“I figured out you were home because I had email from you.”

I guess I must have snuck in…

Well, I took the requisite break, and didn’t do any drawing on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. I took it easy on Monday.

As far as I can tell, I’ve got two issues — tendonitis in the elbow, and mild carpal tunnel in the wrist. Pencilling doesn’t seem to exacerbate either of them. Painting minis (which I am still on enforced sabbatical from) makes the elbow kind of creaky, mostly because I’m holding the paintbrush and the miniature up close to my face. Inking makes my hand ache a little bit over time (4+ hours of inking), but it has ALWAYS done that, and it’s an issue of gripping too tightly. I’ve actually gotten much better on that front over the years.

The real concern is that using the mouse seems to exacerbate the carpal tunnel. I have a fairly ergonomic setup, but spending any appreciable amount of time pointing and clicking without returning my hands to the keyboard results in a dull ache right in that wrist channel.

The good news is that I’m on much lower dosages of anti-inflammatories than I was a week ago, and the pain is much less noticable than it was.

So… no doctor for me yet. The regimen of rest, ice, and anti-inflammatories seems to be working — I just need more of it. I will be limiting my inking to 3 rows per day three days per week, and I will be taking care to keep the drugs and the ice coming while I’m working. I’m not sure what to do about the mouse issue yet, but two options present themselves: 1) mouse left-handed, and 2) teach my 12-year-old how to do the flood-filling. Oh, and “spend less time surfing the web.”

I’m not posting this to ask for advice, nor to elicit sympathy posts. I’m just posting the promised update. If you feel the urge to nag me about going to see a doctor, please restrain yourself from actually posting your nag. I mean it. I get really, really tired of that.

mamaslyth posted one of those meme-thingies, and I thought “cool. A haiku generator.” So I clicked, entered my username, and this is what it spat out.

going to be more
religious about taking
the ibuprofen

Obviously it is not random. That does not make this haiku any less cool.

(My arm feels pretty good today.)

Rest for the arm went well today. I deliberately did lots of nothing, and then role-played all evening when the hardest thing I did with my hand was roll dice.

Oh, wait… I did doodle a quick pencil-sketch of one of the characters, but pencilling is very loosey-goosey for me, and didn’t hurt at all.

Anyway, there was some pain late in the evening, probably residual stuff from yesterday (and the day before, and the week before that, etc) so I iced the arm and took some acetaminophen. It feels a LOT better than it felt last night, and right now there’s next to no painkillers or anti-inflammatories in my system.

Will I see a doctor? Not yet. My friend the Physician’s Assistant explained that my regimen would help and was exactly what the doctor would prescribe at this point. If said regimen (rest, anti-inflammatories, regular icings, and a tension band below the elbow from time to time) doesn’t make things noticably better, then I’ll see the doctor and provide him with that information. Then we do ultrasounds, etc, etc… you know: the stuff that regular people can’t do for themselves at home and over the counter.

In short, I’m taking good care of it, and I’m paying attention. I know how much rides on this right hand of mine, and I’m not an idiot. That said, I’m also not interested in wasting anybody’s time (least of all my own) paying money to be told what I already know.

I’ll rest again tomorrow, and Saturday, and Sunday. Monday I’ll pencil, assuming I’m feeling good. Tuesday I’ll see how much inking I’m comfortable banging out, and I’ll see a doctor if it hurts.