal tunnel surgery in April 2018 I’ve given my left hand a lot more thought. Since about November 2018, I’ve been giving my left thumb a LOT of thought.

Why, you may ask?

I’m glad you did.

I’m sure many of you have heard of a “trigger” finger. Some of you may even suffer from a “trigger” finger.

In case you don’t know what this means, here is the best answer I found. According to the website webmd.com, a trigger finger is: “a painful condition that causes your fingers or thumb to catch or lock when you bend them. It can affect any finger, or more than one. When it affects your thumb, it’s called trigger thumb.”

It has something to do with an inflamed tendon or scar tissue. It also comes from repeated use.

Well, I have a trigger thumb. And when it bends for any reason it catches and it hurts! Sometimes I can barely straighten it. I can’t “mentally” bend it anymore, either. The more I use my mind power to bend it, the less it wants to bend!

But, if I am sleeping or grooming or showering or doing just about anything where I don’t think about bending or not bending my thumb—then it bends! Then it hurts! And then I can barely straighten it.

Try buttoning or unbuttoning a blouse or a pair of blue jeans with a trigger thumb!

I do wear a brace that my doctor prescribed for me to wear while I sleep. It helps to keep it straight at night. I was waking up with it bent every morning and was having a hard time straightening it.

I also learned that it happens more with women than with men and that it generally occurs between the ages of 40 to 60.

It makes playing my video games a bit of a chore.

I am beginning to think this “aging” thing is for the birds!

I keep wondering what will go wrong with my body next. Still, I guess things could be worse.

I was going to tell you how much worse, but I forgot what I was going to say. I guess I can’t remember what I did this morning...