I manage three household tasks: Washing and putting away dishes, washing and folding laundry, shopping and putting away groceries. I do these things one-handed, which means I get things done only slightly faster than Congress. Imagine moving wet laundry from washer to dryer with one hand; moving dishes from rack to cupboards with one hand; carrying grocery bags from car to house one bag at a time.
The BIGGER problem is that I should be using my injured hand to assist with these tasks because that is the only way to retrain it. I can't expect that just because I improve at my formal hand exercises, I'll be able to grasp a T-shirt and fold it, or drop silverware into the correct slot in a drawer. I am going to have to practice these things repeatedly. However, when I attempt to do these things with my affected hand I often get so frustrated I default to using the good hand so I can get the job done.
It reminds me of my working days as a manager trying to implement an improved business process at the same time that daily business needed attending to. How can a business slow down productivity now for the sake of developing a system that allows it to become more efficient later?
Of course the Big Boss always wants both: Do it now and do it better. And in this case, I am the Big Boss. Sigh. Too bad I can't just fire myself and bring in somebody younger.
