Always my favorite body part, hands are a miracle of engineering. A series of segmented digits wired together by tendons and muscles, clothed in skin and armored by nails, they’re animated by electricity. Hands have painted, molded, harvested and built the world. They’re the kind of body part that’s taken for granted—until taken away.

My hands have become my voice in this world of texting, Twittering, blogging and IM’ing, not to mention my novel writing. Alas, last November NaNoWriMo (National Write a Novel in a Month) contributed to overuse that is stealing that voice.

My wrists are decorated with red dots, stigmata left from getting tested for carpal tunnel syndrome in a procedure called  a “conductivity test.” Don’t let anyone tell you this is “just a little static electricity.” Oh no. Torture, that’s what it is, and you have to go to a neurologist and pay for it too!

I wasn’t a big girl, I didn’t take it like a woman. Tears the size of nickels rolled down my cheeks as I watched my hand twitch like a spider in death throes as the technician applied current to various points. Ever hit your funny bone? Well they can too, with voltage in increasing intensity.

Apparently, the distance points between the sine wave of the amplitude gives indication of blockage.

Note the clarity of that sentence I just wrote. I have no idea what it means, but the words are burned on my brain along with the worried-looking technician’s face as she asked me, “Do you want me to stop?”
YES!!!! My brain screamed.

“No,” I said, and more tears squirted. I have a talent that way. Sometimes they never actually touch my face, they just fly out and land on my thighs.

“Okay. Let’s just finish as quick as we can then.”

Well, that’s how dentistry was done in the frontier days too. Poor woman, I’m not sure who was more traumatized.

Okay, yeah, it was me.

And now I have to wait until next week to find out if I have the dread Carpal Tunnel. So the moral of this story is, get an ergo keyboard and mouse. Rest your hands. Vary your activities. Maybe even forgo NaNoWriMo. And never stop appreciating the power of your hands.