Many may not know this about me, but although I am a serious couch potato, I am a huge sports fan (I played some baseball in my youth, but never pursued it in later school). One of the reasons I chose not to pursue sports – aside from the fact my nose was always stuck in a book and I don’t like the outdoors – is because I am one of the most accident prone people you will ever meet. If there is something to trip over, I am going to trip over it….if nothing is there for me to trip over, then I will find a way to trip over my own feet. Putting myself directly in the position to increase my chance of injury, not really that bright, so I’ll stick to being a spectator.

This is why it is both with utter amazement and complete resignation that I find myself with a crochet related injury. Now, before you ask it is not on my primary/dominant hand – that is still fine and able to make nice stitches. The issue is with my non-dominant hand, the one that holds the yarn.

Sometime Saturday night/Sunday morning, as I started to work on one of my outstanding projects, I noticed that my index finger on my non-dominant hand was really hurting me. It hurt to bend, it hurt to flex, and it was radiating pain the whole way up my arm. Trying to cut things off at the pass, I thought I’ll use a heating pad.

I should say, my father was an athletic trainer for a number of years and I know some first aid. I know enough first aid to know that for inflammation you really don’t want to use heat first, you want to use ice, but I was uncomfortable and I did not have ice in my house, so heat it was.

The whole day my hand just was killing me. Alternating from stabbing pains to burning irritation. That afternoon when I started working on my project, I couldn’t find a comfortable position to hold my hand. And even though it wasn’t the hand I used to make the stitches, it was the hand/finger I used to wrap my excess yarn around to keep tension in my project.

If I would have thought about it, I would have videoed the contortions I tried. From using different fingers to wrap the yarn around, to using my toes to thread the tension through, I tried just about everything, but the only way I was making stitches I was happy with was by holding the yarn the way I always did. However, this just caused more pain – and swelling.

Because Amazon is my friend, I decided to order a brace for my hand.

I thought maybe if I could stabilize my finger a little bit that I would be able to more comfortably use my finger to keep the tension on my yarn. So far, that hasn’t exactly worked to plan. The way the brace is situated it keeps grabbing the yarn and fraying it, which makes me mad. So, back to the drawing board – I have just ordered a compression, fingerless glove that should be here soon that I can try out and see if this helps.

I mean, I expected to have to worry about carpal tunnel – heck, I knew carpal tunnel was probably in my future with as much as I type and text – but, I wasn’t expecting to have problems this soon into my crochet adventures.

Today at work my hand was so swollen that I decided to use some of the ice we have here and try to soak it for a little bit. I don’t know if it made much difference, but at least I was trying to bring down the swelling.

My father bought me some Epsom salts, so I think I am going to try to soak my hand in those tonight and see what happens. I’ve also heard from people that Aleve or Advil might be good to help with the inflammation. I’m going to try using a combination of these tactics and see what might help. Of course, my father and husband are saying that I really should take a night or two off and try to rest. The thing is, (a) I have orders to fill and I don’t want to get behind, especially not this soon into building the business; (b) I don’t want to take a night off. I get so much enjoyment – pain and all – from crochet that it really does help to settle my mind. I haven’t been pushing myself as much – I went to bed early last night and stopped working when ordinarily I would push through to finish because I was so close.

With the Labor Day holiday coming up, I’m still waiting to see what happens. I tend to think I just hyperextended my finger from hours of keeping it straight-ish to hold the yarn for my projects, and with some soaking and some brace action, I’m hoping it will be back to normal soon. However, if it isn’t feeling better after the holiday weekend, I will be going to the doctor or to urgent care to get it checked out. I may not like making a big deal of things (unless I can make fun of myself), but if it is something that might stop me from pursing either my primary or secondary occupation, then I am going to have to get it taken care of. Hopefully, it’s just a bit tweaked and by Monday I’ll be right as rain again.

Until then, follow me on Instagram (@lilluvviesamigurumi), I’m sure I will be posting more awkward pictures of myself as I try to adapt to my injury. Like I said, if I can’t laugh, what’s the good in it?

Hugs and cuddles,

Elisha