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Left-handed help needed !

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joiwind:
Hi friends : I've just broken my right arm at the base of the radius near the wrist - pins, plaster and pain. I'm right-handed and am typing this with my left.
So I'm looking for ideas and gadgets to use with just my left-hand (no jokes please ...) that may make things easier ... thanks.

Renegade:
OUCH! Sorry to hear that. I hope you heal soon!

A friend of mine used to type one-handed all the time. Mind you, he used his primary hand (right), however, the technique might work for you.

His strategy was to position and hover his hand in the middle of the keyboard, then from there he worked out what was fastest. I can't really tell you much more, but he was up to a respectable typing speed. He did have large hands though, which certainly help there. I think he used the ridges on the J and F keys to help orient his hand.

joiwind:
Thanks for the typing tip Renegade, that will help - I'm also looking for ideas for "everyday" things : try cutting a slice of bread from a loaf with only your left hand.

I know there is a range of objects for left-handers like tin openers and stuff but I'm looking more for great ideas, tips and so on. I'm managing to dress myself and can eat fairly well with a fork in the left hand but I bet there's a whole lot of knowledge out there just right :P for this kind of situation.
BTW obviously this brings home what it's like for so many people who spend their whole life facing these difficulties.

On the up-side it is said that one develops loads more new synapses when trying to function with the "other" hand ...

Renegade:
Got it!

A very long time ago I temporarily lost the use of my right hand for a few weeks in a comparable situation.

Some things that worked for me were using my right elbow/forearm as pressure to hold things or using my legs to hold things while my left hand did the work, or at least tried. That's not much help though as I'm sure you've already been doing that. :(

I don't know of any technology to help there, though I dimly recall about some herbs or essential oils helping in recovery - don't hold me to anything - that's just a dim memory that you might want to check into.

Sorry. I wish I could help more. :( I do hope that you get better soon.

I currently have a smaller injury than yours on my thumb and cannot write properly or do simple things like peel a price tag off of something or open a jar... It's bloody frustrating.

TaoPhoenix:
Just looking down for a minute at my hunt and peck method of typing, I m finding that I already type some 75-80% of stuff with my left hand. My left hand slides over as far as the t-h-n line on the keyboard, which currently leaves only y,u,i,o,p,j,k,l,m actually being typed by my right hand. So I happen to use my left pinky for shift,so you'll need a reflex such as left shift and "key-lock" and then just make an an effort to reach over and type those other 8 letters that are kinda rare anyway.

As you get better, though, I do recommend you experiment with parking your right hand on the backspace button maybe with a pencil eraser because that's the one key which I at least need to hit about 4-7 times in a row to undo a typo. (But see MilesAhead's script he made for me with control-` and alt-` that "power-backspaces" with the *left hand*!

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