Going more to the left than I thought
Woman in the Middle | April 20, 2015Don’t worry, this isn’t a political post. The left I am talking about is the left side of the body. More specifically my left hand.
I am right handed. Very right handed. I joke that my left arm and hand are there just to make me look symmetrical. However, my left hand does have some duties it is in charge of. If I get a drink with my hand, it is always my left hand I drink from. I tend to carry my purse on my left side. My left hand joins in when I drive and when I type. I long ago trained my left hand in its most complex duty – to be able to paint the nails on my right hand neatly and evenly.
But, overall, I have dismissed my left hand as a slacker. The right hand is the big dude, the left hand just the guy who tags along.
Well, in the last six months or so my left hand began having the last laugh and showing me what really goes on. I have developed arthritis for the first time in my life. I guess that is what happen when you are 53. It has shown up intermittently in three joints in my body. All three joints are in my left hand.
I was seriously puzzled by this. After all, it is my right hand that has gripped the pencil, held the hair brush, used the toothbrush, and all those other fine motor things that my dominate hand does. Shouldn’t it be the one that has arthritis?
But then I started paying attention. While my right hand is putting the key in the front door lock, it is my left hand that is holding a gallon of milk and two grocery bags, because I don’t want to make an extra trip back to the car. It is my left hand that is holding the blow drier while my right flicks the brush around. When my right hand was waving good bye it was my left hand, behind the scenes and unnoticed by me, that was carrying the leftovers and the packages at Christmas. While my right hand is engaged in all those delicate fine motor things it is my left hand that is doing the heavy lifting, literally and figuratively.
I have much more respect for my left hand now. While I wasn’t paying attention it was doing all those blue collar jobs that needed to be done, day in and day out. Now the poor thing is getting all worn out. Excuse me while I go pop a couple of aspirin and use my right hand to rub some liniment into my left hand. It is the least it can do for the poor hand that got all worn out while the other hand was doing all the easy jobs.
I had surgery on my right thumb 6 weeks ago and found out how important my left hand is. In a very short time it learned how to do all sorts of things, maybe not as fast or accurate as my right, but it functioned. It has been enjoying the spotlight so much I am having trouble not favoring the right and returning it to service. My right thumb will never be the same because we can’t get it to bend very much but I’m finding the a slight bend works fine in most cases. The problem with arthritis is unlike my surgery there is no real recovery. You will start to compensate. Be sure to remind that left hand that it had the benefits of all those drinks over the years and it owes you!
I am right handed but now I am wondering how much I use my left hand without realising it I think I will have to take more notice
It is amazing how much you use that “useless” hand once you start noticing!
I’m left-handed, so I try to write with my right hand from time to time. Not as hard as I thought!
Funny how we discount parts of the body that just seem to hang around. Your Cinderella hand got all the dirty work and missed the ball!