Re: latest update

I've found that using bamboo knitting needles is easier on my hands.
I don't crochet anymore as it hurts my wrists (don't know if it's the
motion or what, but it's just too much for me to work with when two
rows puts my hands out of commission for at least two days). Knitting
doesn't seem to hurt my wrists or hands. The part that makes them
difficult to hold is the way my middle fingers bend and don't bend
(clear as mud, right?). I have what they call a swan neck deformity
in both middle fingers, more pronounced on the left than the right
(dominant side is always more affected (or is that effected?) with
RA). A friend tells me they look broken. Basically, the tendon that
keeps a normal person's fingers straight has slipped to the side
(actually, most of my fingers have some degree of this but the middle
fingers are the worst of the lot). At rest on a pillow, it looks like
I'm flipping people off. The middle knuckle bends up away from my
hand and the top knuckle bends down (I'd try to type it out but
there's no down pointing arrow.). I've been accused by my past
college professors of flipping them off while taking a drink (I have
no real grip with my middle fingers, they don't bend properly (can't
make a fist) so I just hold them out of the way). I have found in the
25 years I've had RA that you can learn to do just about anything if
you put your mind to it. Neither of my wrists bend either, but it's
almost as if I don't even notice it anymore. You just learn to adapt
and overcome, come up with new ways of doing something that you did
differently before. Now, on the positive side of things, I can't get
carpal tunnel syndrome either. ;)

I'll look for the pencil things but since I tend to knit in the round,
I'm not sure they'd come in handy or be in the way. I do know my
limits, and usually I will listen to my body when it tells me I've had
enough (although not always and then it forces me to take a
break...like when I sit for far too long working on a quilt and ignore
my left shoulder when it starts to ache...then there's a forced two to
three day break while I sit and curse myself for not listening and
can't lift my left arm away from my body without wanting to scream
(better living through chemistry on those days for sure...and hey,
sometimes the left shoulder does that just because with no over-taxing
from me).). All in all, I really do okay with everything, and my dear
sainted Mom makes me feel like such a wuss sometimes as her RA looks
much worse than mine (she says she has no pain, but to look at her
hands would make most people cringe (picture James Coburn in his later
years and how his hands looked as he had RA as well...me, I do
everything upside down and backwards (Mom says it's because I was born
butt-first and I'm left handed) so the drift I have in my hands is not
going to towards my pinky fingers but towards my thumbs (which is
actually better in my opinion as I can still get my fingers and thumbs
together). Plus, she's had it since she was 18 so a whole heck of a
lot longer than I've been dealing with it, raised 3 kids, traveled
around the world with my Dad and around the country once all of us
kids were grown. She's an amazing woman!!!

Hugs,
Tigg (who, for those who don't know me, tends to talk in
parenthesis. ;) )

On Aug 18, 4:05 pm, "Bobbie Sews More" <bara...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Tigg, your message said that your knitting and crochet needles are
difficult to hold.  Well, I was looking through Wal-Marts school supplies
and found some soft plastic things that you slide over a pencil to make it
easier to hold.  I had to tape them around a crochet hook that I use in
sewing, but they work great for this!  There are about 12 in a package, two
of each color.  If you can't find them, I would be glad to mail you a pack,
or a couple of mine..  Think the cost was about $3.
Guess you could also use masking tape but it wouldn't be as soft.
Barbara in SC

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