Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with RSI

What is a good portable keyboard to go along with a laptop?

shalam — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 01:47:45 -0800

i need to a good portable (light, compact, preferably wireless) keyboard, so that when i travel with my laptop, i can still maintain a decent overall posture. with just the laptop either my neck or my upper arm is in a bad posture, and they hurt. apple keyboard is one option i am aware of, but eral world experience based suggestions would be very helpful. suggestions?

Ouch, there goes my wrist again!

so much modern time — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:25:22 -0800

Better mouse for someone with symptoms of carpal tunnel/tendonitis? Because of my back pain and my tendency to use the computer far more than I really should, I'm developing some definite symptoms of carpal tunnel or tendonitis. The mouse is definitely not helping, so I'd like to change it. However, I went to the computer market today (I live in Beijing and have access to all the usual brands since they are all conveniently made here), and the selection was rather overwhelming.

I was on the computer for about five hours today during work, taking regular breaks and doing carpal tunnel stretches that I had found in previous threads, but my fingers and hands are tensing up and my pointer fingers are tingling. Writing this question alone is making it flare up!

What kind of mouse do you recommend for a woman with small hands and tiny wrists? (Literally, tiny, I can circle my wrists with one hand and have room to spare.) Should I get a larger mouse? One with a trackball?

Hobbies for RSI sufferers?

simonw — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 11:00:05 -0800

My girlfriend is suffering really badly from RSI. If she's going to heal she needs to avoid using her hands... but this is leaving her bored to tears. What hobbies are suitable for RSI sufferers? She's not too keen on sports, although she has recently taken up yoga.

workers comp for RSI?

Anonymous — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 06:53:37 -0800

RSI is crippling my arm. Should I get workers compensation help? I know about managing my body and workspace to minimize the problems, and have kept RSI mostly at bay for years, but I'm 63 and the effects of my keyboard+mouse work as a programmer are more telling. I also have arthritis but that's a joint pain where this RSI is in ligaments and muscles. A career change is out of the question right now, because in a couple of years a big option matures that I don't want to lose and it's tied to my specific job.

My RSI is at the stage where lifting a glass is painful. I have health insurance but I'm so in debt that I can't afford even insured medical care. Is it a reasonable idea to try to get workers comp to pay for chiropractic, acupuncture and massage therapy? Or would trying for workers comp just lead into a morass of bureaucracy and 'officialized' medical care?

I had a workers comp claim fifteen years ago for (different) RSI and went through various steroid shots and physical therapies that were palliative at best. A chiropractor sorted it out in the end, after a couple of wasted years of non-cure.

I'm employed in California by a big software company with HQ in Florida, and my immediate boss is hostile to workers comp, if any of that is relevant.

Finding a bike for an RSI sufferer in Seattle

grouse — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:52:31 -0800

Two part question: How can I get a bicycle that won't exacerbate my wrist repetitive strain injury? Can you recommend a good bike shop in Seattle? I have some wrist tendonitis issues from a repetitive strain injury sustained through typing. I found there was too much weight on my wrists and vibrations coming through the handlebar in the setup on my previous bike (a Trek 7300), so I stopped riding the bike for a couple of years.

I want to start riding a bike again, for commuting and bike path exercise (not for heavy mountain biking, obviously). What can I do to relieve the problem? I've done some searching on the web, and it seems that riser bars might help relieve the pressure. Aerobars are also mentioned but they are apparently uncomfortable in other ways. I'd rather avoid a recumbent if possible. Any specific suggestions to bike make or model, or things to request at the bike shop? In general I was pretty happy with the 7300 until I developed the wrist issues.

Will cycling gloves help? Padded handlebars?

I'm also looking for a place to buy said bike, hopefully somewhere near Wallingford/Fremont/University District in Seattle, and a place that will be willing to help me solve this issue, even if it is a little work. Recommendations welcome.

Some part of my upper body is unhappy. Is it my arm, or is that a red herring?

subbes — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:13:09 -0800

"Cold" feeling along both sides of my forearm, becoming achy. Doctor's appointment already made, but now I'm researching for ideas on relief -- and nothing seems to quite fit the symptoms! I've developed aching and pain along the outer (pinky) side of my forearm and the inner (thumb) side. It sometimes spreads to the whole back of my forearm, and the feeling is just like the "cold" feeling you get from evaporative cooling, or a xylitol-sweetened mint.

