Unwilling left hand user's club... not recommended!

Hi all;
Eight days ago I fell off a low ladder and broke my dominant right wrist... Three days later, I had a very long five-hour surgery to repair it.
Let me tell you, that this sucks!  
I recall back in middle school a teacher telling us to practice using our off-hand to perform daily jobs. (Lots of broken bones in middle school)
My attempt's at this lasted all of a few moments and failed miserably...  my teenage brain decided that the proper answer was not to break any bones... It sounded like a good plan...
I followed that plan and I made it all the way to 63 and 11 months before deviating from that path!
I have always preferred to utilize the path that was less traveled... in this case, I took a WRONG TURN!
If I did not say it loud enough earlier... THIS SUCKS!
We all know about using the toilet problems... with one hand still functional, this was an easier procedure than I had anticipated! (Thank Goodness)
Try scooping up food off your plate with one hand...
How about pulling on your socks...
You better have some slip-on shoes as well...
Try buttoning your own pants...  however, a belt can be manipulated one-handed to keep those pesky pants from falling off.
It seems that just about anything you need to do will involve needing your dominant hand... ANYTHING!
Forget writing anything legibly...  the hospital must of had 20 different papers I needed to sign or initial...
Also, let us not forget about BUMPING your recently injured limb...  
Closing a car door... opening the hood to check fluids, requires using your head to get the prop rod in place... what ever happened to using springs to hold a hood up?
Oh yeah, my blue car is a 5-speed... the Black car is an automatic but it is still in the shop from meeting the deer at 70 mph...
So I get driven anyplace I need to go... Ask Liz, I am a great driver but a poor excuse as a passenger...
I am a voracious reader, dam good thing I have Kindle as page turning would be a bitch...

I could go on and on whining here and yes, I would enjoy some cheese to go with that...

The bottom line is... Children, Don't Do this at home or anyplace else!  (IT SUCKS)

I'm so sorry you and Liz are going through this....
Yes, breakage sucks. Sucks rocks. Suck mossy rocks. Sucks slimy mossy rocks....  :D
HUGS to you and her both! I'm sure this is just as hard on her!!

I damaged my right shoulder badly, I had a clutch too, the only person I had to help me get places is a BAD BAD BAD driver, and I am also a bad passenger, so I had him only shifting from gear to gear when told to do so. I could do the rest!

I am one of the people who tries to get others to practice using both hands, and doing things without vision.
Few will do it, and it's sad when they need it.
Our habits eat us if we don't watch them.
Seriously, y'all, think about it. if you can't do (whatever) the way you are used to, it can be a major problem!! And one of the easy ways to plan ahead is to learn to do important things with both hands.

Hospitals and waiting rooms seem to be built into the aging process.  An old friend once told me the first rule of life is don’t do dumb things.  I have tried to follow that principle. The problem is, I seldom know if something is dumb until after I do it.

one of several dumb things i’ve done with a machete (for the record, lessons were very much learned each time) left my dominant hand heavily bandaged while i was living alone out of the country.

the letter i sent to my folks, describing the incident, was an amazingly messy but still somehow legible masterpiece listing the benefits and shortcomings of the socialized-medicine experience i had just had. it might have also qualified as a dumb thing that i decided to join a small group doing a several-mile-through caving expedition the next day.

I admit I'm a borderline ambi, but one with genuine understanding about how different brains can be.

The school system has traditionally pushed right handedness, and only tolerate left-handedness in many places even today. They absolutely push "dominance" and I'm sure they've got their reasons, but I always saw that as short-sighted.

Just think - the more you have to move your ladder, the more chances of a fall. If I'm washing windows, I was to the left of the ladder with my left hand and to the right of the ladder with my right hand - totally safer and half as much ladder moving!

But alas, Hubby just can't... he just can't...  I've met other people who were similar. They are simply so strongly dominant, that the struggle could easily seem beyond hope and patience.

I still encourage everyone to try. My neighbor lost most of the function in her right hand after a bad infection. She's not coped well.
Start with the small easy stuff, like wiping the counter with your non-dominant hand, switching which hand you use your fork in etc.
Then move on to the hard stuff - admitting that you *have* to slow down and accept that your non-dominant hand will take longer, feel awkward, take more mental energy and that you should make it do it anyway!

