Does Your Craft Cause You To Have an Recurring Injury?

I also love to do some crafts like crochet,embroidery and cross stitch. It hurts my fingers esp in the morning i can't close open my fingers and it hurts so much. So,i was advised not to wet my hands each time i am done with my crafts or use hot/lukewarm water to wash my hands and also having some hands/fingers massage before going to bed. Now i can do and enjoy my crafts without the trouble of getting hurt or harm with my hands and fingers. Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy mylot and your crafts as well.

It’s a common joke amongst my sewing class that it’s only a matter of time before I stab myself in the thumb or elsewhere. I’m the only one to need to use the first aid kit! One time I literally sewed my finger to what I was stitching, straight through the skin on the side of my finger. My partner was laughing his head off!

I don't have any problems, but I have problems when I use the computer for a long time. Not sure if my symptoms are carpel tunnel syndrome are not.

yes, believe it or not, i have actually ripped a tendon in my right wrist from crocheting! it often bothers me (as well as arthritis) while i crochet but i love to do it.

yep, I have carpal tunnel....I pay when I work on my crafts. The last few days I spent pinning the binding on a quilt I am making. I really need to wear my brace when I work my crafts, but I seldom do. We will start bowling soon, which also does my wrist no good. I do wear a bowling brace when I bowl. In fact, I tend to wear a smaller bowling brace instead of my other one during other times since it's smaller and less restraining on my hand movement while I crochet and such. Marsha

Like so many that live in the computer age, I have a permanent injury. Mine was more work related due to being on the computer for so many hours at a time. During that time I was also designing and teaching to keep my sanity after a 60+ hour work week so I was really pushing my limits for my hands and arms. I stopped doing any kind of craft and stopped teaching for almost 3 years when my injury got bad enough that I had to stop working. I was not considered 'disabled' because I could still work, just in a ton of pain. Working with pain was not really an option I wanted to consider so I stayed home to take care of my son while my husband assumed the role of main income earner. During those three years, I went to massage therapies, chiropracters, different pain specialized doctors and clinics, tried different exercises and pain medications and nothing really helped. I decided to pick up my crochet hook and knitting needles again after a too, too long break and started working on small projects. I found that I could work on these fairly pain free and have worked my way into finding more and more 'small' project crafts that I could dive into and stay sane. I not only knit and crochet, but I've gotten myself into beading and lace making. I continue going to the chiropracter, which really seems to help, but as long as I insist on being on the computer I continue to feel pain. Yes, the crafting does aggrivate the injury some, but at least for me, it's more of an issue to being on the computer. During my craft free years, I also gave up the computer for about 6 months, and that seemed to make a difference, but without any kind of communication I was about to make myself insane. So, at least for me, I've learned what my limits are and try to stick to them in order to keep myself as pain free as possible. I know I'll never be able to go back to work doing the same job, but I'm happy with my small projects and limited computer time and taking care of my son. :-) :-) You may need to try to find what works for you as well in order to prevent your recurring injury to become permanent or worse... it took me 9 years of living with this injury to finally figure it out - I hope that it's a lot easier for you than it was for me. :-) :-)

I don't feel so alone now! My wrist and fingers both hurt when I knit too much, but I keep doing it. It's one of the things that I enjoy doing and it will take more than that to stop me. I also work on the computer and at first, blamed it on that, but when I don't knit for a few days, it doesn't bother me. I'd rather the computer hurt it than the knitting. LOL

yea,i'm sure it's damaged my eyes..and lungs,depending on which craft. sometimes my back hurts from leaning over long periods.i take more breaks now than i used to LOL what can you do tho..

WHen I get back into crocheting I have pains in my wrists and on the side of my hands until I get used to it again. I also had neck pain from being on the computer so much....and also in my left arm. I try to sit differently now...