what has happened...

... while this damaged body part has made me appear to be an invalid. Even though I have mostly been at home,  un-noticed by all who would ask a thousand questions, since getting swaddled at the ER with hand and arm bound in layers of ace bandage. I had to call in to the job, report an injury, making me unable to work. It is a huge annoyance, thoroughly aggravating, completely inconvenient. Especially and doubly so due to being my dominant hand.

There are a number of things that I have already discovered are impossible, or nearly so, as the level of difficulty when attempting with a single hand.  I challenge you to brush your teeth with the 'wrong' hand. You will find it to be amazingly tedious, and profoundly frustrating.  Plus, you will feel remarkably inept, like you've done a seriously shoddy job.

You will also have to have a grade-schooler nearby when you get dressed, after you realize you cannot tie your own shoes.  Tucking the laces in your socks is not a satisfactory solution. Nor is flapping around like an adolescent who does not pay for his own footwear, with no concept whatsoever of what is involved in keeping growing kids shod.

You really can't cook anything. There is practically nothing you can do in the kitchen other than get a drink of water or put a dish in the microwave. It is very difficult to pour a glass of milk from a full'ish gallon jug, and impossible to peel a banana with one hand. You might eat cereal or soup from a bowl with a spoon, but chasing food around a plate with a fork in your 'wrong' hand is extremely tedious.  Preparing anything that needs a knife and the most minimal skills is simply impossible, as you need a hand to hold, while the other hand cuts.

I am trying to be optimistic, continually telling myself: 'this is temporary'. Knowing overall health is relatively good, and the wrist injury is temporary, something to eventually get over, with a return to being able-bodied and active. Feeling 'diminished' is difficult, and being less-than-able, dependent on others for tasks usually done without conscious thought maddening. So, here's my new mantra, which also happens to be a 'Choppyism', that I heard come out of my mom's mouth a gazillion times: This Too Shall Pass.