1. Taking a shower – This was one of the trickiest things to do as you have to wash your hair and body with one hand. Taking a shower is definitely slower when using one hand but it still gets the job done. I had trouble getting the shower gel and shampoo out of the bottles but once you manage that your home free.

2. Eating and brushing teeth – My good hand just so happened to be the one that wasn’t working so I had to learn how to eat and brush my teeth with the weaker arm. Tips here include not stabbing yourself with a fork and brushing your teeth as if they are made from chalk. You don’t want bleeding gums.

3. Writing and typing – Typing is quite manageable with one hand although it also takes twice as long to type anything. Writing is nearly impossible as you have two options. The first is to use the swollen hand but that provided scribbles rather than legible words. The other option is to use your bad hand. This was legible but looked as if it was written by a frantic 6 year old.

4. Driving – This is possible but really dangerous. For the most part I only drove short journeys with my crippled hand. I wasn’t able to use the handbrake and had a lot of trouble changing gears. I suspect driving an automatic would be far easier for a one handed driver. As a result I kept taking my one good hand of the steering wheel to change gear and also to use the handbrake. But everything worked out cause I’m still alive and was able to share my experience of the life of a one handed man for a week.