My doctor cancelled on me, so I won't get to see her until the 22nd.

Until then, I took the blunderbuss approach to symptom relief (so I don't know what has worked here and what was coincidental):
- Icing of my upper torso (clavicle area and neck)
- Icing forearm, elbow and wrist
- Ibuprofen 600mg as needed (right now, 1x daily)
- Standing up straight with arms dangling at sides (complete relaxation of shoulders, arms, wrists and hands) seems to reduce the tingling. I still have to work, so I can't stand upright all day.
- Workrave (30 seconds pause every 5 minutes, and 5 minutes stretching every 25).
- Sleeping in wrist splints seems to change nothing. Wrapping the arm also does nothing helpful.

Diagnostic 'tests' at home:
- My wrist extensors and flexors don't feel any tighter than usual.
- Palpating the muscle on the outside of my elbow feels like a bruise. The inside of my elbow doesn't hurt any more than prodding a muscle normally would.
- Phalen's test (reverse prayer with back of hands together) - 25 seconds and I began to feel a tingle.
- EAST test (for TOS): 30 seconds before my wrists go "cold" and numb (the diagnostic test calls for 3 minutes, I can't last more than 1). Related: standing with my arms over my head for longer than a minute or two has caused me to faint, ever since childhood.

Questions:
Could these signs and results come from one cause, or are there possibly multiple things going on?
Are there any more avenues of self-care/home treatment to explore before my appointment?

(You are not my doctor.)

Help me find the best RSI Doctors in Boston

david1230 — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:39:02 -0800

Does anyone have personal experience with Doctors or Physical Therapists in Boston that specialize in RSI? My primary physician was fairly clueless and dismissive of the issue, and my arm, wrist, and hand pain isn't abating in spite of following the advice from "It's Not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome!"

Autocomplete in Pages?

spaceman_spiff — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:14:29 -0800

How can I get Pages to mimic Open Office's autocomplete? I've recently made a partial switch from Open Office/NeoOffice to Pages. I like the way Pages does styles, and it's a lot lighter weight on my Powerbook than OO/NO. But it's missing my absolute to-die-for favorite feature - autocomplete.

In Open Office, as I type, words longer than a certain threshold are added to a list; if I type the first 3-4 letters of a word in the list later on in a document, the rest of the word appears highlighted after my cursor, and I can choose to hit enter and complete the word, or just keep typing. It's absolutely fabulous, and my wrists are complaining bitterly about Pages' lack of a similar feature. Is there a plugin or hack - or best of all a checkbox I missed - for Pages that would replicate this feature?

Help my wrists deal with Eclipse

Zarkonnen — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:02:07 -0800

My hands hurt; is there an Eclipse IDE plugin that does text completion like NetBeans' ctrl-K or pressing escape in TextMate? In my current job I have to use the Eclipse IDE for standardisation reasons. I previously used NetBeans and came to completely rely on the ctrl-K / ctrl-L shortcuts, which search the text before/ahead for words that match the word you're currently writing.

Example: I write
System.out.println("I am Nathanael van Bendensteck. Like all Bend

and then want a command that completes that "Bend" to "Bendensteck". Which is different from normal code completion. It doesn't understand about Java, but simply searches back through the text till it finds a matching token.

In NetBeans, this is ctrl-K, in TextMate it's the escape key. In Eclipse it doesn't exist. My wrists hurt, and since I don't know what the feature would be called, I can't search for an Eclipse plugin that provides it.

Do you know of such a thing? My wrists would be very grateful.

Help save my wrists from RSI!

jasminerain — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 11:11:11 -0800

I want to learn the emacs keybindings, mainly for moving around in a block of code, and selecting text. What's the best way to do this? I essentially type all day. A good portion of that time is spent programming (probably 6 hours a day averaged over a week). Recently, my wrists started bothering me. A few days of rest from typing, an ergonomic keyboard, and AntiRSI fixed it (as in, it doesn't hurt anymore), although I plan to be more careful about it from now on.

