Several weeks ago my right thumb ‘clicked’ when I unbent it. I thought something like, “Oh, that’s weird,” and did it again.

After trying it out several times and realising I now was experiencing ‘trigger thumb’, I stopped thinking about it and got on with whatever I had been doing.

You wouldn’t believe how many times a day one bends the thumb – not the whole thumb, but the midway joint. I soon realised that I had bent my thumb – and it hurt as it clicked! I decided to look on Google to see what was going on. Apparently, the clicking isn’t caused by arthritis, which is something I know is lurking within my body, but by an inflammation in a sheath inside my thumb. The suggestion is to sit with a packet of frozen peas on the inflamed joint but, for several reasons I didn’t want to do that.

My main reason was that the weather outside was really cold and there was a cold wind. The wind meant that any small gap in our house would allow freezing air to come inside and interfere with the heating. Despite new double glazing and a new boiler, the cold wind can always find a way in!

I can’t bear sitting still and doing absolutely nothing at all. I don’t mind sitting still, but to do nothing feels like a waste of time. Reading a book isn’t easy to do with one hand. Even an iPad needs two hands, particularly if there is a small dog also wanting attention! I could just sit and watch tv but I would get really restless after a while. If Dr. Google had suggested a time limit of, let’s say, 20 minutes, I might have searched the freezer for something to put on my thumb for that length of time but, there was no hint of timing. I had visions of sitting with a wet packet of peas for hours at a time…..

So, then I thought, there must be a splint I could make using an old lolly stick*. I went to the place where I keep a cache of lolly sticks but they had all disappeared! I complained to Julian that I didn’t have anything to make a splint from and he heroically found an old paint brush that had finally become unusable and cut it in half so that I had a small stick. I wrapped it with cotton wool and stuck it on my thumb with a plaster. The plaster wasn’t long enough to go round my thumb and the stick with its covering, so I used some sellotape to keep it in place.

That worked! My thumb didn’t bend. But, the stick stuck out beyond my thumb making it difficult to do things, like pick up a saucepan, cuddle the dog, use my iPad. Nevertheless, I persisted, removing it that night so I could wash some of the day’s grime away, then putting it back on for the remainder of the night. In the wee hours of the morning I was aware that my thumb was hurting – it felt like the sling was burning hot. In my semi- awareness I tore the thing off my thumb, and fell back into full sleep. (The adhesive on plasters* has a bad effect on my skin and makes it feel like it’s burning.)

Next day I looked on Amazon for a thumb splint. Several days later I received a packet containing six or seven little items, some plastic, some metal. I tried one of the plastic ones. It hurt my thumb – it wasn’t big enough; I tried the one slightly bigger which was okay-ish. You try walking around with a flesh-coloured piece of moulded plastic on your hand! It gets in the way, it is slippery so you have to be really careful when you pick up a heavy bottle or a dinner plate, and you still have to take it off numerous times a day when you wash your hands as it gets wet inside and is even more uncomfortable. I did try one of the metal ones but it was even more uncomfortable and still had all the same problems.

Back to Amazon. (I’m too far from shops to go out and look.) I found a fabric thumb splint that holds your thumb in place and wraps around your wrist, using Velcro to hold it in place. I ordered one and waited till my delivery day for it to be delivered. It came. After a little fiddling about, I got it on and spent the day wearing it. I still had to remove it to wash but it’s not shiny plastic or metal and I can pick up stuff and even cuddle Lola with it on.

Now for the mystery.

Yesterday was Julie day. Julie is in many ways my best friend, She comes to see me every Tuesday, plays with Lola, sits and chats while we have a coffee, then cleans all the places I don’t! One week it’s the downstairs and the next it’s everything upstairs. Yesterday was upstairs and after we played with Lola and had coffee, up she went with vacuum, cleaning materials etc. At some point before that she nodded at my splint and asked if it is helping. I said that it was and that I wish it would get better more quickly – so I know that I had it on at about 2pm and that I was downstairs then and didn’t go upstairs until bedtime – when I realised I wasn’t wearing it.

I went into the kitchen where I must have removed it before cooking – I have to wash my hands, rinse out pans etc so don’t wear it while I’m doing all that. I couldn’t see it anywhere so I went into the lounge. Nope, not there where I sit and watch tv nor on the floor next to my seat, nor on the bookcases behind the sofa where I sit, not on the chair where Lola sits and looks out the window, nor in the waste paper basket, nor in the hall on the chair, nor in the downstairs loo, nor in the utility area – not in the washing machine or the dryer – nor in the conservatory.

By now it was a bit later than I normally go upstairs with Lola, when we go through our bedtime rituals of cuddling, singing (I do that), sweetie eating (Lola does that), changing out of clothes and into pyjamas (me, again) etc etc. All that time I was searching for my splint – and I kept on bending my thumb, which hurt! I knew it wasn’t upstairs but I still kept looking! (I’m sure there’s a name for that kind of thing!)

Then, after songs were finished and I was lying in my place on the bed, I thought of places to check next day. I went through all the things I had done when tidying and cooking and remembered several places it might be: the red bag for recycling paper and card – I had broken up some Amazon packaging and put it in the bag; the drawer where I keep the hand towels and the food recycling bags (they break down into compost), where I spent a few minutes searching under the towels for the little ‘sticks’ that I put down the drain to help it clear the built up solids that seem to get down there: under the cushion on my chair at the table…..

This morning I came downstairs, thinking about my thumb splint. I looked in the red recycling bag where I had thrown all the paper and card last night – no, it wasn’t there. I checked in the drawer with the towels and looked between them – no, not there. In the washing machine, in the dryer, in the bin where I throw away the dryer lint, in the kitchen again where I keep spare cutlery, the drawer with dish towels, the hand towel drawer again and………I spotted a familiar colour – splint colour! And there it was! It wasn’t between the towels, it was off to the side and I just hadn’t spotted it earlier!

I had, of course also looked in the fridge! Old demented ladies put stuff in the fridge or the oven. I’m not demented! Hooray! I’m just short sighted. 👵🏻

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*Lolly sticks – popsickle sticks

*plasters – bandaids

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