Ouch.

A few years ago, I tore the cartilage in my wrist. Ow. Cue five months of anti-inflammatories (which didn't work), massive pain killers (which kinda worked), physio (which made it worse), an MRI (which finally diagnosed the problem and explained why stuff didn't work), and a lot of different splints (which ultimately worked better than anything else). The time in the splint made a massive difference, and I was able to escape surgery to fix it, as the torn cartilage decided to simply shift into a more comfortable position. I've had a few twinges since then, but not enough to make me worry.

Until now. Because now it hurts. A lot. So much I'm going back to the doctor to ask about that surgery I almost had, and see if it would be advisable for me to have it now. Which, naturally, throws a massive wrench into this tiny little thing called NaNo. Right now, I'm looking at a range of possibilities, and most of them are not good.

Option 1: pull out of NaNo for this year. This is the option-that's-not-really-an-option, since as an ML I can't just decide I'm not doing it at all.

Option 2: continue as I'm doing, and have every intention of doing NaNo as I normally would. I'm much more likely to enjoy NaNo if I can actually take part in sprints, word wars, and online chats, and also much more likely to get to 50k. The risk here is that with the pain I'm experiencing, typing is not as easy as it should be (doable, but difficult). Also, I risk making the whole situation worse by not easing off on the amount of typing I do.

Option 3: longhand. This is the one I'm seriously considering. It allows me to do NaNo without messing up my wrist, as my writing hand is not the one needing to be fixed. I can spend the month writing longhand, and about a week before the end of the month, take some strong painkillers and pound out all the words in the computer, and hope I finish in time.

Option 4: Get Dragon and talk my novel out when I'm not longhand writing. This is the least likely option, since not only would I have to pay for the program (me has no moneys), but I would also have to train it and make sure it all works... in the next week. That and I just don't fancy telling a story that long out loud.

So there it is. Seeing a doctor this week to go over my options for fixing the wrist. Then my options for getting through November. Then my options for not killing people in the meantime. (Okay, that last one is just because I've had a really awful day today, and not dealing very well. I'll sort that one out myself.) Wish me luck? Please?