Latest insights from a temporary one-armed blogger

17 Oct, 2023

I have too much time on my one capable hand and I have exhausted the patience of my partner, so here I am again to blog about it.

You could say it is almost the core of my daily work to represent people, from wherever and in whatever form or shape they may come. And yet, the experience of not being able to use my right arm (albeit temporarily) made me realize I have never had the opportunity to actually come close to understand some of the struggles that a section of the people I represent may face. And, as a curious soul, I of course have to try as much as possible and really milk this opportunity¹.

Here is a list of completely random experiences throughout the day;

Things that went remarkably okay

• Shampooing my hair.
• Typing. Would have thought it would be harder, but it's actually quite okay as you can see. Most keys are close together.

Things that went remarkably bad

• Showering in general. I stood there with my arm, wrapped like a dürüm kebab, up in the air like a lightning rod contemplating the disappointing condition of my shoulder muscles. -100/10
• The amount of liquid I spill in a day. Lifting your cup up to the level of the jug really makes a difference. My depth perception has now been added to the list of things I can worry about before I fall asleep.
• Clothes. I have discarded wearing them completely at this point, and I am 4 days in.
• Using my phone. Everything is awful, from using the bio-metric lock to the actual screen. Started using it like my grandmother, I just let it lie on the table while I scroll with one hand.
• Opening doors. Getting in is fine, but getting out...(left handed opening vs right handed opening). So far I have hit myself twice in the face. That is twice too many.

I complained to a doctor-friend about my body and how it is in my way and I was properly chastised by them. They told me that my body has only been doing its best, how it warned me before that something was not okay and protected itself by wrapping my joint in a bubble of water and preventing me from doing more damage. I realize I have indeed not been kind to my body, while it only showed resilience and capacity to bounce back. Quite remarkable how you can easily dismiss something like that.

Be kind to yourself, whatever you are healing from. A lot of things your body does that might get "in your way" is your body trying to protect what is precious; you.

…ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ

State of mind in a song,
Rat

…ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