Today’s word is “vicissitude”.
One of the vicissitudes of life I deal with is painful hand cramps. I just talked on the telephone with an old friend, perhaps a 15 minute chat, and now I’m having cramps in the hand that held the cellphone.
“Live long and prosper…~?
I can’t move my hand that way normally, but it locks into this “Star Trek”/ Mr. Spock hand greeting cramp any time I use my hand in certain ways. It’s one bitch of a vicissitude, and it is painful as heck!
OUCH!
I use speaker-phone setting for that reason; instead of holding the phone in my hand…
I also have a hearing problem…! I need one with a headphone with volume adjustment capability!
That would work!
If my cellphone speaker phone function is loud enough — I haven’t tried it — I might be OK that way, too, though I suspect it would be just adequate at best, not loud enough for comfort.
At least worth a try 🙂
I’ll try to remember to try it next time I get a call. (I rarely make them.)
Oh that looks painful and you got some wonderful suggestions that i am going to try also.
It was and is, and, yes the suggestions were excellent!
I hope your hand feels better! Mom gets the “vulcan salute toe” and has to walk on it. But not right now since she’s on crutches. Sending your hand a lick and a tail wag! Love, Maggie
Thanks, Maggie! They are much better today, though I get cramps often when I overuse my hands.
I’m glad you’re feeling better! Woof!
Thanks! Me, too. I don’t like being sick or in pain. Of course, who does?
The secret behind the warm water is just the relaxation. If you have a cramp you can A) make the muscle relax by warmth (a hot water bottle should help, too) or B) take a muscle relaxant (but that needs to be prescribed) or C) if you are good at overcoming your body with your mind meditate,and convince your own muscles to soften – when I get cramps in my lower legs warmth usually does not help, so I try to relax by mind.
Leg cramps I have to work out by slowly standing on the leg while massaging the cramp. Terrible! As for medicine, I haven’t reached a point of pain yet where I’ve sought that out, though I have taken medicine of that sort in past when I had extreme pain from shingles.
I got that kind of medicine once, when I had lumbago.
It was an interesting effect. It didn’t stop the pain, but it knocked it down to a level that was tolerable and more even, without spikes of extreme pain.
Oh no! You poor thing! I’m glad the warm water helped to alleviate some of your discomfort though.
Yes, I’m glad, too, franhunne4u suggested it because it was a quick fix!
There is no magic elixir out there that works for all. Use what ever works for you at the time it works. My favorite to reign in pain? Prayer, pain pills, and muscle relaxers because it allows me to function. Nevertheless, there are those times when all I can lean on is Jesus and wait for it to be over.
When I was dealing with shingles-related pain, a good scream helped! I kid you not!
Agreed, shingles is the nightmare of all nightmares.
Mine was on my face, and I still have sensitivity (that is, pain!) on the right side of my head from top of my head to the top of my shoulders. I also have a lovely “pirate” scar from ear to nose to lip to chin, and my mouth is scarred such that the corner is drawn over to one side. I’m quite a mess! It’s a good thing I have no sensitivity about this, other than I do wear a beard mostly to minimize the appearance of the scar.
Don’t you just love that term, “sensitivity”? It is hopelessly inadequate in describing the degree of pain with which you must live. Sometimes I just want to give the doctor a hard smack upside the head and say, “this is sensitivity, now let me show you pain!” Most folks do not realize that there is often a long term effect to shingles and many have no clue of the possible scarring. I agree with you though, the scarring takes a far backseat to the pain. I have not had shingles yet but the ailments I have cause their own visible markers and of course, pain. Always has to be pain. I guess we would not know we were ailing if not for the pain. That is another word that just doesn’t cover the scope of suffering, pain. What an inane four letter curse word. I hope this is a good day for you my friend. Be well and snuggle with your furry friends. They are wonderful therapy.
I think of those little charts you see in doctor’s offices and hospitals, showing pain as a series of smiley faces getting increasingly sadder. I’d call my typical pain constant, with occasional sharp jabs that last a few seconds.
I hate those charts too, they are far too ambiguous and what I think is the worst may be interpreted by the doc as something else. I am sorry you understand so well. My prayers and thoughts are with you Doug.
They don’t really work for me!
When you take the power away from the pain,not an easy thing to do,it becomes less and less with each time
I know this sounds crazy but it works for me
Signed
NMA
I understand that to some extent, though practice is required to do it effectively.
I did not know you can relieve a cramp with warm water. I need to remember that. Your blog is always interesting and fun, but now I can add “useful” too.
You can thank franhunne4u for that suggestion, which does work nicely…!
A friend of my human is a cancer survivor. Her Chemo gave her horrible cramps and she was prescribed drugs to relax them. Long-story-short. She forgot her meds, had cramps, called doc, and he said to take a teaspoon of plain old yellow mustard. Sure works for my human and his wife.
Interesting~ kind of like the pickle juice business. Maybe it’s the vinegar that’s beneficial.
Warm water. Give your hand a warm bath.
Will do that right now! Thanks for the suggestion! (I’ve heard pickle juice works, too, but I think I’d vomit if I drank pickle juice…!)
The warmth should ease the muscles – massage your hand with the other one gently while in the bath (only up to the point where you feel the pain lurking).
Yes, that helped a lot!
You can also add some Epsom salts to the warm water franhunne4u suggested to soak your hand. The magnesium in the salts is beneficial. Epsom salts are relatively cheap and can be found in practically any grocery or drug store.
I’ll keep that in mind for future attacks! Thanks again.