A Painful Lesson About Need versus Want

After driving 51 miles every morning in rush hour traffic, I love relaxing while I sip coffee and do a puzzle from the Simon & Shuster Mega Crossword Puzzle Book.  When I do not know the name of a Greek God or other obscure facts, I look up the answer in the back of the book.  I have the satisfaction of doing a challenging puzzle while also finishing it.  Unfortunately, painful osteoporosis in my sound hand threatens my ability to drive a car one-handed.

Using paratransit to stay in my home would be difficult.  NJ paratransit can require riders to wait 40 minutes to be picked up and sometimes ride for an hour while other riders are delivered to their destinations.  It also has a two bag limit which requires multiple trips to the grocery store.  If I cannot find a way to make writing less painful, I will have to choose between something I love to do and driving which I need to do.  

Two adaptive devices that increase the diameter of a pen to discourage a tight grip did not work.  The hard plastic cylinder on the right has a tiny opening that does not accommodate my pens.  The soft tube on the left requires my painful hand to forcefully push the tube up onto the pen while I hold the pen in my mouth.  More pain is counter productive.  

My current strategy to make writing less painful has four parts.               1. Use double-sided tape to attach sticky Dycem to my pen.                         Increased friction means I do not have to grip as forcefully.              2.  Use a gel pen that allows ink to flow at a variety of angles.  

     Ball point pens are finicky about the angle you hold the pen.

3.  Put 2 or 3 fingers on top of the pen instead of the usual one.                     More fingers = less effort for each individual finger.                            4.  Keep all my fingers as straight as possible.  Bending my fingers               increases the pain. 

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