Time to Take A Break

Yesterday, it was Richard and this afternoon, it was Karen. They are young people, not yet 20 years old, I suppose. Both are physical therapy students at the local Univ. I had to do therapy routines for one hour each session three days a week as treatment to this combination of ailments: one is carpal tunnel syndrome which causes the four fingers of my left hand to get locked each morning for the past two weeks or so,  and the other is called "trigger finger" which refers to the intense pain I feel in my  ring finger, also in my left hand.

The doctor, whose name I cannot recall probably because he forgot to introduce himself in his hurry to find out what ails my left hand. Anyway, he did the ultrasound stuff and and showed me on the monitor the discrepancy in sizes of the tendons and he gave me to choices: either to undergo surgery or have an injection on the base of the affected finger.

Meanwhile, I have to submit to physical therapy with the interns in the rehab center. After each session, I actually feel better; I wonder why the doctor did not mention physical therapy as an option. I think because my situation is getting better, I have to postpone decision on the two options given by the doctor.

A colleague in the office says some other staff have a similar problem but they do not go to the doctor. They just limit their time with the computer. This ailment must be rampant during the digital age. I recall I had something like this 15 years ago. In those days, you had to go to Cebu to get your physical therapy treatment. Now the therapy can be done in the University and also at a hospital here in Tagbilaran. Quite a progress in health service delivery, I must say.

While my hands were being subjected to hot water ultrasound treatment and wrapped with hot paraffin wax later, I was busy seeing in my mind's eye all the events which led to this situation: learning to type from Aling Edad when I was 11 years old; typing in a rush to get the issues of the high school and college papers to meet deadlines using all kinds of typewriters; and the same QWERTY stuff for all sorts of computers since the late 1980s loaded with software programs with unique names: WordStar, Wordcraft, WordPerfect, and, of course, the Microsoft Office programs in several versions, etc. Then the social media which entice us to be with Facebook until the wee hours, not to mention the texting away of precious minutes using the mobile phone - of course, another reason to torture our fingers!

Now I understand why I must have this ailment with the unique acronym, CTS,  and also with the Trigger Finger stuff which sounds almost scary. For more than half a century, I have defended on these fingers to express myself and earn a living and write hundreds of project proposals and a few forgettable poems during some boring Sundays. Now I must consider taking a break from the digital age and probably spend a little more time looking at sunsets and, as my friends say, smelling the flowers.

Time to take a break from this laptop. ###