Mommy tells me that I was always right handed. The right got even more dominant when I broke my left arm in a swing parachuting accident at the age of 7. The trend continued at 17 when I fell off the railing on our deck and broke left radius and ulna once again.
I was so right handed by the time I started Grove City College that I was too predictable on the basketball and volleyball courts so I decided to take action. It's not only red shirt kindergartners who do things to push the competitive edge.
That summer I was left handed. Wallet and keys were manipulated by the sinister side from my left pockets and my right hand rarely touched the basketball as I played on our driveway. By the end of summer break, I was less predictable on the court since I could shoot and dribble left handed. I'm still strongly right handed, but not exclusively.
I was also forced to learn how to turn wrenches left handed. Sometimes you're lying on your back under a car and reaching up through a crevice with your right hand is just not possible. So you switch. It's a great exercise in spatial reasoning.
Then I got old and started having carpal tunnel problems in my right wrist. It ached during the day and the pain was present on the bicycle ride every morning and afternoon so I decided to try my sinister trick again. I switched the mouse buttons on my laptop and, within a week, the pain that had been present for months was essentially gone.
Now I'm left handed again since the thumb tendon in my right wrist is bothering me. It's improving already as I use my cell phone with my weak hand.
Would my doctor have recommended this method? Probably not. He would splint it, tell me not to use it so much, recommend some NSAIDs, and then consider surgery.
I wonder what it's like to be left handed in a right hand dominant world. I guess Elias will tell us since all signs point toward a sinister first-born son.
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