Sorry you're having to go through this Thomas, but hopefully you will come through it stronger. That said, "FIVE HOURS of surgery"??? Is it gold plated with super heavy duty servos in it now? Was it that bad a break, or does that tell you your bones need some support? Lot's of bone broth and some comfrey tea? Get well soon!

The original guestimate was apx. 2hrs...then they "cat" scanned it...
After seeing what a fine job I had done breaking it, it took five!
Plates and screws top and bottom,  quite the fracture! Metal detectors beware!
I'm lucky the shards did not come thru the skin.
The nurses did comment that my doctor (Hand/wrist specialist) was very slow and precise.  (I like that in my doctor)

I broke my left arm (which I do most stuff with) if 5th grade. The teacher did NOT compensate me for the fact I had to use my right hand to write, draw, etc. I received poor grades during that time. Like the last post, I am semi-amb. also. You should determine your dominate eye because that will tell you what you should be. I didn't find this out until I was an adult stationed overseas. Come to find out my left eye is my dominate eye (I shot left handed anyway, and dang those hot shells ejecting from an M-16 sure did hurt.) That explains why I couldn't make my shots in basketball. A bit messed up here, I dribble with my left hand, but shoot with my right since for some unknown reason I throw with my right hand. That is overhand only, underhand is with my left hand so I bowl and do horseshoes lefthanded. So I know exactly how it feels. The good thing is I was a kid. Had to spend 2 nights in traction in the hospital. Broke it in 3 places, from the wrist all the way up to the "top" bone.

Way back, what feels like a millennia ago, I was (unexpectedly thrust into the position of being) my older daughter's girl scout troop leader. With a baby on my hip, I was acutely aware of how difficult it could be to be even partially incapacitated, and the sudden challenge of having to come up with activities for these girls, to prepare them for the unexpected. In the first meeting after this responsibility being dumped into my lap taking on this joyful journey, as I was grumbling under my breath about the difficulties of it, in general, much less with only the use of half my body, when I realized THAT would be a great thing to teach these impressionable 4th graders!

The next day, I contacted the school nurse, and secured the use of their emergency wheelchair, for our next meeting (not every school keeps them, but there were several kids with various physical disabilities, there, so they did). Then, I took a child-sized sling I had on hand (thanks to my son🙄), and a pair of bandanas, to our next meeting. The girls laughed & giggled a lot, when we first started our field trip, with one in the wheel chair, one with her arm in the sling, one with a bandana over her eyes, and another with one over her mouth, not as an actual gag - only as a reminder that she was, in effect, mute. They took turns, learning what it was like, in each of those positions, as well as how to be on the lookout, while guiding someone with various disabilities or pushing a wheelchair. The lesson was multifaceted; be patient, kind, understanding, and when possible, be helpful, when you come across someone who is struggling with a disability, whether long or short term; be aware of your surroundings, because you never know when you'll have an accident or illness, or someone else will have an accident that could hurt you; stuff happens, and you could be the one in these very real predicaments, so learn how to compensate for injuries - before you need them. Their giggles didn't last long, as we meandered through the school and schoolyard, and they got a tiny taste of the very real difficulties so many face. As we went along, we talked about ways to help, to be prepared, and how someone in those positions probably feels just from being in those positions, as well as in dealing with the many obstacles - like getting that wheelchair over the rough schoolyard, or up a ramp.

I'm so glad your surgery was successful, and that you have such an awesome partner, in Liz. You'll figure it all out, but please stay patient, and take the time your body needs, to heal properly. You'll thank yourself, later. Hugsss!!

Just returned from the doctor's office.
Stitches are removed, splint is removed, X-rays are taken and I now have a removable brace!
Wow, my arm feels #10 lighter!
I need to wear this brace almost full-time for the next month, but It can be removed for showers and for 15 minutes of exercise three times a day.
I received two steel plates and 14 screws... I did a good job of fracturing it.
Doc is very pleased with the healing and my movement after only eight days.
He said physical therapy should not be needed.
I am eating a homeopathic remedy every little while (Symphytum) Comfrey and ibuprofen as an anti-inflammatory.
I have class-A pain pills but try not to use them.

