Living with Scleroderma

Reflections on the Messy Complexity of Chronicity

bone resorption

Biker’s Paradise

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In three weeks, it will officially be winter. But January temps arrived here last week, way too cold, too soon. Mornings and evenings in the teens, bitter windchill, the works—only the snow hasn’t arrived, yet.

All of this made me realize that I need to solve a big problem I’ve been ignoring—I need to replace my very worn-out, favorite, red-suede, insulated winter gloves. The holes in the right hand can’t be mended and are growing bigger with each wearing.

Now, for most folks, this is not a big deal. Especially at this time of year, stores are well-stocked with rainbow displays of gloves of all different materials, styles and warmth. But my fingers are much shorter than an average size 7 glove, what I’d wear if I had normal hands. I don’t.

Due to complications with severe Raynaud’s and my scleroderma, my fingertips have all resorbed to stubby nubs. The longest finger on my right hand is only 2¼ inches long. I often have several fingertips bandaged to protect my ulcers. So normal gloves always have about an inch of extra fabric at the top that flops around and makes it hard to pick up things. Also, the fingers are often too narrow to accommodate my bandages. Children’s gloves are too tight.

I lucked out with those red gloves several years ago at a random fundraiser trunk sale. They have Thinsulate lining and roomy fingers that are shorter than standard gloves. No tag. No way to trace their origins.

So, replacing them called for some creative problem solving. I turned to the Internet and googled “women’s gloves short fingers.” At first, all I found were gloves for cyclists without fingertips. I kept looking. There were sites for outdoor adventurers, but those gloves cost a fortune. Custom-made gloves were out of the question.

Then I discovered sites for bikers. A goldmine. It would never have occurred to me, but, of course, bikers need warm gloves for cold weather—sturdy, insulated, flexible leather gloves for gripping motorcycle handles.

The idea of walking into a biker shop, however, felt a bit intimidating. I’m sure I’m guilty of stereotyping, but I’m about as far from a biker as you can get. So I did some more online search and found a great biker retail store near Boston. They sell very affordable leather gloves in a range of sizes, with wide fingers that look slightly curved. Perfect.

I could have emailed, but I decided to call. A pleasant woman named Melanie answered. I explained my dilemma, that I have very short fingers and wasn’t sure what size to order.

“Oh,” she said, “you’re just like me! I have short fingers, too. I hadn’t thought about gloves, though, because I put my bike away for the winter.”

I confessed I wasn’t a biker and described the details of my hand issues.

“You’ve come to the right place,” she said. “Biker gloves come in all different sizes, for a great price.” This all made perfect sense. A real niche market.

She offered to go try on some gloves and report back. We determined that her tallest finger is about a half-inch longer than mine. A few minutes later, Melanie returned to the phone.

“I’m trying on this pair of smalls, and they are quite comfortable on me,” she said. “You might even try the extra-smalls.”

“Are you sure they’ll be wide enough across the palm?”

“I have very square palms,” she said. “Where’s that measuring tape?” She determined that her palm was 4½ inches across to the outside of her thumb joint.

“Okay, let me check,” I said. We were both laughing at this point, comparing these intimate details of our physiognomy. My measurement was about a half-inch shorter. The extra-small sounded like the right size. She assured me that the style runs to a triple-extra-small and likewise in the other direction, and that they take returns and exchanges.

I thanked her for her help and placed my order online. The gloves should arrive in a few days. If they don’t fit, I’ll drive to the store in my Prius, meet Melanie and find the right pair. I may be an unusual customer, but then, hands are hands. And it’s an adventure. Who would have thought my scleroderma would land me in a biker’s paradise?

Evelyn Herwitz blogs weekly about living fully with chronic disease, the inside of baseballs, turtles and frogs, J.S. Bach, the meaning of life and whatever else she happens to be thinking about at livingwithscleroderma.com.

Meter Wars

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Years ago at an amusement park with my parents and sister, I remember standing in the arcade, watching a guy in a car-like booth trying to steer through imaginary traffic displayed on a video screen. As the timer ticked, images of people and cars jumped into view, and the guy stomped on the brakes and spun the wheel round and back, round and back, to avoid “hitting” them. The little crowd that had gathered to watch had a good laugh. I think he probably ran over quite a few pedestrians before the game was over.

I often recall that scene when I’m driving in downtown Boston. You never know when someone’s going to run into traffic, pass you on either side riding a bicycle, double-park in front of you, speed around you in a taxi or pull some other stunt in the race to get wherever they’re going.

But the biggest prize in negotiating Boston traffic, aside from arriving at your destination on time without an accident, is finding on-street parking.

Lately, when I’ve had appointments downtown, it seems that the major parking garages are only accepting monthly permit customers, and the Boston Commons garage, while usually available, is a often a longer walk to my destination. Plus, even with a coupon, the garages are pricey. So if I see a site, I grab it.

This happened last week, during Thursday’s Nor’easter. By a miracle, I saw a great space on Boylston, only a couple of blocks from my appointment. But there was one problem: The city is switching over to those new meters that take coins, cash or plastic.

Now, I like the idea of not having to carry exact change in quarters. You need a lot of quarters to feed the meter. But I have an extremely difficult time inserting and removing my debit card in these new machines.

Still, a good parking space is a good parking space, and on a chilly, rainy, blustery day, the less distance I have to walk, the better. So I quickly parallel parked, gathered up my purse and headed to the payment meter.

This one took bills, too. Great, I thought. Then I tried inserting a dollar. The wind was whipping the bill, and, of course, this dollar had a little bent corner, so I was standing there in the cold rain, trying to straighten it out and insert it into the slot. But the meter wouldn’t accept it. I tried reversing the bill. No luck. Each time, the wind nearly ripped the bill from my hand, and my fingers were getting numb.

No choice but to try the debit card. Here’s the issue: For some reason, the way these machines are designed, the slot is very deep and tight, and only a narrow edge of your card protrudes. So it’s very hard for me to grip the edge, because my fingertips are resorbed and sore from ulcers. It’s even more challenging when it’s cold out, since I have to take off my gloves to use the machine and my Raynaud’s kicks in. To compound the problem, for some reason, you have to insert the card and remove it quickly for the machine to read it. I find this next to impossible.

The last time I confronted one of these machines, in a Cambridge parking lot, I had to ask another person who was waiting to use it if she could insert and remove my card for me. This took a leap of faith, since it was my debit card. But fortunately, she was honest and helpful, and I was able to make the transaction.

This time, however, people were hustling down the sidewalk, focused on getting out of the wind and rain. There was a woman parked in a car right next to the payment machine, but I didn’t want to alarm her by knocking on her window. Anyway, I felt really stupid not being able to use the damn thing.

So I just kept trying. I inserted my debit card and tried to pull it out. Bad card read. I turned my hand sideways to try to get better leverage removing it. Bad card read. I tried using my right thumb and left forefinger to grab it. Bad card read. Finally, somehow, on about the fifth or sixth try, I managed to insert it and pull it out in time. This gave me the great privilege of paying $2.25 for nearly two hours on the street instead of at least $16.00 in a garage.

I removed my receipt and proudly placed it on the dashboard of my Prius. One of life’s little victories. But if someone out there is interested in designing a better, accessible parking meter that can be used by people whose hands don’t work, I’d be glad to consult.

Evelyn Herwitz blogs weekly about living fully with chronic disease, the inside of baseballs, turtles and frogs, J.S. Bach, the meaning of life and whatever else she happens to be thinking about at livingwithscleroderma.com.