Setbacks

          Bleh, its been too long, though I do have an excuse. A few year ago, I developed tendinitis. While February is always a bad month, I had hoped that this year would be an exception. And while its been a light month for pain thus far, tendinitis is one of those things that you can't just medicate away. It takes rest and that means not using your wrists for things. Which you wouldn't think would be difficult.
          Just don't write is what I hear all of you saying. How hard can that be?
          First off, I will respond to that by asking you to look at what you do right now during your evenings for fun. Now imagine you can't do it. Watching TV? Imagine you have a migraine for weeks that even Tylenol 3's don't fix. Music? Imagine you've fired a gun without the proper ear protection making you all but deaf for a while. Regardless of what your hobby is, being told you can't do it for a week or two is hard. (You runners or workout buffs know exactly what I'm talking about. Everyone slips or pulls a muscle eventually.)
          Secondly, if it was just my writing, it wouldn't be too bad. But I can't use my wrists. No cross-stitching, no reading, less house cleaning since lifting plates can be too heavy and hurt. No hours web-surfing... using a mouse hurts too, since it's primarily wrist movements.

I can't want to finish my current books to start reading this.

          One that has been enjoyable in the last week or so is my Goodreads book total. When I first developed tendinitis I found that having an e-reader saved by wrists. Thus, I can still read while (mostly) resting. Anyways, I'm up to 20 books so far. 16 novels and 4 graphic novels with 4 more novels in various states of "currently reading". Even at just 16 books this is a great total. It means that when I hit those weeks when I read absolutely nothing, I have a few novels already read to cover it.
          At any rate, I've taken about a week off, so I'm doing much better now. Still not pain-free, but I am when I'm not using them. As a trial, I wrote last night. Only until I started hurting, which ended up being about 400 words. I finished laying out the thought I was on and got to around 500 words.I consider that a complete win. I figure I'll now start adding writing back in to my daily schedules again. Only until I start hurting and then I rest for the rest of the day though. I'll work my strength back up slowly that way and still get stuff done.
          As an update, the Kitsune-Ken, book 2 manuscript is up to 38,318 words, around halfway through the novel, already, so I'm doing rather well. Considering that amount is just since January and I've been working full-time, I don't consider that a total to laugh at.
          So, that's been me (and my wrist is starting to feel it after all this work), so I'll sign off here. What have you been doing? Do any of you have any fixes for tendinitis beyond resting it?