The Hobby, illness and me (or you!)

Hi folks,

First up, apologies for the title. This isn't meant to be a 'pity party' post, it's just something I've been thinking about over the last few days. I wanted to share it/write it down as much for myself as anyone else who might read it.

Last weekend my left shoulder froze, causing me a lot of pain for several days. I'm right handed, but if you think about how you hold a model while you paint, having limited mobility with my left arm and shoulder as well as severe RSI/Carpal Tunnel style pains in my arm and hand makes the prospect of painting... uncomfortable.

This is a concern for me for a number of reasons. 1 - the lead pile is not getting any smaller, 2 - painting is one of my stress management techniques I use to maintain my mental health, and being in pain and stressed with a frozen shoulder, I need to maintain that... 3 - I always feel like if I stop painting, I might not start again!

So, I set about thinking about what I could do with limited physical ability, which would still count as 'hobby time'. I'm aware that in the grand scheme of things, a frozen shoulder is not up there with life altering serious illness - so please don't think I'm suggesting that the following applies to everyone. Mileage may vary! But it's what I've come up with and stuff I feel I can do given my own current situation!

Things I can do that are not painting:

1.  Tidy up. Not particularly exciting, but there is always stuff to be put away, sorted, refiled, stacked, etc, etc. After the last big game my models are mixed up in several boxes with no rhyme or reason to the order. I also want to re-arrange my books and lead mountain storage area to better use the space and put stuff I need and use closer to hand. Lots could be done to make sure when I can paint, my hobby area is ready and waiting.

2. Build. I've lots of plastic kits I need to build for future units (mainly, oddly enough, Shermans!). This takes time and I'm loath to do this when I could otherwise be painting. I might not have the dexterity to paint, but snipping, trimming and gluing takes far less effort. It also constructively frees up 'future' painting time. I dislike having too many built 'waiting for paint' models around, but in a lot of cases the boxes on un-built minis take up more room than the finished models, so building them and storing them frees up space and helps with 'tidy up' above.

3. Plan/admin. I can use the time to sketch out unit lists to represent what I want to paint, need to build and want to buy. Again, this can be time consuming, but it's useful work that will act as a starting point in the future. This also includes stock taking of what I already have, making spreadsheets if I am able, but writing on paper also helps. This can also include working on scenarios or adding my paints to one of the various paint tracking apps (I recently got a new phone).

4. Research. Linked to number 3 above, planning armies means research. Research might involve time with books, with the Internet or just on my phone while laid up in bed. It might be re-reading stuff I've read of confirming stuff I know. But it's all useful - so long as the results are logged and kept. It's pretty important stuff for me, as I do try to keep my armies as accurate as I can for the Operation I'm modelling.

5.  Take stock. Linked to plan/admin - but more for hobby supplies and other paraphernalia. How am I for glue, paint, brushes, etc. What hobby supplies do I have, might I need. How is it stored? Can I re-arrange things, or repack things.

6. Buy... retail therapy is always good! Having the time means I can search around for the very best deals, link to my planning and research, look at what other people are doing, etc. Still useful hobby time, even if I don't pull the trigger on any actual purchases. Be aware though that buying lots of stuff you can't do anything yet might not be good mentally.

7. Paint? Am I sure I can't paint? Are there any adaptions I can use or try. For example, I think one issue is holding my hand open for long periods of time, so I bought some corks today with the thought that these might give me a better hand hold if I glue the stuff I'm working on to them. Can I adjust my chair or work space? What if I'm only priming rather than doing detail work?

8.  Revisit/revamp. I've a lot of early models I finished I want to go back to and touch up, fix or otherwise change. Is this the time to look at whether I can do any of that work?

9. Planning future projects. Is there anything else I can be looking at? Future terrain needs to be planned, storage options to be thought about, gaming space to be planned (I really want to make progress getting a table in my garage). An excellent time to think things through, plan and research and actually look into practicalities.

10. Play some/more games. Ok, so you might not be able to paint, but you might be able to play. Maybe it's a good time to badger mates into getting more games in!

Anyway, those are some thoughts I've had in the last few days while pondering what will happen if this arm takes months or years to sort itself out, and the impact that might have on my plans. Hopefully it might give others who read it some ideas themselves, or maybe act as a prompt for those people who don't feel like painting but want to do something hobby related.