So my new Wen electric log splitter arrived yesterday.
This morning I dragged it into the studio woodshed and set it up.
The very first thing I had to do was to defeat one of the safety assemblies.
In order to make themselves liability free they put two safeties in place requiring 2 hands to operate it.
A lever that must be held down and a separate button that needs to be pushed in order to make the ram move.

Well, that will just not do for me, what with being a one-handed operator these days.
So I wrapped a bungee cord around the one lever to keep it applied.
I can easily lift that lever to allow the ram to retract.
Currently, I just need to press a button to start the pump.
I have ordered a foot pedal to eliminate that button as well!
Look Ma no hands!

Splitting this way is slow.
I could get twice as much done with my Fiskars X-27 splitting axe BUT...
I need a completely healed wrist before I try that, same for running the chainsaw.
Until then I'm using my Wen electric splitter and having the boys come run my chainsaw.

This is splitting...

We do almost all our splitting with our little electric splitter.

Yes, the double interlock is a PITA, but mostly we've been living with it. I may see if a bungee will work on ours.

However, on ours the button is also very low down which my back could not tolerate. A friend gave us a junk coffee table with 5x5" legs and if we're doing a lot, I make Hubby lift it up onto the table. Occasionally, we've used the back of the trailer to hold it as the height is similar.

We ended up with a bunch of "shorter than stove length" wood so we also welded a piece of square tubing to a strong flat plate that we can tuck in between the ram and the back of the wood - not the safest mod, but very handy and I always were lots of safety gear to reduce the risk. I'm not sure I'd use it on hard to split wood, but most of ours is pretty easy splitting.

Hi Jay;
Yes, that little button is a pita.  That is what the new foot pedal will replace.
I will zip-tie the button down, and the foot switch will control the power.
My splitter did come with a stand but the rough terrain by the woodshed makes it unstable.

Hey Dennis;    
Yup, that is a real splitter.
The small wood that I burn,  is easy to split.
A 22-ton gas splitter would be serious overkill.

Now that I own one...
I'm hoping to set this splitter on its own little trailer.
With 6vt batteries, a 2000-watt pure sine inverter, solar panels, Oh, and a large umbrella to shade the operator.
Mobile wood splitting without a gas engine screaming.

But alas, Hubby just can't... he just can't...  I've met other people who were similar. They are simply so strongly dominant, that the struggle could easily seem beyond hope and patience.

I've got one I don't think I've shared before. Years ago I was having lunch with my parents. Dad knocked a crown off, I think it was, on my mother's fine home cooking. He was lamenting how he couldn't chew and I asked why he didn't just chew on the other side, did he have a bad tooth on the other side too? He said no, he just can't chew on the other side. Mom and I are perplexed.

"Why can't you chew on the other side?" I asked.

He said, "Because I'm...I'm...right......mouthed." Mom and I burst out laughing, but he didn't see the humor in it.

He's always been that way. He can't drive a nail left-handed worth a cuss. He seems to genuinely think he can't do a lot of stuff left-handed. I've always wondered if it was just in his head, or a matter of simply never trying, or if there is an inherent mental block that actually makes it virtually impossible for some people to use both hands.

One I don't understand: for me, it has always been more natural to shoot a bow right-handed, but a slingshot left-handed. It's the same basic action. I can do either either way, and over the years the difference in the natural feeling has become less pronounced, but it has always perplexed me.

I need to split hard wood, mostly maple since that and yellow/white birch is all we have in the Northeast. Still burning wood, cold week. Counting flats I probably burn 7-9 cord a year.

Hi all;
It's been seven weeks since my fall.
I went to see the surgeon last Thursday.  He was very impressed with my progress.
I no longer have to wear the brace!  
More important I am allowed to run the cordless chainsaw!!!
He said to work it until it hurts and then back off.
Of course, I have been doing that since the day I hurt it...
I have been chomping at the bit to cut up my firewood deck, after all a new truckload will be arriving later this summer.
It took me two days to get the pickup loaded but I got it done.
My left arm is stronger than ever before!  My right arm would still lose an arm wrestling match with an infant...
It gets a little stronger every day!

Thomas, your wound looks like it is healing really well and all that wood looks great, too.