Jul 10 2010
Hand Protection
I crashed my bicycle the other day. Wait. Let me back up and introduce myself. I’m Rick Goggins and I’ve worked with Lauriann Greene spreading the word about injury prevention for massage therapists for several years now. But even when your job is injury prevention, you can still get hurt.
Getting back to my crash, it was a pretty embarrassing event for an experienced cyclist. A moment’s inattention, a mailbox that stuck out into the bike lane, and I found myself laying on the pavement. I wasn’t going very fast, but asphalt is just as hard at 10 mph as it is at 20.
Fortunately I was wearing padded cycling gloves. They literally saved my hands. Instead of scraped up palms or a broken wrist, I just had a bad bruise across the thenar muscles at the base of my thumb.
My crash makes for a good reminder to protect your hands outside of work. Gloves are a good idea when gardening, doing home improvement projects, and cleaning around the house, as well as for recreational activities.
My injury also reminded me just how much we use our thumbs over the course of the day. Turning a doorknob, grabbing the handle of my computer case, even hitting the space bar on my keyboard were all quite painful until that bruise healed. So take care of your thumbs, and they’ll take care of you.
Be safe, be well. Rick
