One thing I learned after the utter torture I went through yesterday was how much easier it is to live with constant low-grade pain I was in today. I’m not recommending it, and it does slow a person down some, but it’s worlds different from feeling as if your hand had been smashed with a sledgehammer. Today is was more as if someone were beating me repeatedly with a rubber mallet. It’s not at all pleasant, but it’s a lot easier to take.

When the day started, I wouldn’t have believed this is how I’d be thinking by tonight. It was nearly as bad as yesterday for most of the early part of the day. All afternoon, it was a pain I dealt with by doing as little work (and getting as much rest) as possible. And I kept the wrist brace on all day, until tonight around the time the sun went down (or would have gone down if it had ever come out).

What happened really was that I got annoyed at the brace, which was getting in the way of the things I was trying to do, so I took it off. I expected to get a couple of important things done and then be forced to put the brace back on again, but it didn’t happen like that.

Instead, I got a few things done, and it hurt but not enough to keep me from getting a few more things done. And on and on like that, until I was only putting the brace on for something I knew would be too painful to do without it. Most of what fell into that category was lifting, or anything that forced me to twist my wrist into an unnatural position. I don’t need that much pain all at once again, not now, not ever.

There’s no euphoria here. There’s a moderate sense of relief, but I also know I’m one bad move away from another day like yesterday. It could be pounding on a stapler, or turning off a faucet, or just getting up out of the recliner. Which is why it’s probably a good idea to spend as much time sitting as possible.