Public Service

As a favor for anyone facing surgery on their dominant hand, I would like to perform a public service by sharing this very important list of tips on what to look forward to. These suggestions are predicated on basic requirements of keeping said hand dry and fully protected from bumping, banging, squeezing, or any type of pressure and are listed in no particular order of importance. Please note too that all of these are not necessarily bad such as sweeping, vacuuming, cleaning. etc. but are included for informational purposes.

In view of my personal history and experience as well as the recent surgery on my right thumb, I feel I am more than qualified to make these observations. I also reserve the right to add more to this list as they come to mind. Please feel free to share this register with any others you think may benefit from it. There is no charge for use.

A partial list of impossible and nearly impossible tasks for right-handed people to do with their left hands, vice versa for lefties:

• Uncork a bottle of wine.
• Unscrew caps from bottled water.
• Open a soft drink.
• Remove tops from peanut butter jars.
• Open bags of chips, etc.
• Open crackers or any other type package.
• Opening any other cans/jars/bottles.
• Use a grater without severely damaging your good hand.
• Cook anything that involves handling hot dishes/food.
• Comb/shampoo/style your hair.
• Put makeup on evenly.
• Button your blouse, slacks, etc.
• Zip anything with a balky zipper.
• Zip anything with a good zipper.
• Tie your shoes.
• Dress/undress in less than twice the length of time it usually takes.
• Use aerosol containers like hair spray safely.
• Clean/insert contact lenses.
• Trim your nails.
• File your nails.
• Brush your teeth thoroughly.
• Floss your teeth at all.
• Eat soup or anything with lots of liquid content, using non-dominant hand.
• Use a knife.
• Use a fork.
• Use chopsticks. (This is fudging a little because I can't do that with my right hand either.)
• Wrap Christmas/birthday/or whatever occasion gifts.
• Tie a ribbon firmly around a package.
• Curl ribbons with scissors.
• Use scissors or kitchen shears.
•  Decorate a Christmas tree.
• Shave your legs or underarms without slicing or dicing skin.
• Hold/sort playing cards.
• Shuffle playing cards.
• Press those tiny little buttons on your telephone accurately.
• Use those annoying credit card scanners where you have to push the card in and pull it out instead of zipping it through a slider.
• Type with any degree of accuracy and speed.
• Write/sign anything.
• Dig an object from the bottom of your purse, a drawer, etc.
• Turn a key in a door.
• Hold an umbrella as well as purse, packages, etc. at the same time.
• Sweep.
• Vacuum.
• Dust.
• Any cleaning that involves scrubbing or bearing down hard.
• Hand wash dishes.
• Shopping for anything heavier than a loaf of bread or more than a few small items at the same time.
• Slap someone silly no matter how tempting.
• Last but not least, maybe even considered a little vulgar by some (but hopefully not offensive), learning to wipe your bum with your non-dominant hand is probably the ultimate challenge!