Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Hard to open plastic shrink wrapped stuff

Thanks Sweetie..from a few years ago but I still look like that....pttttt! for the most part!..lol

You are not losing your mind Lisa I make mistakes like this too and I don't think its Scoob playing tricks on me.

lol Kev..I was sure hoping..lol when I find the car keys in the kitchen sink I begin to wonder..lol

if it makes you feel any better, i don't think anyone can open those packages these days. i give them to my husband who does not have arthritis and he struggles. some days i think he's gonna take and smash the package up against the wall! i can't even cut most of that stuff with a pair of scissors anymore, but i still like to think its the packaging and not me! i try to buy things with as little packaging, for the environment, that helps.

the worst thing is the prilosec! i have to have my husband push them out of the foil packaging; can't believe they would design drug packaging like that!

love that youtube with larry david in it. its so funny cause i think everyone can relate, LOL!

when i was going to the hand therapist for my hands, she spent a day showing me items in a catalog that would make my life easier: occupational therapy. one discovery was gel ink pens instead of ball point. i never looked back. uniball are by far the easiest on my hands. expensive, but so worth it. i also have a bad habit of chewing on my pens, that's a real problem with gel ink pens!

donna (avonlady) recommended a picker upper thingy for when i couldn't bend. excellent idea.

back when i was in my late 30s and doing worse then than now, my stepfather asked me, "if you are like this now, how will you be when "you get old"?" and i just told him i was taking it one day at a time as i had no idea. well, even though my arthritis is worse, i'm better at managing it in between the flares day to day for the most part. and i always hold out hope that i will find a drug to make things even better. life is just too unpredictable.

sorry you are going through such a bad patch right now
hope things improve.

Hi Magician,

I know exactly how this feels. Although, as bad as my handwriting has become over the years, I still have better handwriting than my wifey though, so I can't complain too much lol.

Handwriting isn't my biggest worry about my hands though. I'm now more concerned with my ability to open bottles and jars, and to pull off those tiny plastic strips to unseal drinks... like what an unopened gallon of milk has. I used to the one to be able to open anything, now I'm the one looking in my toolbox for my pliers.

I have a handy 'reacher' (like I think Sue already mentioned?). It is a lifesaver for me.

I can pick up things with my feet and toss them on to a chair or the bed for me to be able to reach with my hands too. I'm not always barefoot though, and sometimes I miss my target too, so the reacher is much more effective. I need to get me a harpoon for when I drop my bar of soap in the tub though.

Take care,
James.

Understand completely, I do. I have not put anything in the fridge yet which does not belong there but I have forgotten to put stuff away. Always lose stuff and then discover it lying where I had last used it. lol

I use a pair of long BBQ tongs to pick up stuff my hands have difficulty with. And ask hubby to open stuff for me. Am getting used to the hot joints feeling. Still makes me restless at night.

I wound up with 20 stitches in my right thumb after burying a very sharp knife to the bone trying to open "clamshell packaging" for a customer in a computer store I was managing.

I've been experimenting with C-4 to open the stuff.

When in doubt...C-4!

Shalom,

John

you are a funny man!

Blah, HA, HA, HA..lol I love it! Yea if you used C-4 you would probly see 4 of everything if you made it..lol