Tunisian Crochet

click pic to find on Amazon.com

I was tickled to see so many commenter's interested in Tunisian Crochet. I did not learn this from a website, however, if you Google it, you might find something worth looking at.

I learned from the book, Tunisian Crochet: The art of Knitting with the ease of Crochet by Sharon Hernes Silverman. Mind you, I didn't pay full price for it. Why should I when there are 50% off coupons floating around!

I seriously recommend this book if you want to learn to knit but can't for whatever reason. I didn't buy the book for the patterns, I bought it so I could learn the stitches and must say I am so glad I did. I will probably never use the patterns in the book. I'm more of a take-the-technique-and-design-my-own-stuff kinda girl!

I think some commenter's misunderstood why I cannot knit. I have what is called (are you ready?) Task Specific Severe Focal Hand Dystonia. I know, what a mouth-full! Basically what is going on is the area of my brain that controls motor function sends signals to my hands and forearm muscles to uncontrollably spasm while I am doing certain things (hence, task specific). You don't see the muscles spasming, I don't feel them spasming, I only feel pain for a few minutes and then the muscles lock up and don't move. I am choosing not to undergo treatment for the condition. When you read them, you will understand why!

Treatments:
1) One treatment is Botox injections into the muscles every 3 months, but the dystonia is so severe, I would need large quantities of Botox which would take 2-3 hours to inject and would greatly increase contracting botulism in my brain. Not an option.

2) Another treatment would be to have a pacemaker surgically implanted in my brain to stop the spasm signals. Okay, brain surgery is not an option for me unless it is to save my life.

3) The final treatment is narcotic muscle relaxers. Okay.....no!

So, I either don't do the things that aggravate the dystonia or learned to do things a different way or for shorter periods of time.

So far, the only things that aggravate it is:
- knitting
- writing
- holding a book while reading
- holding the phone
- driving for long periods of time
- hand sewing
- stringing beads by hand
- bowling....bowling of all things!
- long photography sessions

This will never become more severe than it is nor will spread to different areas, thankfully, but I am learning all the time things that I can no longer do, especially if I haven't done them in a long time. The good news is that you know me...I refuse to let anything get in my way of doing what I want to do. I will find a way to make lemonaide with any lemons that fall into my lap!!!

BTW...I did not get paid for this review. I am simply sharing this book with those interested in Tunisian crochet!

Wow...My Hand Keeps Cramping: Focal Hand Dystonia

So, I have been beading and creating for years. Literally. However, over the past 5-10 years, I have been noticing that my hand cramps to the point that my fingers lock up when doing certain things (stringing beads one by one on a string, crocheting, embroidery, hand sewing, writing, etc). I can understand cramping when you have been at it a long time, but we're talking after about 5 minutes, folks...10 minutes, tops.

I paid a visit to my doctor who sent me to a neurologist to explore the possibility of Carpal Tunnel. 'Great', I'm thinking, 'I hate surgery'. However, I failed every carpal tunnel test the neurologist put me under. After sitting for a few minutes with his arms crossed, his hand supporting his chin, he tried a simple exercise. He gave me a clipboard, paper and a pen and asked me to write. Sure enough, after several sentences, my hand started to cramp, my fingers started to lock and my handwriting began to change. I had always noticed this before, but just thought I was over-using my hand. He said that my hand was spasming while I was writing. Freaky.

His diagnosis? Focal Hand Dystonia (aka musicians cramp, aka writers cramp). Turns out, it is a neurological muscular disorder in which the basal ganglia in your brain sends signals to the affected area to involuntarily spasm. The spasm is what is causing the pain and the locking fingers. It is a very uncommon disorder afflicting persons of certain professions who use the same repetetive fine motor functions with thier hands. As a side note, dystonia can affect anything from your hands to your head to your whole body.

Well, I'm sitting there thinking, "Well, now what am I supposed to do? Beading and creating and jewelry is my business? I really don't want to close up shop and go back to the office!" Well, there are treatments. Unfortunately, there is not alot of research about this disorder and we really don't know alot about it. Drug therapy treatments are basically ineffective, the side effects of the drugs usually being worse than the benefit. Botox injections do help as they slightly paralyze the muscles that spasm without rendering your hand useless, but toxin injections? And you need them every three months. Physical therapy has shown to help in some cases. My plan of attack? I don't know yet. I have to go back to see a neurological muscular specialist to confirm the diagnosis and discuss treatments. All I know is I don't want to stop working on my business. I love doing this and am so complete in my life between business, family and God, that to give up my business would be very devastating to me. I don't know where things are going to go from here. All I can do is trust God that he will take care of me and that he knows exactly what he is doing. I'll tell you what, though. I am going to keep working my business, kicking and screaming all the way, until I absolutely cannot do it anymore. I think I may just design jewelry for shorter periods of the day...1/2 hour here, 1/2 hour there, etc, instead of 4-5 hours all at the same time.

I will keep you posted of the progression of this soon-to-be saga. For more information about Dystonia, visit the Distonia Foundation. If you think you or a loved one has dystonia, please get to your doctor!