adaptive tools Archives - Living with Scleroderma

No Easy Fix

Evelyn Herwitz — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 13:00:09 +0000

So, here’s what I learned at my optometrist last week, with a thanks to all who expressed concern and good wishes: My blurry vision is due to the fact that my eyes simply don’t make enough tears, the result of Sjögren’s Syndrome that I’ve had for decades. The relief I’ve gotten from using EvoTears, which […]

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Curios

Evelyn Herwitz — Tue, 02 Jul 2019 12:00:37 +0000

It took me twenty years, but I finally set up my collection of curios this past Sunday. We had packed up my lovely figurines when we moved to our current home in June of 1999, and they had remained boxed ever since. It’s not that I didn’t care about them anymore. Quite the contrary, each […]

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Snap Judgment

Evelyn Herwitz — Tue, 20 Nov 2018 13:00:46 +0000

Even as I’ve adapted to my “revised” hands a year post-surgery, sometimes they still spring a surprise on me. I was working on a sewing project on Sunday, feeling quite pleased with myself that I could manipulate the fabric, stitch with great accuracy on my sewing machine, serge precisely to finish raw edges, iron and […]

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Adaptations

Evelyn Herwitz — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 12:00:03 +0000

Last week, I met with a wonderful occupational therapist about how to better manage tasks I do with my hands while my ulcers heal. She was a great listener, compassionate and insightful. And I learned a thing or two. Adaptive tools have come a long way in the decades since I last had a consult […]

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New Tricks

Evelyn Herwitz — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 12:00:32 +0000

In our back yard, a supposedly squirrel-proof bird feeder hangs on the trunk of a Norway maple. For the past year-and-a-half, it has confounded the squirrels. They’ve climbed all around it, certain it contains something good to eat. All that spilled seed near the tree’s roots must mean those birds are onto something, right? There just […]

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That’s a Wrap

Evelyn Herwitz — Tue, 17 May 2016 12:00:57 +0000

Would someone please explain to me why a cucumber requires shrink wrap? I’m talking about English cucumbers, the long ones that have a very crisp texture and fewer seeds. Their skins aren’t as tough as regular cukes. But shrink wrap? Really? I hate that shrink wrap. It is next to impossible for me to strip […]

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Hands On

Evelyn Herwitz — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 12:00:44 +0000

How did it get to be July, already? With Independence Day behind us, summer is really here. It’s sunny and lovely and warm, and my hands are happy. I’m down to two bandages for my digital ulcers, one on each thumb. Always remarkable this time of year when I can feel with most of my fingertips. […]

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The Right Tools

Evelyn Herwitz — Tue, 23 Dec 2014 13:00:25 +0000

My dad had a saying: “Any problem can be solved if you have the right tools.” He was something of a tool geek. In the basement of our home, hanging on a pegboard over his workbench, he had every kind of tool imaginable: crescent wrenches, socket wrenches and pipe wrenches, neatly arranged from small to […]

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In Transit

Evelyn Herwitz — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 12:35:52 +0000

I’m heading to Chicago today, my first long distance business trip since I started my consulting practice just over four years ago. The sun is out, the skies are clear, at least for now, and it looks like I’m going to make it out of Logan before a Nor’easter barrels up the coast this evening. […]

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Under Construction

Evelyn Herwitz — Tue, 27 Aug 2013 12:00:46 +0000

For more than a year, I’ve been working on perfecting a pants pattern. The goal is to create a properly fitted master pattern that I can sew in different fabric any time I need a new pair of pants—no more trying them on in stores, which I hate doing because it’s so difficult to find […]

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