I think much of the problem is caused by the way I navigate through code though. I use my mouse much too often. I edit code much more often than I write new code, but I haven't learned the keybindings for moving around and selecting text, so I mainly use the mouse.

I work in Mac OS, mainly in XCode or Textmate, and I have my system set up to use the Emacs keybindings for navigation. I even wrote a little chart of the keybindings and taped it to my monitor. The problem is that it's still much easier to use my mouse (especially for operations that are like: copy this line of code over here, and change the name of the first argument to this).

Also, I find selection to be difficult to figure out. I don't understand how to get the selection I want (and this is a large part of why I don't use the keybindings), so I just don't use it, because I get much better results with the mouse.

How do I overcome this barrier and actually learn the keybindings well enough to use it over the mouse?

It would be ideal if I could learn them in my day-to-day typing, but if you have a method that requires me to sit down for a few hours and just learn them, I could give that a try too.

Thanks!

How do I deal with the depression stemming from a really bad year?

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 14:56:17 -0800

I have been beset by crappy luck and chronic health problems in the past year. It's been extremely stressful, worsened by the fact these very health problems prevent me from employing my normal methods of dealing with stress. I'm spiraling quickly downward into mood-swings and depression and I don't know what to do. How did you deal with your stressful periods? In the past year, I've contracted HPV, had surgery to deal with the subsequent cervical dysplasia, developed bacterial vaginosis and urinary tract infections on multiple occasions, and due to the necessary multiple antibiotic regimens I'm now into the eighth month of a yeast infection that is not even responding to strong anti-fungals. In the past six months I've also managed to pick up ovarian cysts and chronic kidney stones. I have two sports injuries that prevent me from doing any exercise besides slow walking and just found out I have a repetitive stress injury in my forearms. I've had multiple emergency-room trips for some of these conditions, as well as one a few months ago for an absolutely vicious bout of food poisoning. To make matters worse, in the past year I've also been sexually assaulted and a victim of check fraud, both which were a multiple-month legal headache to deal with, not to mention the psychological toll.

My schoolwork is suffering. I'm completely stressed out--I have never had health problems and they're now all piling on at once. I could deal with any one just by itself, but the sheer mass of them is driving me crazy. I get a lot of relief from hard exercise, but the sports injuries prevent any form--really, any form, I've tried. I get relief from sex, but that's only been possible twice in the past three months due to the yeast infections. Can't drink because of the anti-fungals. Can't even bake, cook, pet my cats, or escape to the internet due to the RSI. I've tried coping with ice cream, but that provides short-term relief, long-term stress due the expanding waistline, and I gotta cut that out again in another effort to treat the yeast infection (I was on a meat-eggs-vegetables diet, the infection died down, I included the sugar again and it's come back with a vengeance).

I'm incredibly depressed. I'm getting inexplicable mood swings. I hate my sick, deteriorating body and want to escape it. I want to lie down somewhere and cry. I have had deep depression before, beat it, and have remained pretty optimistic and upbeat--but after a year of this shit I can't anymore. I've joked with my boyfriend that I hope I get cancer, as that would be a sure sign from the universe that it didn't want me in it and I could take it as a cue to just kill myself.

What did you do with your bad luck year? Do you have any suggestions for dealing with the stress (besides meditation--that hasn't worked)? I'm living my life waiting for the next thing to come around the corner and punch me in the face, while attempting to nurse the bruises I've already received. It's no life at all.

Please to be recommending an RSI specialist who practices in San Francisco.

autojack — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 11:57:58 -0800

Please to be recommending an RSI specialist who practices in San Francisco. I've had what I would describe as muscle tension in my right hand and forearm for at least two years. If I try to spread my fingers wide, I can feel more pressure in the right hand muscles and tendons than the left. I can't pull my right hand back as far as I can my left. I can't make a tight fist with my right hand; it feels like I've got a pebble in my hand or something, with my index and middle fingers unable to close all the way. On the whole, this reduced range of motion doesn't bother me a lot, and there's no associated pain unless I do actually try to ball up my hand. On the other hand, it seems unwise to just leave it be.

