April 18, 2013

Working At Home With Arm Troubles

It's difficult for me to work at home sometimes.  Even with my ergonomic setup I have been in pain lately.  I've semi-learned to not say anything about it.  I think I'll just blog about it.

If there's a problem, I like to solve it.  I'll go crazy if I can't.  Now days I try to find problems that I can pace myself on.  I can't do too much repetitive trial-and-error problem solving.  When a problem is on the hot plate, it usually turns into lots of poking and prodding.  I used to be able to attack a problem by diving in and trying all the different possibilities.  Go down a road, hit a dead end, back up and try the next.  I usually have a good sense of the problem space.  I'll know what rocks need to be turned over.  What paths to take.  What experiments to do.  Now, sometimes, it overwhelms and frustrates me.  I have the same drive to solve problems, only I can't solve hot-plate problems because of my arms.  Actually, I can solve them.  Only, it hurts.

It's very frustrating for me.

Sometimes I think I'm giving myself an excuse.  Sometimes I doubt myself.  However, I know for a fact, that at one point I was typing with my hands upside-down.  I know for a fact that when I recently tried programming in "the man cave" in a regular chair I couldn't do it without it being excruciating.  It was such a beautiful day.  I wanted to be out there.

Right now, I'm in pain.

If the neurologist is correct, which I doubt, this all stems from worn cartilage between my C5/C6 vertebrae.  If he is correct, this pain isn't a signal that I'm hurting myself more.  I can deal with pain.  I just don't want to exacerbate a problem.  The worry over that might cause tension which may hurt me more.  I don't know.

I don't like working at home when there are problems at work that need my attention.  I don't know what to do with those problems.  I feel like a waste sometimes.

Right now, I think I will chop some wood.  It really helps.  When I don't work a problem that I need to work on, I feel bad.  I sometimes drink beer to make myself feel better.  Chopping wood and drinking beer is what I want to do right now.  I'll try and just chop wood.  I'd rather be solving the problem.

It's frustrating.


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