The weirdest part of having these symptoms in my hands is not having any visual indication of what's going on. Someone looking at me would think I'm fine. I feel like, if someone asked me, "How are you?" and I answered with a brief description of the pain and discomfort in my hands, they might think, "Uh... O-kaay... Well, your hands look totally normal, so..." I think it's given me some understanding of how people with hidden disabilities, or chronic pain, might feel.
So after a day of pretty much doing nothing, I was able to wear a wrist brace on both hands to sleep last night, and this morning I woke up feeling a LOT better! My left hand felt like it was back to the old baseline, at least temporarily. But even the slightest use - like trying to type with my left hand - made the numbness and tingling increase. I'm going to keep minimizing the use of my hands and limit my exercise to walking, with the hopes of seeing more improvement, though it sure makes me feel useless.
Of course, doing nothing is not a realistic way of managing this pain. I'm hoping the doing nothing will help me get back to the old baseline, and then gradually I can increase my activity without adversely affecting my hands.
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