I use a mouse timer on my computer at work, I take frequent breaks and stretch as I've been told to do. I have a trackball and a Goldtouch keyboard at the proper height (just above my lap), and I don't use the trackball much anyway. None of this has ever lessened my symptoms, so it seems clear I need a more professional medical opinion.

I saw one doctor about this a few months ago, and he gave me a cursory exam and brusquely prescribed Alleve and soaking the hand in hot water for 5 minutes, then cold water for 30 seconds, all while flexing it open and closed, twice a day. I had a followup with him a month later, and there was marginal improvement, but it seems to have plateaued. I'd rather not go back and see this guy, as I was underwhelmed by his attitude and his almost completely hands-off diagnosis.

I live in San Francisco, and would ideally like to see someone who practices in the city.

Tablets for handwriting (not art)

lullabyofbirdland — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 06:27:31 -0800

Thinking of getting a graphics tablet to replace my keyboard as much as possible. Do I need to spring for something high-end, or are the cheaper / smaller tablets good enough to write with? I need to find ways to type less, hence the tablet idea. I won't need it for drawing, which is what most reviews I've found focus on. I just need the cheapest tablet that can give a decently comfortable writing experience for a fairly heavy workload.

Do I need anything larger than this for example? Is there any reason to go for a more expensive model like the Intuos?

Bonus points for any personal experience with handwriting recognition on unix.

Carpal Tunnel Redux

odi.et.amo — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 06:56:56 -0800

Carpal tunnel relief question and a request for an Atlanta-area specialist. I have carpal tunnel syndrome in the left, for sure. The right side mimics the symptoms pretty regularly, so it's possible that I have it in the right as well. I will be having my second nerve conduction study in a few weeks to determine if this is the case. I've had symptoms for a few years now, and my doctor feels that surgery is the next step. I would prefer not to have anyone cutting into my hands unless it becomes absolutely necessary. Additionally, I am somewhat suspect about my doctor's abilities, for no logical reason that I can come up with except that he went to med school in Guadalajara (I can't find much helpful info about the school after a quick google search).

So, here I am, working in IT consulting (which seems to mean "sit in front of a computer all week"), and I used to enjoy playing computer games in my spare time. I haven't played very much at all for quite some time, in an effort to decrease stress and inflammation. I have some degree of pain almost constantly, and quite a bit more when I'm typing or mousing (in both hands, so the common suggestion of giving up mousing probably wouldn't help).

I use a powerball on occasion to strengthen my arms, wrists, and fingers. I have discovered that I can use Ace elastic wrist bands to manage the pain when not typing (they're not helping at all while I type this post), and Ace padded wrist splints at night. I cannot use Handeze as the glove portion cuts off the circulation in my hands. I play with Thinking Putty often. I have a MS natural keyboard at work, and, while I type, my arms are angled slightly downward, and the keyboard is angled slightly backward. I also take Celebrex on occasion.

Besides leaving IT and switching my career to who knows what... What else can I do to try and make this go away without surgery? Will continued use of Celebrex as an anti-imflammatory protect me from future nerve damave?

And, finally, can anyone recommend Atlanta's best CTS specialist? Ideally, someone on the north side hospital district, or in/around Sandy Springs, Marietta, Alpharetta, Roswell areas... Email is in profile if you wish to converse outside AskMeFi.

don't do it if it hurts

gmarceau — Thu, 10 May 2007 17:50:10 -0800

I had a bad case of RSI that is forcing me to switch career. Help me choose what to do next. I had a bad case of RSI that is forcing me to switch career. Help me choose what to do next.

In February 2004, I came down with a nasty case of repetitive stress injury. I was rushing to make the deadline for my master's thesis (in computer science), I was stressed out, I typed through the pain and injured myself. I did make the deadline and continued on with a Ph.D. program. In 2005, as I was undergoing treatment, my wrists kept worsening until I couldn't type more than a few keystroke without severe pain. I spent 2006 trying to discover ways to finish my Ph.D. without the usage of my hands, without much success. It led, amongst other things, to the creation of the DivaScheme project, but it wasn't enough. Since September I have been on medical leave, unsure if I will ever be a programmer again.

