(UPDATE) Personal health update (Wrist pain) (Patreon)

Edit 2: I saw the Psychal therapist yesterday! And good news; I can keep drawing :> She told me to take small breaks every hour, don’t overextend/bend my wrists or neck and to incorporate a 20 min activiry where I get my pulse up. She also cracked me up a little and did some psychal tests on me to see how my condition is. Afterwards she let me know that I’ll be alright soon enough since I’m young, but to invest more into ergonomic office furniture. I’ve been following her tips and so far I must say the tingling has subsided by a lot.

I actually hope Im somehow able to complete this months rewards, since I really do need this months pay… I’ll see about it. But for now, everything seems to be going in a good direction! Thank you all for your patience.

Edit: Going to see a psychal therapist the 23rd of august! Hoping it will speed up the healing process.

Hi again every bun! This post is important, and it’s going to be a bit more personal than my usual updates… It’s would mean a lot if you read it through, but if you can't there's a TLDR at the bottom ❤️

If you’ve been following my twitter, or kept up with my discord server, you might have seen me talking about my possible development of carpal tunnel syndrome in my right hand (the hand in the picture above!). I’ve been experiencing symptoms of small achy pain in my wrist (the aches is mostly felt in my wrist bones) and a tingling sensation through my thumb & forearm. This first happened the night of August 7th, after a long drawing session. I thought at first it was due to me cracking/popping my wrist too hard since that has caused slight discomfort in the past. Usually that discomfort goes away for me overnight or in another day. But as I tried drawing again the morning after, I felt a weird pain in my wrist that I had never experienced before. It was (and still is) only minor, but it spooked me enough to immediatly stop drawing and rest my wrist as much as possible. That’s when I also started experiencing tingling.

It’s now been 4 days since this happened, and I’m still experiencing symptomes. I've obviously done some research, and it all suggest it's carpal tunnel syndrome. Since the symptomes haven't resided yet, I feel the need to communicate to you all what my current situation is. I’ve never had anything like this in my life, regardless of working long hours without any stretching/breaks (and I mean NEVER in my 21 years of life) and so I thought I’d have to really overwork myself (like work even more than my regular drawing sessions) to fall prone to it. Yet, as far as I’m aware, all it took was a normal drawing session to suddently trigger it. Since I've never experienced this before, I'm currently panicing a little bit due to how serious and severe carpal tunnel can get.

While the symptomes are currently mild, I am terrified they won’t heal or they’ll get worse. I might come across as dramatic as its only been 4 days, but drawing is my whole life. It's like loosing vision in your right eye and waiting for it to come back. I’ve been resting, using my wrist as little as possible, doing stretches/wrist exercises, wearing my wristbrace support, and yet the symptomes haven’t subsided. When I think I get better, it was just a wave of little to no symptomes and then it comes back again. I just hope that carpal tunnel isn’t something that’s going to be a reoccurring situation for me. That this is just a rare incident. It’s also the fact that the more time that passes while I can’t draw, the less time I'll have to make content for you all…

Another thing I've been personally struggling with these past days while making little/no art, is my personal fear of gradually loosing my ability to draw. Or getting worse at it overall because I’m forced to abruptly stop over a period of time. I know that this is something that my brain made up and it isn’t possible over such a short period of time, but It just frightens me that I can’t draw… It hurts that I can’t practice what I love, that I can’t incorporate the new things I learn into my art to improve my own craft. The feelings of joy and urge to draw is so immense that I get incredibly frustrated when that choice is ripped out of my hands. It doesn’t help that just last month I couldn't draw much either, due to the whole ordeal around my tablet breaking. And then when I get it back… boom. Carpal tunnel. As a personal fuck you to the core of my being. Even more frustrating is the fact that I start college in 4 days (15th of August) and I’d REALLY like to be able to draw again so I can participate in my classes

Regardless.. This is just disheartening to me. I’m reluctant to say, but due to the sheer helplessness I feel over the situation I can’t help but cry. I will probably be fine soon enough, so please don’t worry. I took action fairly early on of noticing the symptoms, and i’m only experiencing mild ones so far. doing treatment + using prevention methods will likely make this go away in another week or so of rest. Until then, I will not be drawing AT ALL before I’m 100% sure I’ve recovered. I absolutely do not wish to make the symptoms worse or cause permanent damage to myself. That being said, I have ordered a doctors appointment thats set to August 30th. I will get a checkup on my wrist then (even if it’s healed by then, I will still go to be safe).

When it comes to delivering Patreon rewards, it entierly depends on how long my wrist requires to heal. If I cannot deliver on these rewards, I will refund everyone billed in August by the 1st of next month. Hopefully I can, though.. Drawing for you guys has been one of the most enjoyable things for me.

That’s all for now. I’ll still be active on my socials (Twitter, Discord, Patreon, etc) If anything else happens I will keep you updated. Crossing my fingers this all works out quickly!

TLDR:

Developed pain in my right wrist 4 days ago, which i highly believe is related to carpal tunnel syndrome. I will not draw until I'm 100% sure the symptoms are gone. The healing might take a week or more. If I cannot deliver Patreon rewards due to too little time left by the end of the month, everyone billed for August will receive a refund by September 1st. I'll update the situation if anything else happens.

Thank you so much for reading.

Love, ImaBunBun ❤️