My left shoulder is shot from osteoarthritis. They took away my Celebrex
because of blood pressure, so I am restricted to Tylenol. When I do a lot of
wiring or other bonsai work (even though I'm right-handed), my shoulder feels
it that night. I have no intention of giving this up. Has anyone with similar
problems developed any tricks or techniques to minimize shoulder stress?

My late wife was plagued by both osteo and rhumatoid arthritis, and had
high pressure problems too. She also happened to be ratherstuborn and
there wasn't much she wasn't gonna do :-)

The first thing she did was reduce the amount of bonsai work she would do
at any one time. So instead of working 30 minutes or an hour at a shot,
she'd do 15 minutes, stop for half hour and start again.

She also got me to make her elbow rests. Basically a little box with a
cushion that she would place on the table top and then put her elbows on,
so the weight of the arm would be supported.

Finally, she often resorted to the "let me borrow your hands" approach.

As you know, I also have a disability, though haven't been really touched
by arthritis yet (slowly starting in fingers). As a wheelchair user, one
thing I do is only do smaller trees. :-)

Hope this helps some.


Nicolas
http://www.bmee.net
"A community that excludes even one of its members is no community at all"
- Dan Wilkins
"You must deal with me as I think of myself" J. Hockenberry

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