If I am not a programmer, what should I be? The question had never occurred before. I was smart programmer and a good teacher. Academia was the right place for me.

With the injury, I also lost the ability to write by hand on paper for more than a few hours. If I do, my wrists swells up in pain and it takes weeks to recover. This is severely limiting the fields where I can reorient myself. Anything that requires taking classes where I would need to take notes and handwrite exams would be difficult.

I tried applying to become a programming teacher in Québec, but did not received a single callback, let alone an interview or an offer.

I am trying to elevate my speaker building hobby to a business. While I did land a few contracts, it will take time and risks before it can pay the rent.

In January, I have engaged on the pessimistic path. I have entered a professional degree in sheet metal work. It is a unique path, isn't it? I am a man who transferred from a Ph.D. program to a high school program. As you can guess, the high school level classroom is boring my mind numb. I might die of boredom before I make it out of here. But if I stick with the program for one more year, I should land a decent-paying job, one that my wrists support without pain.

Right now I am applying to become an English teacher in South Korea. What will I do if I discover that my wrists cannot handle the paperwork, I don't know. And the thought of leaving my girlfriend for a whole year is putting a sad touch on what should be an exciting adventure. Granted we've only been together for four months, but she is very sweet and wonderful, and I can see myself spending my life with her. (It is not an option for her to follow me to Korea. She has to take care of her son here, in joint custody with the father.)

I am torn. I can't seem to think of any good option for myself.

Thank you for your help. I appreciate.

Is it RSI?

tmcw — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 18:28:08 -0800

Is it RSI? I have weird pains in my wrist, like a straight line of ache that goes and goes away for a few seconds. It doesn't happen constantly but often enough for me to be a bit concerned. I have some risk factors - using a computer a lot (I'm a college student and CS major, after all) and playing guitar a lot (just got back from the worst show of my career!)

I suspect it's not carpal tunnel because I don't have loss of feeling or strength (maybe a tiny bit of strength, but not enough to make a big difference), and it doesn't change with sleeping, at all. Any ideas? I'm also a male 20 year old, if that makes a difference. I would guess some people here have similar lifestyles and such.

And it's not a burning pain at all, and not in the wrist area as much as the tendons on the forearm.

Strangely symmetrical pain

martinrebas — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:01:26 -0800

CarpalTunnelMysteryFilter: I have carpal tunnel syndrome, or something similar, but my hands don't generally hurt unless I work too much. Here's the weird thing: Even if I only overuse my right hand (e.g. by drawing), the left hand will usually display the same symptoms (although to a lesser degree), whether it's tingling, a burning sensation in my wrist, pain around the knuckles, cold fingertips, twitching fingers, etc. Why would that happen?

(It would be more understandable if the problems originated from my neck - but as far as I can tell, I get the symptoms when I use my hands, not from doing anything with my neck).

Risks and stories about DeQuervain's release

liet — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 13:46:58 -0800

I'm having a deQuervain's release within the next couple of weeks, and I'm nervous. The web is full of stories by people who had the surgery recently -- how they can type to say "had the surgery on Tuesday and feel great!" I don't know. I haven't found much about the potential risks or stories by people who have recovered.

The short story: I'm a 26 year old woman and I spend a lot -- I mean, a lot -- of time at computers. If I'm not at a computer, I'm knitting or playing console games. Everything I like to do involves my hands.

In November, out of nowhere, I got this incredible pain in my right wrist. It was so bad, I went to the emergency room at 4:30 on a Saturday morning. A followup with a hand doctor confirmed that it was deQuervain's tendonitis. A few months in a splint, a workspace revision by an ergonomics expert, and two cortisone shots later, it's still not that much better. An MRI revealed nothing unusual. The doctor is recommending surgery.

I could live my life with this pain -- it's not debilitating, unless I'm trying to pull on something or pick up something bulky, like my fat dog -- but I'm sick of it. I haven't been able to do long sessions of console games or knitting ever since this started. I'm still able to type at work, and I still play a lot of World of Warcraft (heh), but I have to use an ice pack once in a while.

Considering that literally, everything I like to do involves my hands, what kind of risks am I running by having the surgery? The doctor mentioned a slight risk of nerve damage. If this were to happen, would I, for example, still be able to use a console controller and hit my left-side mouse button?

