Public service announcement

[garonne]

in my last post , I mentioned I hurt my hands and can't type , and in fact what I have is a repetitive strain injury from . . . too much typing .

Comments

[laurose8]

Thank you very much for botheig to type this with your hands as they are. Sending you good health wishes, and soon!

[garonne]

Thank you! And don't worry, in fact I didn't type it , i dictated it ! it works extremely well, doesn't it ?

[tripleransom]

For me, it's not the typing, it's the $%^&* mouse that gets to my right wrist. Bothersome indeed.

I hope your hands get better soon.

[garonne]

I rarely use my mouse , so I thought I was safe ! but it turns out a keyboard can be just as bad . a colleague has one of those ergonomic mice with a tracker ball . have you ever tried one? Unfortunately they are quite expensive I think.

[tripleransom]

I've never tried one. I may have to look into it. Mostly I just curse and use the mouse with my left hand when it gets bad.

[samudee]

Oh, No! Hope you'd get treatments all done pretty soon and get healed. I know how awful it is to be restricted like this.

I have a similar problem - but it's not from typing- I think it's the way I use the mouse. Seeing a doctor this Tuesday to know for sure- started to hurt like crazy and when I googled the symptoms I realized it's a tennis-elbow condition. My family doctor confirmed it but didn't do anything - So... seeing a specialist.

The voice recognition software would help me, too- Thank you for the suggestions.

[garonne]

Oh No! I'm really sorry to hear that . how did you get on at the doctors ? have you also tried one of those ergonomic mice with a trackerball ? a colleague has one and swears by it . but they are quite expensive , I think .

[samudee]

Went to the specialist today :) - Best option according to him is to get a cortisone shot-- and I didn't want that. So... we are going to try Physical therapy first and if that doesn't help, then I'll go for the cortisone shot. Either way, he said it'd take a long time to heal.

And how this happened- his guess is as good as mine!

What are your treatments? Are you feeling better?

[garonne]

I do hope the physical therapy can make a difference. Yeah, from what I read it seems like it's not really clear why some people get this and not others, nor why the pain suddenly starts one day even though you've been using a computer for years...

For me, the doctor only concentrated on physical aids: ergonomic keyboard, wrist rests, wrist bandages... They do make it manageable, at least (I'm even typing this now!). I'm just glad it's not getting worse any more. At one stage there it seemed to be worse each day...

Good luck with the physical therapy!

[cactusonastair]

Hope your hands feel better soon! And thank you for the warning. It seems that I have a lot of bad habits, especially the two-letter combos with one hand...

[garonne]

Yes, I think those shortcuts were the real killer for me. Everyone (including the doctor) seemed mystified that I have much worse problems in my left hand than my mouse hand, but ctrl+s,a,x,c,v and f are all done with the left hand...

[tehomet]

Well, that was scary, but thank you for posting it.

[garonne]

Yeah, scary is definitely the word for it! Still, apparently this sort of problem can be at least partially prevented just by having good habits, so knowing what the good habits are is already a step in the right direction...