|
16 years ago, I started my career as a computer programmer and was loving the fact that I was doing the same thing in school but instead of having to suffer through exams, I got paid instead! Even back then, I would morph into a monster when I got into my "coding zone". A note would be stuck to the back of my chair with the sentence, "I am coding". People learned to stay away and I was left to speed type my hundreds and thousands lines of code in peace. I would start my days early and finish late as I was so consumed by my work. Occasionally, my fingers would lock up and it would take 10 seconds or so before I could move them again. That was when I first heard about Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. I learned that most computer programmers suffer from it. I was only 22, it was not possible... As I grew older, my career progressed and I coded less and less. There were times when my speed coding services were needed but it got progressively lesser and lesser. I forgot all about Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
3 months ago, my right hand started to get tingly sensations and would fall asleep at night. When the same thing began to happen night after night, I googled my old friend again. I learnt that 20% of pregnant women suffer from it just because the body accumulates too much water and blocks the little Carpal Tunnel nerve. There is basically nothing a pregnant woman can do about it as pain relievers such as steroids cannot be taken while being pregnant. It usually disappears within a few months to a year after giving birth. As my pregnancy progressed month after month, I began to notice that the tingly feeling crept into the day, and slight pain started creeping into the night. In other words, it began to get worse. I could still sleep and so I pushed the matter out of my head. Until this past Wednesday. The pain crept into the day and on that night itself, I woke up to an extreme sharp and throbbing pain that went from my hand all the way down to my elbow. I tried putting my hand under cold running water hoping to numb the pain to no avail. I wanted to scream and cry but all I could do was get back into bed and whimper as I knew there was nothing anyone could do about it. I rested my right arm across my chest and the pain subsided a little, after a while, I managed to fall back to sleep. Fortunately, the next morning was my scheduled visit to dr cool. I told him about my night. As expected (although I was still hopeful!), he confirmed that there is nothing anyone can do about it. The only other option was surgery, to which I declined, of course. And then he delivered my death sentence... he explained that it is aggravated by too many wrist movements and what he can do is write me a prescription for a wrist cast to keep my wrist still. How can I not move my wrist when typing or moving my mouse? What is a Computer Scientist who can't use a computer? He then gave me a medical certificate to cut down on my work. And so from the 1st till the 22nd of December 2011, I am allowed to only work at 50%. I was still hopeful when I came into work yesterday as I now know that wrist movements aggravates it. All I have to do is reduce my wrist movements and I will be ok, seems logical to me. Oh, how naive I was... when the evening came, the pain came as well... no amount of shaking or keeping my hand still could stop the pain. Eventually, I got up from the couch and went in search of something that could keep my wrist and hand still... This is what I found... old and broken stockings and rolled up old socks. With evil saint's help, we managed to get it around my wrist and keep it still enough. We are engineers after all and this is really putting our studies to good use! I could finally sleep last night... as you can tell, the need for sleep conquered all the vanity that I have... the time has come for me to hang up my speed coding gloves... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Update (Thursday 01 December 2011 10:31): Bought a proper wrist brace from the pharmacy last Friday evening. I can wear it all the time now  It was not cheap though...
| |
Friday, 25 November 2011
The Downfall of a Pregnant Speed Coder
Friday, 18 November 2011
Cheap Chinese in 80's Land
One month ago...
Two weeks ago...
Two days ago...
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
And so, the minute I arrived home from work that day, I opened up the gift bag and found lots of nice goodies for popcorn! Some nice items include,
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Collection of free gifts thus far!!! | All the items inside the Penaten blue bag... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This morning at breakfast...
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Monday, 14 November 2011
The Makings Of a Nursery (Part 1)
|
And so evil saint has returned home and completed the assembly of the wardrobe!
popcorn's nursery is slowly beginning to take its shape... it definitely still needs more decorative touches. We shall see what can be done as the weeks amble along... |
|
|
|
| popcorn's assembled crib. Transformable into a child's bed for when he is older. | popcorn's assembled wardrobe and chest. Note the little caterpillar on the crib! |
|
|
| The crib is positioned in the "center" of the room to enable access from all four sides. | The wardrobe is positioned at the corner of the room with the highest ceiling. The chest is positioned next to the wardrobe for easy reach. |
|
|
popcorn would like to say a huge thank you to his,
|
|
Friday, 4 November 2011
The Beginnings Of a Nursery
|
As I mentioned in my yesterday's post, all of popcorn's furniture was picked up by Saturday afternoon. On Sunday afternoon, after a hearty meal of raclette, evil saint began the assembly... I helped a little by holding panels, non of the heavy work. Even with my little contribution, evil saint got as far as assembling the crib and the chest with the changing table. Very good and hard work, I must say... And so, this is how a nursery begins to form... |
|
|
|
| The entrance to the nursery. The assembly tools are stacked on the right wall. | Cardboards are laid on the floor so the furniture can be assembled on it without scratching the tiles. |
|
|
| The assembled crib, drawer beneath the crib and chest! Pushed against the wall to make space for wardrobe assembly. | The still packaged wardrobe stacked against the wall waiting to be assembled. |
| Will have to wait for evil saint to come home to finish assembling the wardrobe. Then we can go pick up the cheap sofa and coffee table from Ikea and the nursery's furniture will be complete! | |
|
|
Thursday, 3 November 2011
Behold The Bread Making Monster!
| I blame my latest obsession on evil saint. Had he not spotted the recipe book on making bread with the bread maker, I would not have bought it and turned into the bread making monster that I am now... | |||||||||||||||||
| Pain Au Chocolat @ Chocolate Croissants | Light Lemon Yoghurt Bread Rolls | ||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
More Shopping For Popcorn
|
It has been a quite a busy 2 weeks. But let's get to the important and fun activities first. Retail Therapy aka Shopping for popcorn. We got a call mid last week informing us that popcorn's furniture is ready to be picked up. So off we went on Friday evening and Saturday morning to baguette land to pick up the furniture. We made 2 trips because,
|
|||
 All the furniture stacked up against the wall in popcorn's room. Ready for assembly! |
 Popcorn's cleaned and cleared room. Ready for the new and assembled furniture! |
||
|
Now, did you really think that I came home with ONLY the furniture? 
|
|||
|
|
|
|
Angelcare - Diapers bin
|
Basique! - Changing mat
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
Bèbè 9 Creation - Bathtub support
|
Bèbè 9 Creation - Bathtub
|
||
|
|
|
||
Looping - Foldable (Umbrella) multipurpose playpen.
|
|||
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)