Two weeks with a cast (Dupuytrens 3)

Life’s not easy when you’ve only got the use of one hand, when it’s not your dominant hand and when that’s carrying a half a kilo weight. But before I go on let me recognise that there are millions who have to live with such problems long term and they just get on with their lives. For me the situation was temporary and voluntary and would deliver a benefit. But I can still grumble.

There are some actions that just need two hands like tying your shoe laces, that’s when I channelled my inner Lib Dem and wore sandals with a velcro fastening, and using a cork screw, thank goodness for screw top wine bottles.

Then there’s the simple matter of eating with a knife and fork. OK our American friends manage with just a fork but that’s after they’ve cut the meat but even then there’s the matter of chasing your food round the plate before using your thumb to ease it onto the fork.

Some tasks are one handed but do take some concentration to do them left handed. Eventually you can control the mouse but too often it seems to have a mind of its own and shaving is possible but somehow aligning the razor with the horizontal is not easy, but only on the left side. And although you can button the front of a shirt one handed it takes for ever and doubly so when you get to the bottom and find that you’ve misaligned the buttons and their holes.

The cast on my right hand just got in the way. I could wear a shirt because it had a button cuff but not a jacket, hence the picture above of me not using the right sleeve of my DJ, and sleeping was a pain because it acted as an anchor whenever I wanted to change position.

But I got through the first week, helped of course by an attentive and supporting wife, and even managed to enjoy a black tie dinner at Magdalene College. This was an event to celebrate the recent Lib Dem selection success (3 MPS encircling Cambridge) and the six of us on the Histon team (picture above) managed to secure seats on High Table. Problem there of course is that it’s fairly wide and on a noisy evening, as this was, there’s no way you can hold a conversation with the person opposite.

So: one more week in which to become more expert in left handed mouse work and single handed button fastening. Furthermore my cast was pretty visible and prompted many questions. I became an expert in explaining Dupuytrens contracture.