I feel your frustration, cathyvv. When you lose the feeling in your fingers, lots of things are really hard to do. I can no longer feel thread between my finger and thumb, so it makes threading a needle or tying a knot really tricky.
Regarding the spools shattering, I got hold of some cheaply made bobbins once, and it took several of them coming apart when full of Aurifil thread, for me to just toss the whole lot of them. The machine wound the thin thread on the bobbin so tight and full, they just popped! Can't put that thing back together!