1 more reason why I am not perfect

Today I have something completely different to share with you, and this is a post which I've been wanting to write for quite awhile now. A discussion in one of my Facebook groups inspired me to actually sit down and write it.

In case you hadn't noticed, I am not perfect. My manicures most definitely are not perfect. I've mentioned my tremor in the past. What you all may not have noticed is my pinkie finger. Here are some old pictures of mine so you can see what I'm talking about.

 See how my pinkie finger kind of curls in this picture?

In this one, my pinkie is nicely resting underneath my ring finger.

In this one, my pinkie is slightly resting over my ring finger.

So what am I getting at with all of this?

Several years ago, I was working on typing up some homework and I just kind of ignored the fact that my left hand was tingling. I wanted to get my work done, and I had noticed this before so I just ignored it and kept working. The day went on, I continued with my work, I shovelled snow. Still, my fingers felt like they were asleep. Something like 36 hours later, they were still tingling. OK, something isn't right here. Eventually it got to the point where I was in quite a bit of pain in my wrist through my elbow. I couldn't even hold a cup or do anything with my left hand. I had to learn how to use just one hand.



Eventually, I did go to the doctor and after some testing it was concluded that though I had no nerve damage I did have ulnar neuropathy. The simplest way that I can think of to describe ulnar neuropathy is that it's like carpel tunnel except it effects the other side of your wrist and typically effects the pinkie and ring fingers. I already knew what it was before I went to the doctor because my boyfriend just so happens to have the same thing in his arm due to an injury. Years later, I discovered this condition is almost always limited to men. So of course I'm the lucky oddball to have it.

 Please pardon my ugly hideous nails for this demonstration. Also my very red fingers. I'll get into that medical problem some other day :P Anyway.. that right there is about how far I could straighten my last two fingers at the time of the initial injury. They simply would not lift any higher than that.

I found that the only thing which helped my neuropathy was to wear an elbow brace which was hideous and awful and I hated it. I wore it for a good long time.. maybe a year or two, I forget exactly. Eventually, my body did heal itself enough that I no longer have to wear the brace. I no longer have all of the pain in my wrist. In fact, I can now carry at least 25 pounds worth of groceries for several minutes. I've come a long way. I do still have days such as today, when I have some very mild pain. In general though the biggest symptom is that a lot of times my pinkie finger just won't go where I want it to go so I end up having a few pictures like the ones above. If you don't like it, please consider your own imperfections first!

I decided to try to show you guys how limited my movement was with my fingers back then. So this first picture is a recreation of how limited I was. As you can see.. even now my pinkie doesn't want to rest where it's supposed to.

(and no.. I'm not trying to do gang signs or any other such thing in the picture below LOL)

 ... and now! Back to pretty much full movement!

Anyway, I just wanted to post this because I know one of the things about being a nail blogger is that we worry and worry because our pictures are not perfect. There are a lot of excellent bloggers out there who do seem to have almost perfect pictures (*ahem* Photoshop). I most certainly am not one of them.