Remember a few weeks back when I complained about my wrists aching from the Stairmaster?

Well, the pain is back …and with a vengeance.

I’ve spent the last week avoiding the stairmaster – and just about every upper body machine and free weight – due to excruciating pain radiating from both wrists.

I felt fine last Friday when I spent the day kayaking with my mother, and honestly don’t remember feeling any pain Saturday morning after spending two hours on the stairmaster, but sometime between Sunday and Monday, a terrible burning and stabbing pain began to radiate from both wrists and it hasn’t abated.

Per a quick symptom search on WebMD, I could have anything from carpal tunnel (doubt it, mainly because I’ve had it before and this is about 1,000,000x worse), to rheumatoid arthritis (oh, please no!) to gout.

Really? Gout? I didn’t realize it was 1615. I better warn the serfs that I shan’t be returning on the ‘morrow.

Following the advice of my dear friend Lonnie-Lou, I’ve been popping ibuprofen and icing both wrists, and steering clear of anything that might put further stress on them …other than typing, of course, because I literally couldn’t function in my daily life without my laptop.

Boy, you don’t realize how much you use your wrists for every day activities until they’re painfully sore with every movement.

Oh, did you want to zip your dress? Yeaaaaah, that’s not happening.
Scratch the back of your head? NOPE.
Heck, even brushing my teeth and combing my hair has become a dolorous, painful process.

While this is cramping my style a bit, I’m taking it super easy this week at the gym, sticking to lower body movements and hands-free elliptical, and doing what I can to not injure my wrists any more. If the pain isn’t gone by next week, I’ll be seeing a specialist.

Let’s hope it’s not the “king’s illness” (aka, the nickname for gout), and I won’t have to give up my red wine habit.

On that note… bon appetit, everyone!

~ Tori