Hand jive or jive hand?

I’m not going to lie. My right hand is shot.

It wasn’t enough for Multiple Sclerosis to take away my legs’ ability to walk. Over the last few months, the disease has started to affect my dominant hand’s ability to open up and function.

Imagine trying to pick up a fork with a closed fist. Yeah, it’s kind of like that. It is so frustrating.

And my hand is connected to my arm, which is getting more and more weak. So, once my hand decides to work so I can grab a spoon and dig into some Cheerios, I struggle to lift the delicious breakfast to my mouth.

What a way to start the day.

This isn’t something I’m taking lightly. I mean, I had sessions with an occupational therapist. I had a hand brace specially crafted for my right hand, which I wear in the evenings to help it stretch. And I’m exercising several times each week with Central Michigan University doctor of physical therapy students as well as with Dan and my caregiver, Marcus.

I’m hopeful that continued concentration on exercises to strengthen my hands and arms, coupled with my upcoming Rituxan infusion, will help to alleviate some of this MS weakness.

But the worst part has been my difficulty putting pen to paper and writing. Everything from checks to grocery lists, birthday cards and taking notes at church meetings.

Yeah, I used to journal too. But writing my thoughts with this hand? Please.

And this is where Dan and my role as Self-Care Ambassadors for Health Storylines truly is adding to my quality of life. You know those regular self-care challenges we’ve presented here on our blog to help us all take better care of ourselves?

Through these efforts, I learned to utilize the Health Storylines app to track my progress, daily moods and overall well-being. And a helpful feature that I started regularly using is the “My Journal” tool.

What’s so incredible about this tool is that, when coupled with the voice-recognition feature on my cellphone, I can speak into my phone and it transcribes everything I’m saying right into My Journal on the app.

No hands required 🙂

It feels good to express my thoughts, frustrations and successes and to have them all in one place. Just saying things out loud and getting them out there helps to ease my mind. And then I always can go back and reread them when I need a shot of inspiration to remind me that I have and can make it through the toughest of days.

I never expected that my cellphone and this app would become my go-to place to journal. But, then again, I never expected I’d have this much trouble with my dominant hand.

The Health Storylines app truly has served as a key tool in helping me with my self-care, and I encourage you to check it out and see how it can help you with taking better care of yourself … because you are important!