Would you believe hands?

I've written before about aging. It's not what I expected, planned on or seems fair.
I did not sign up for a bad back, hip problems, a bad knee, fibromyalgia and polymyalgia rheumatica. Actually, I unsubscribe to those diagnosis.

Now I'm dealing with another old lady malady.

For years I was a home health nurse. Some of the universal threads of doing this kind of work is a certain smell that entering the home of an older patient entails. Sometimes it's urine, or fecal or kind of a musty moldy smell and frequently overlaid with a menthol or eucalyptus "scent".

I shouldn't complain really. I found something that works for me and greatly reduces the pain in my hands - a recent development. I guess I hadn't mentioned that my hands had been hurting so much I couldn't sleep. They ache - sometimes burn. They feel swollen (but aren't), the fingers won't bend and if I force them the pain is increased. My hands, particularly my right hand, have no strength. Tearing a cardboard box the other day was a Herculean effort.
BUT - I remembered I had some cream which I had ordered long ago for my back and so, in spite of a smell strong enough to kill dogs, I used it and it worked! Viola! the pain subsided by about 75% - on a 1-10 scale, what had been a 7 or 8 was now a 2!! Wow!

Now I know why they use the stuff in spite of the smell and why the smell permeates everything~~ it works!. I bought the stuff from Dr. Leonard's catalog when my back was really bad and it did help, but the pain was so diffuse that I needed a paint roller to spread it to all the afflicted areas - plus the first reaction to the cream is COLD and that made my back hurt worse
initially. So I put the cream away (too frugal to throw it out) and so there it was there for my hands.

Do you know how important hands are? Any clue why there are all these statement about a "helping hand", or "getting a hand up", or a "handout" or a zillion other handy (see) statements.
I was always a "handy" person - I cook, bake, clean, garden, love, diaper babies, sew, needlepoint, knit socks, drive, play piano, paint and draw - I can't have crippled hands! I just can't.

Well, as long as Dr. Leonard's blue (smelly) gel works I can do all those things. So what's a little smell between friends?