I’ve been taking a lot of photos of campus lately since I’m doing a photo-a-day exercise, and find myself there every day…

I’ve had on-again-off-again pain that seemed related to my right thumb over the past couple of years. I’ve tried bringing it to my primary care physician’s attention more than once, and his advice is always to just stop doing anything that hurts it. He never administers any tests.. except he tried to see if it was carpal tunnel by banging on my wrist with a little reflex hammer.

This is my first week back at school, and from Monday, the pain in my thumb has been getting worse, and morphing into something new. It’s scaring me, honestly. Before, the pain stayed in the thumb area, and never affected the wrist. I never had to do much writing though, until the semester started, and now I write a lot. I also am carrying a heavy bag with books in it. (I’ve since started putting ebooks on my ipad to relieve my hand strain.

As of today, Advil and icing the area does nothing. I wear the thumb splint that used to provide a lot of support and relief, and it isn’t helping as much. I feel a lot more pain and discomfort. It’s kinda making me cranky… like the lion with the thorn in its paw. But, more than that– it’s making me scared.

I’m so afraid that this will impair my first semester back to school. In Bio lab, I couldn’t properly take measurements with the micropipette because of my inability to press down and release the trigger with a steady/constant pressure. This caused air to get in, and my samples were not well-measured. The instructor seemed irritated but kinda got over it when I told him I made an appointment to see a doctor for next week.

The earliest appointment I could get with Dr. Blum (new orthopedic physician for me), was next week Tuesday. So, I’ve got to live with this pain. I sure hope it subsides. It really sucks so far. Even typing too long is tough, so I’ll cut this short.