Empathy - The Whole Day

I spent the day yesterday with my right arm in a sling and my right hand wrapped in a tensor. All in all, it went pretty well, and I feel I strengthened my empathy for those who are injured or suffering loss of a limb for any reason.

Below are the notes I typed (very slowly with my one good hand) yesterday afternoon, about 2/3 of the way through the day, and then the rest of the notes I made this morning.

Getting up and dressed
- discovered it's easy to put on loose martial arts pants
- not as easy for the rest, but managed to get myself covered
- put on the sling after having David wrap my hand
- allergy meds were easy to get out of the blister sealed package
- then downstairs for breakfast -- granola (easy to scoop out into my bowl; not too hard to eat with my left hand) and banana (very difficult to peel one-handed)
- put bread in the toaster for the girls' breakfast but they had to butter it themselves
- started getting stuff out for their lunches, but they were happy to take over -- I didn't check, so who knows what they gave themselves to eat

Getting to class
- equipment bag not too difficult to manage over my left shoulder, but feels heavier there than on the right side
- getting out to the car carrying it and a jar of cookies was a little tricky, as was closing the door behind me and getting the car unlocked (needed to put stuff down a couple of times)
- driving was as easy as when I had practiced

Class
- cage warm-up -- fun! -- only had to modify things a little to make it work, and did side plank instead of most of the pushups, though I did do all the sprawls one handed!
- self defense drills after that -- went ok but I wasn't able to hold the tombstone for my partner
- all in all, very good class

Shower
- wrapped my wrapped hand in plastic
- hard to get shampoo out of the bottle -- had to squeeze it against the lip of the window
- managed to get relatively clean and dry
- chose clothes that are easy to manage - yoga pants and button up shirt (realizing I'll need a full uniform tonight but don't want to spend the day in it)

Lunch
- made a sandwich - hardest part was buttering the bread and had to get Dave to slice the cheese

Afternoon
(Dave said I wasn't allowed to sit and read even though I did most of the normal Monday things ahead of time. I agreed.)
- cleaned the bathroom and swept and tidied the main floor
- hard to get disinfectant wipes out with one hand
- sweeping was a challenge -- easily took at least 3x the normal time to get it done
- went faster after I figured out how to brace the broom against my forearm
- sweeping into the dustpan was tricky too -- ended up holding it in place with my feet then wiggling them backwards when I needed to move it to get the last bit up

Typing
- way slower with one hand

Making dinner
- mixed up some homemade coleslaw dressing and poured over a bag of prepared coleslaw mix, then stirred together and put in the fridge til dinnertime
- tented foil on storebought lasagne and popped it in the oven
- all my practice switching full cookie sheets paid off and I was easily able to bring the cooked lasagne to the table

Guides
- a little bit of panic when I realized I hadn't written a cheque yet for the Girl Guide Cookies I picked up for Sarah last week, but then I accepted that I wasn't going to be able to do it today
- fielded lots of questions about what was wrong with my arm, explained it to everyone at once, at the beginning of the meeting
- KJN was there to do Martial Arts with the girls
- was able to hold the shield for the front kicks, but not the hammer fists

Getting ready for bed
- a little tricky brushing my teeth left handed, but didn't get too much toothpaste down my chin
- discovered that child proof allergy medicine bottles really need two hands -- or one hand and something to wedge it into
- took off the sling but not the wrap for sleeping
- woke up this morning and took the wrap off -- YAY!!

I am very thankful this morning that I have the use of both hands. I never really felt useless yesterday, but I did get a bit frustrated when there were some things that I just couldn't do. The things I could do, but more slowly, felt better. I was surprised at how many people were concerned that I hurt myself, and I could actually feel their relief when I told them what I was doing. The funny thing was at odd moments during the day, I would almost feel like my wrist or arm was hurting, just because I was pretending so well.