Head Games: An Introduction

As some of you may know, I had the extreme misfortune to chop off (or very nearly) my finger whilst cheerfully, obliviously hacking a tomato to pieces a few weeks ago.

It hurt.

Like hell.

I’ve never actually injured myself on that kind of scale, and for the first week or so I pretty much existed in a drugged haze of the most entertaining (to others) variety. Despite my twice- or thrice-weekly guild raid schedule, my Excel spreadsheeted alt leveling program, and an Auction House addiction that Goldcapped alone could understand, my WoW playing came to a screeching and immediate halt.

Once the fog started to lift (hey, drugs that good are in seriously limited supply) and I could think anything beyond, “OWIE OWIE OWIE OWWWW!”, a new problem became apparent: my right hand, encased in Borg-like apparatus and then wrapped like a mummy, was essentially unusable.

I’m right-handed.

(Don’t ask why I was slicing tomatoes with my left hand. That takes us down a bleak road filled with recrimination, regret, and possibly a sad story about showing off my mad knife skillz to sincerely bad effect).

At one point, about three weeks P.D. (Post Digit) I logged into my hunter alt just to say hello to my guildmates.

They were in ICC, pwning, I have no doubt, and were as delighted to see me as I to see them. I excitedly typed replies to all the welcomes left-handedly- not too bad, I thought, just a little clumsy! But a few seconds later, I realized how fast I was falling behind:

Them:
“How’s the hand?!”
“I can’t believe that happened, how are you feeling??”
“Yayy, you’re back! Ouch, yay!”

Me: “T…h…a…-”

Them:
“That was so crazy.”
“It’s so nice to see you! Ouch, ouch!””
“Ew, is your hand all gnarly and funky now? Please say yes.”

Me: “…n…k…s…!”

And they weren’t in any way going fast, mind you. But it was depressingly obvious that I wasn’t going to be using chat for a while, and a much larger problem had just become obvious:

I couldn’t use my mouse.

My clicker finger had been decapitated and reborn, and I was under strict instructions- from both doctors and internal urgings- not to do a damned thing with it until it recovered from its trying ordeal.

Typing was a bitch, but clicking…? Out of the question!

Luckily the guildies were still safely on Vent, but non-playing? Not being a PRIEST?! Inconceivable! I needed an outlet and needed it bad.

My first thought was that I simply had to become sufficient at left-handed mousing. I secretly started a warrior (less finesse, more faceroll, I figured) and commenced to experiment.

It was ugly.

After quietly burying my warrior in an unmarked grave, my second thought was that I could just not play or think about WoW- hey, everyone’s on pre-Cata vacation! I can hit the beach with the best of ’em!

That lasted approximately three days and I was practically barking for a glimpse of Dalaran.

Finally, I realized that I could still read about playing, get into the Cataclysm changes, and really explore some of the more complex aspects of priesting that I’ve blown off in the past for being too complicated (like Haste), too boring (ie underused abilities), or too weird (exploring super non-standard disc builds).

With the help of Word, which has a built-in voice recognition writing system (who knew?!), I could theorize, blabber, and cool my heals (typo and it stays) until the mummy wraps came off and right-handedness returned to my repertoire.

This post kicks off a series of articles I’m going to focus on involving the theories behind our priestly behaviors now and in Cataclysm, a journey I hope we’ll all enjoy and (heaven forfend) learn from. With my discovery of the voice-to-type thing, regularly scheduled leveling and gear posts should resume, as well.

For those who have offered their condolences, you have my most sincere gratitude for not only your words, but your readership. Thanks for sticking by my finger, even when it didn’t stick with us!

PS- If it’s not too horrifying when the wraps come off, I’ll post a picture of the offending digit!