I have always identified as being right handed.

I am now starting to question this belief.

I have developed arthritis but only in my left hand which struck me as a little strange as I would have thought that, logically, it would be my so called dominant hand that got the more use and would therefore succumb to arthritis. Over the past couple of months, I have come to realise and this has been pointed out as well by my dearly beloved that really the only thing I do consistently with my right hand is write. He has noticed that I use my left hand for opening bottles, cans, operating machinery in the kitchen, stirring, picking up things to pour. The reason he has been so observant is that more and more I have been calling on him for bottle and can opening as I don't have the strength in my left hand that I used to have. I also went through high school throwing the discus and javelin with my left hand, totally unaware that I was doing so, until it was pointed out to me by my gym teacher who had seem me writing with my right hand when she covered an English lesson.

My extensive use of my left hand also became clear because of a little mystery that occurred recently. Many of my tee-shirts this summer were developing small holes across the midriff area. I couldn't work out what was happening. I knew we didn't have moths. It became clear, however, when I reached for something and my medic-alert bracelet, always worn on my left wrist, snagged on a cushion, pulling a thread clear. When I felt the bracelet there was a rough bit  that had obviously been there for quite a while and was I suspected the maker of the small holes. I switched the bracelet to my right wrist and no new holes appeared.

When seeing my doctor about the arthritis, he wondered whether, and he put it delicately, I was "of an age" where I had been forced to use my right rather than my left hand. I have no one left to ask that now, so I will never know. I suspect he may be right. Watching T, it was clear that he made a conscious choice to use his right hand for writing, having used both hands equally comfortably until he was six. Neither I nor his kindergarten teacher influenced him at all. I will confess that I can actually write with my left hand, not very neatly and rather slowly, but it is legible.

Since my left hand has been giving me a lot of gip the last week or so, I have been thinking about this whole handedness issue and in my research have found that it is not as clear cut as one might believe. I found this test www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk/lh_tests.html#1 which claims to determine which is your dominant hand.

Left all the way for me, baby!

Which are you , or are you as T once said, "just a little bit ambi?"