In my post a couple of days ago, I referred to my wrist problems. And that I worry that over the years this blog could start to sound more like a medical history than an artist's journal. So I will try to keep this brief, if you want to know more, you can ask me and I will pass along a longer email (it even includes x-rays) that I sent to some friends recently.
Four or five years ago, my right wrist started to hurt, and there were some particular processes in my work that seemed to exacerbate things – specifically sanding the interior surfaces of the shades. A cortisone shot helped for a while, but mainly I swapped things so that I was working more with my left hand. That worked for a long while, but in October, I suddenly had major pain in my left wrist. It took a long time to recover enough to allow me to get back to lampshades, but three months later, I got back to work. In the meantime, I was able to do small projects. Mainly that meant bottle stoppers, which are lots of fun, and very popular with my clients. But not making lampshades was a shock to my system. To a very large extent, I define myself as the person who makes these lampshades, it is challenging and interesting for me to make them, and I take a lot of pride in these large turnings. To some extent, I suppose this was a sneak preview of my future: at some point in my life, it will become beyond my physical capabilities to make lampshades. But not yet, not for 10 or more years I hope!
What happened to get me back to "shade-shape?" Well laying off surely helped, gave my wrist a chance to recover. And I developed a couple of technical solutions so that the steps in making a shade that were the most stressful on my hands are not so bad anymore. Finally, just at the point where i was able to get back to work full time, I also saw a terrific hand expert who explained what was going wrong, and understanding the underlying issues turned out to be a great relief, almost exhilarating.
To make a long story short, I have extra long ulna bones. The ulna is the smaller diameter bone running the length of our forearms. I have probably had this condition my whole life, but the work I do has brought it into play as a problem. There is a name for this: "ulnar impingement syndrome." The head of the ulna bone is getting pressed against a pad of cartilage that is in my wrist, kind of below my pinky. Seeing my x-rays and comparing them to the structure of a normal wrist is remarkable, and the diagnosis is very obvious. I have irritated that cartilage pretty badly in both wrists, maybe there is some small amount of shredding there too.
The good news is that I have adapted my work techniques to reduce the impingement issues. Even better for the long term, there is a surgical procedure that would shorten my ulna bones, and it is supposedly very safe, and does not put me out of action for too long. I don't have any plans to get this surgery soon, maybe never. But if and when I need it, I will get it done and move on. There should be no reason that this medical issue will stop me from making shades long in to the future!
Hooray!!! So now I am back to work full time. It is taking me a while to get back to full strength, but the shades are getting made, they are as good or better than ever, and I am happy to be doing what I want.
No comments:
Post a Comment