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Wrist Updates and Figuring Out Where to Go Now
10 years ago
I wish I had good news and I guess in some ways good things do happen.
Full time work: Officially transferred positions to Quality Assurance, I'm now doing clerical things which is not nearly as mentally stimulating, but it is work I can do without too much pain. I miss lab work but the people I work with are supportive and the work is still relative to what I went to school for. I'm honestly just waiting for someone to retire higher up in the food chain so I can be a supervisor.
Wrist recovery: It's not really recovering. I have gone through another round of cortisone shots when the pain and throbbing was intolerable again. This time the doc has shown me it is a result of repetitive movements in my forefinger and thumb... you know the parts of your hands you use for everything! Urghhh. So the shot went into the thumb joint this time and that hurt a lot less than the first round, still hurt, but it wasn't as bad. The effect hasn't seemed to work as long this time and they are hurting quite a bit more. It's been difficult to determine if they are not getting better, the cold makes them suck, weather change makes them suck, or even a typing job is beyond me at this point in my recovery.
Doc doesn't want to pull the trigger on surgery yet. He says I am way too young for wrist surgery options that exists and they won't really take away my pain and the cortisone shots are at least helping me keep most of my mobility in my wrists.
Lawsuit: Yes I have a lawyer and things are moving forward. I am at the bill collection stage, which seems to be taking forever! While a big pile of money isn't going to fix my wrists, it sure would make me feel a lot better about all the pain I am in. It's so frustrating, every time I turn around money keeps going out and I miss the money coming in. I completed my taxes and I am a whole $7000 shy of where I should be this year. Between missed work, ZERO outside con commissions, reduced hours at Bottle and Bottega leading paintings for parties, and medical things to try and make the pain feel better it has made keeping up with bills quite a challenge. Yes I am staying afloat, but opportunities to have fun with my husband, buy little things here and there that I would like to have, even the down payment for a house have all been stripped from my life.
Seriously, my husband and I planned to have a home this year and get out of living in an apartment. Our apartment isn't terrible, it's rather nice to be honest, but I am so very ready to own a wall on both sides of it. If I want to install a shelf I don't want to think about having to take it down. If I want to paint a wall something not white I don't want to have to think about it. If I want to install a trellis for a vertical garden I don't want to be denied to drill into siding or the fence of the balcony! I am so ready for my life to move forward and I am stuck in limbo. I am beyond my means to take charge of my life, increase my pay, find commissions I can complete.
Art: I am so slow at creating it disgusts me. Etching hurts way too much right now. I can complete a project, but the downtime needed from the pain is weeks from just 30 minutes of etching time. Painting is slow, but doable. But I think all the people that watch me here are perfectly aware that badges have never been the bulk of my business. I'm a nobody on the painting front and my ability isn't up to par to be competitive. Being able to engrave custom glass right here right now anything a client wanted, that was my thing and it was something that made me start taking my business as seriously as I had been wanting to for years.
I wish I could open for commissions at the rates I need to turn a profit in 2015. But nobody is going to pay for painted badges from me at a dollar more than I am already charging... and what I charge doesn't really keep a steady flow of work coming my way. Laminations are awesome, but they are really only at cons and it's barely enough profit to cover conventions and the numbers of laminations per con haven't been increasing. So now I worry. I hate worrying. It's this relentless depression creeping into my life and I just don't have enough happening to disprove to myself that I'm not failing.
Full time work: Officially transferred positions to Quality Assurance, I'm now doing clerical things which is not nearly as mentally stimulating, but it is work I can do without too much pain. I miss lab work but the people I work with are supportive and the work is still relative to what I went to school for. I'm honestly just waiting for someone to retire higher up in the food chain so I can be a supervisor.
Wrist recovery: It's not really recovering. I have gone through another round of cortisone shots when the pain and throbbing was intolerable again. This time the doc has shown me it is a result of repetitive movements in my forefinger and thumb... you know the parts of your hands you use for everything! Urghhh. So the shot went into the thumb joint this time and that hurt a lot less than the first round, still hurt, but it wasn't as bad. The effect hasn't seemed to work as long this time and they are hurting quite a bit more. It's been difficult to determine if they are not getting better, the cold makes them suck, weather change makes them suck, or even a typing job is beyond me at this point in my recovery.
Doc doesn't want to pull the trigger on surgery yet. He says I am way too young for wrist surgery options that exists and they won't really take away my pain and the cortisone shots are at least helping me keep most of my mobility in my wrists.
Lawsuit: Yes I have a lawyer and things are moving forward. I am at the bill collection stage, which seems to be taking forever! While a big pile of money isn't going to fix my wrists, it sure would make me feel a lot better about all the pain I am in. It's so frustrating, every time I turn around money keeps going out and I miss the money coming in. I completed my taxes and I am a whole $7000 shy of where I should be this year. Between missed work, ZERO outside con commissions, reduced hours at Bottle and Bottega leading paintings for parties, and medical things to try and make the pain feel better it has made keeping up with bills quite a challenge. Yes I am staying afloat, but opportunities to have fun with my husband, buy little things here and there that I would like to have, even the down payment for a house have all been stripped from my life.
Seriously, my husband and I planned to have a home this year and get out of living in an apartment. Our apartment isn't terrible, it's rather nice to be honest, but I am so very ready to own a wall on both sides of it. If I want to install a shelf I don't want to think about having to take it down. If I want to paint a wall something not white I don't want to have to think about it. If I want to install a trellis for a vertical garden I don't want to be denied to drill into siding or the fence of the balcony! I am so ready for my life to move forward and I am stuck in limbo. I am beyond my means to take charge of my life, increase my pay, find commissions I can complete.
Art: I am so slow at creating it disgusts me. Etching hurts way too much right now. I can complete a project, but the downtime needed from the pain is weeks from just 30 minutes of etching time. Painting is slow, but doable. But I think all the people that watch me here are perfectly aware that badges have never been the bulk of my business. I'm a nobody on the painting front and my ability isn't up to par to be competitive. Being able to engrave custom glass right here right now anything a client wanted, that was my thing and it was something that made me start taking my business as seriously as I had been wanting to for years.
I wish I could open for commissions at the rates I need to turn a profit in 2015. But nobody is going to pay for painted badges from me at a dollar more than I am already charging... and what I charge doesn't really keep a steady flow of work coming my way. Laminations are awesome, but they are really only at cons and it's barely enough profit to cover conventions and the numbers of laminations per con haven't been increasing. So now I worry. I hate worrying. It's this relentless depression creeping into my life and I just don't have enough happening to disprove to myself that I'm not failing.
Hopeful_Monster_Studios
~hopefulmonsterstudios
:hugs:
expandranon
~expandranon
*squeezes* Fingers crossed for you, dragon.
