I’ve smoked tobacco, I guess you could say, since I was 6 or 7 and stole 2 cigarettes from my mom to smoke with a homie. I’ve successfully quit many times over the past 65 years but I recently gave up giving up things I like and now smoke with abandon.
I’ve lived most of the past 40 years well under the poverty line and when generic cigs moved beyond $3/pack I started rolling my own.
Three nights ago at 2 AM I got out of bed for a piss run. I noticed that my right hand seemed paralyzed. I had a floppy hand; when I held my forearm horizontally the hand drooped. I couldn’t raise it at my wrist and my thumb and pinkie had lost much utility. I couldn’t shaka or hold up my thumb to hitch hike. My first thought, of course, was that I’d suffered a stroke. I got a neighbor out of bed and he drove me to the ER.
It was decided that I had not had a stroke but had a pinched nerve. I was fitted with a really cool black plastic and velcro wrist brace and sent on my way. Many years ago, long story, I’d had pinched nerve and a floppy left foot; flap, right, flap, right for 6 months when one morning it was gone. It was not a great prognosis.
You don’t realize what a convenience having a working wrist and thumb is until you don’t. This is especially true if you must roll cigarettes. I tried rolling several times and then just gave up and began to think about quitting and that The Universe had sent me message.
Madness! I said after a day and a half of self-pity. I started a regimen of home rehab which had as it’s linchpin … rolling cigarettes. Finally, last night, success. Today, I’m rolling fine, I can get my hitching thumb up and can almost shaka. I can also raise my hand (with some effort) above horizontal. You can do anything if you put your mind to it.
Thanks. Update: when I wrote the above, I figure that I was at 40% recovered … now maybe 60%. Progress. Funny aside: I actually roll faster and more consistently now. Nothing like a little mindfulness to make things right.
I don’t know. I live on the arid (10 in/yr) west end of Kauai. Over here the big seed cos, Syngenta and Pioneer, grow experimental soy and corn. Apples? I think we import them. Aloha
Update: 75% recovered … still find wrist brace useful. Let you know when I finally stash it in my first aid kit … for what? Just to be free of it. Aloha
One I hope to get along without.
