diff --git a/_posts/2024-04-30-a-week-one-handed.md b/_posts/2024-04-30-a-week-one-handed.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f0c15e0 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2024-04-30-a-week-one-handed.md @@ -0,0 +1,96 @@ +--- +permalink: "/{{ year }}/{{ month }}/{{ day }}/a-week-one-handed" +title: "A week one-handed" +published_date: "2024-04-30 09:19:00 +0200" +layout: post.liquid +data: + route: blog +excerpt: | + Just over a week ago I played handball for exactly 1 minute and 54 seconds. + I blocked my opponent, dislocated a finger on my right hand, got a yellow card and left for the hospital. + A brief five hours later my hand was in a cast, immobilized for a week. + Here's how that went. +--- + +Just over a week ago I played handball for exactly 1 minute and 54 seconds. +I blocked my opponent, dislocated a finger on my right hand, got a yellow card and left for the hospital. +A brief five hours later [my hand was in a cast](https://hachyderm.io/@jer/112310420798408058), immobilized for a week. + +Then I had to deal with being one-handed for the rest of a week. +A busy week of course. +To my luck I'm _mostly_ left handed! +So here's a brief summary of how things went. +_This is a fully personal account, everyone's situation is different and I was lucky enough to only have the plaster cast for a week._ + +## The easy things + +A whole lot of people reached out! +Half of them with get well wishes, the other half came with the jokes ("fingers crossed", "high five!", "finger food for dinner?"). +I would most likely do the same, so yeah ... I enjoyed those jokes. +Some people also reached out with tips. +It seems about every other person had a broken arm or finger or alike at some point. + +The first two days were the most annoying ones. +The arm was unusable and for fear of hurting it more I wouldn't even use it to hold things down or up. +Luckily by day 3 that went away and the arm was used for just about everything, the two free fingers even to hold stuff. + +I slept surprisingly well. +I can sleep on my back or on the side without problems, so the immobilized arm never got in the way. + +I usually use the computer mouse with my right hand, like probably the vast majority of computer users. +But because I'm actually left handed switching the mouse to the left hand was not much of an issue, except for one thing: +all three computer mice I have at home are ergonomically formed, made to be used with the right hand. +So while moving the mouse pixel-perfect worked I was still stuck with a somewhat awkward mouse hold. +I also didn't switch the buttons around. + +## The hard things + +Tying your shoe. +It's not gonna happen with only one hand. + +Hanging laundry. +It's possible, but it takes a lot more time. So does taking it off and folding. + +Showering. +The cast must not get wet! +If you know it's for only a week maybe you get away with not showering for that time. +Beyond that get yourself some water-tight protection to wrap the arm in. + +Putting on a jacket. +You either hope for warm weather, so that a t-shirt is enough (though I wouldn't want a sweaty arm in a cast). +Or you put on a jacket. I hope you have a stretchy one with wide arms. + +Biking. +Not happening. Can't break, can't go. + +Cooking. +Maybe skip that for a bit. You really don't want to risk injuring the other hand. +Your options are not that limited. +Sushi works perfectly with just one hand (tip from my colleague). +So does pizza. +And if your good with chopsticks there's really no limit in what you can eat without making a mess. + +Typing. +I'm a decently fast typer and have a bunch of shortcuts that I use frequently. +Some of them are so ingrained in muscle memory that once I only had one hand I couldn't even remember what the shortcuts were. +There are options like [Mirrorboard] that mirror both sides of a keyboard to only one, but I didn't bother to set it up this time. +It might help with the general typing, but shortcuts would still not work as is. +What did work much better and was very enjoyable was voice control using [Talon]. +Really, try it out. +Set yourself a [voice control challenge]. +It takes a bit to learn the alphabet, but then it just works. +I did not end up programming it, but I briefly tried [Cursorless] and I can very much see the usefulness of that. + +## Two-handed again + +After a week I got the cast removed and need to [wear a plastic splint for a couple of days](https://hachyderm.io/@jer/112354088043087458). +The hand is usable again, the finger is recovering. +The week was exhausting, one-handed everything takes longer. +If you can avoid it don't ruin your hands. +If you do, know that it's not the end. + +[talon]: https://talonvoice.com/ +[cursorless]: https://www.cursorless.org/ +[voice control]: https://xeiaso.net/blog/voice-control-talon/ +[voice control challenge]: https://xeiaso.net/blog/voice-control-challenge/ +[mirrorboard]: https://blog.xkcd.com/2007/08/14/mirrorboard-a-one-handed-keyboard-layout-for-the-lazy/