One Handed Typing . . . Not What You Think

I swear I have a lot to write about but you might have to wait another week or two for it to appear. Allow me to explain . . .

Last Tuesday morning I awoke and my right arm was still asleep. We’ve all slept weird and had a limb go numb on us before but this was different because my arm was still asleep an hour after I woke up. I started to get a little worried. At the two hour mark I was well into the worried zone. At three hours I was freaking out. I could see my arm was still there but it was as useless as a slab of dead meat hanging off of me. Even to do something as simple as raise my arm to my chest I had to whip my shoulder around and try to catch my lifeless appendage.

I figured it was time to seek professional advice so I went downstairs and hailed a taxi and asked him to take me to BNH (Bangkok Nursing Hospital), a private, world-class care facility about a 5 min drive from my apartment.

Upon arrival I was asked if I had been seen there before and when I responded I hadn’t I was given a form to fill out. Well, I’m right handed so even making an X in the No Known Allergies box was like sketching the Mona Lisa for me. The receptionist saw my difficulty and offered to write in my responses.

I was immediately taken to orthopedics where I waited all of about 2 min to see a doctor. He tested various reflexes and said “Can you feel this?” several times (I couldn’t) before diagnosing me with a pinched radial nerve. He hypothesized I had pressed the nerve against a bone so hard and for so long while slept that I had actually caused some damage to the nerve.

He splinted my arm to keep my wrist straight (preventing possible other nerve damage), prescribed me vitamin B12 (supposedly aids in nerve repair), and told me to come back on Saturday so he could see whether or not my condition was improving.

Total cost? About $120 USD

On Wednesday I was able to wiggle my fingers a bit and I had regained some use of my elbow. I could now raise and lower my arm at the elbow but often overshot where I wanted it to stop. On Thursday I could make a fist but didn’t have enough grip to even turn a door handle. I was getting a tad more accurate with the elbow movements but I really had to concentrate on stopping my arm at the appropriate place.

On Thursday I had my Thai class and we were just beginning to learn writing in Thai script so when the teacher saw my arm in a splint and sling I knew she wasn’t happy. I did bring a camera though so I could photograph the whiteboard with the intent to hand copy the notes when my hand was back to normal.

Friday saw only minimal improvement as did Saturday. I saw the doctor again on Saturday and he retested everything and he seemed quite happy with the improvements telling me that at a minimum I would have 80% – 90% functionality back by 2 weeks and 100% no longer than 3 months but most likely much sooner. He gave me a new prescription for more vitamin B12 and said to come back in two weeks if I wasn’t back to at least 80% functional. Again, the bill ran about $120.

I’ve noticed little improvements each day since then. For instance I can now drum my fingers on the desktop. I still can’t use my right hand to type though as I don’t have enough dexterity to keep up with my left hand nor do I have enough feeling in the hand to know when I’ve pressed down hard enough on the keys.

I’ve also had other discoveries about being one handed as well. Like how hard it is to tie your shoes or wash the left side of your body.

I will say that the other side of this experience has been in seeing how wonderfully nice Thai people can be. The security guard in my building asks for daily updates on how my arm is doing and jumps up to open doors and help me with anything I’m carrying. Merchants that I usually just exchange a wave or polite smile with when I walk past on the way to Thai class have come out of their shops to ask about my arm. Random waitresses in restaurants would ask what happened and would take extra care in serving me. Even a friend of mine offered to come by my place and help out with laundry or anything else that needed looked after around the apartment if I bought her lunch (I did and we went to go catch a movie afterward). Where do people do that in a city with 11 million people?

Anyway, hopefully I’ll be posting again soon. I also might be a little slow in responding to emails during that period as typing one-handed (for whatever reason), hunting and pecking around the keyboard, is a bitch.