Windows RSI reminder program

killa62 — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 03:00:30 -0800

I need a program that reminds me to take breaks I need a windows program that can be set to tell the user to take a break every x minutes and to remind the user to adjust their posture in front of their computer.
I would prefer if the program pops up a little dialog that disappears in like 10 seconds and that while it is on the screen, I can click through it.
Any other program that serves the general purpose works too.

Looking for an RSI specialist

tabulem — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 10:51:52 -0800

Can anyone recommend a specialist in Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) in West Los Angeles / Santa Monica? I have serious neck, shoulder and wrist problems from excessive computer use. I've seen some doctors but they seem to have little knowledge of RSI. I'm looking for a doctor or physical therapist with experience in this area who can recommend exercises, etc. that might help.

How do I deal with wrist pain?

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 10:39:04 -0800

Wrist pain, RSI? How do I deal with it? I've been in a lot of pain the last two weeks while using the computer. My right wrist just seems to be giving up. It seems to be from mouse use, as typing isn't so bad. I'm sure its RSI, but I've not been diagnoised with it yet.,

As a computer professional, I kind of need my wrist. In fact, I'm right in the middle of a huge project and this is slowing me down enormously.

Can anyone give some advice as to what I can do to get through the next week or so? I have a doctor appointment scheduled for Friday, but that's a long time and a lot of productivity lost away. I've tried wrist pads, a wrist brace, and even a trackball. I've tried left hand mousing but its too slow. Aspirin helps a little. Ibuprofin makes me sick.

Nothing about my work space is ergonomic. My employer believes in buying everything cheap, so the desk I have predates computers and the chair is probably 10 years old, and was the cheap special then, I'm sure. I'm doing my best to make due with what I have, but I really can only raise my chair a bit to get my arms in line with my keyboard (which is up too high.)

Upper body exercises without using wrists

grouse — Sun, 21 May 2006 12:41:39 -0800

What are some upper body exercises I can do without putting any load on my wrists? I have an wrist repetitive strain injury but I am trying to keep my upper body in good shape regardless. The only problem is most machines and exercises for building upper arms, shoulders, and chest involve holding a weight, handle, or my body with my hands and therefore putting some strain on my wrists, which I would like to avoid. Have any suggestions, for both in the gym and out?

How to get hold of 'it's not carpal'

lunkfish — Mon, 08 May 2006 09:19:12 -0800

Is there anywhere online, mail order or in the UK that actually has 'it's not carpal tunnel syndrome in stock? Or another way to get hold of it? I've had the bugger on order from Amazon for ages and don't know if it will even turn up. A couple of other sellers have listed it in stock, then said it was unavailable.

I'm in a rush 'cause I need to know what to do about work while I'm recovering.

Good keyboards for RSI problems

filmgeek — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 12:24:39 -0800

RSI - a dear friend has bad repetitive injuries (carpal tunnel problems)...it gets bad when she types....and allieviates when she stops. Oh, yeah, she's a professoinal writer. No - not RSI advice....keyboard advice. Have you (or someone you know) had comfort (or a reduction of discomfort) from using a particular keyboard? USB is a must; I'm just trying to avoid telling them to try 30 keyboards.

How to eliminate pain associated with mouse clicking?

J-Garr — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 11:18:33 -0800

How have people prevented and recovered from Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI) of the fingers caused mainly by mouse clicking? My hand hurts. Like many of us I spend all day working on computers then I come home from work and spend more time on a computer. Usually playing games like World of Warcraft. I am considering this: http://www.thehumansolution.com/pad.html but the problem is the company that makes them is out of business and the prices of the remaining stock are up to $200 each! Has anyone used one? Has anyone tried the foot pedal mouse buttons: http://www.alimed.com/ProductDetail.asp?catalog=2&CategoryID=219&FamilySKU=79103 ? What else has helped people with problems caused by clicking the mouse?

I've already tried using software to re-map mouse clicks to keyboard keys. For some uses it works very well but not for gaming. Also, now my left hand hurts a bit from using CTRL and ALT as left and right mouse buttons causing me to hold my left hand in a different position than when I type.