From the tab and backspace I stab at thee...

[gement]

Tendonitis has been gnawing at me for the last couple of months, on and off. It's come to my attention that I need to nip this in the bud. I feel it in my wrists, my thumbs, and the depths of my elbows (the tendon that drives the rest of the fingers). I know friends who deal with REAL chronic pain, so I was tempted to ignore this, but then I realized that's often how it starts, so let's talk now.

I've seen the "prayer" stretch, though it doesn't seem to stretch the right things. The yoga "Dog" stretch loosens up my shoulders, which helps peripherally but doesn't address the main problem. I've got an ergo keyboard now, I've been adjusting the heights and distances every which way...

But every time my pinky reaches for the tab (I do Excel all day) or the backspace (I have to correct typos regularly), unless I'm REALLY conscious, my hand twists and I ache. Any time of day, except when my hands have been resting all weekend, I can touch the funny bone hollow behind my elbow and feel the ow ow ow tendon. My finger knuckles have popped constantly (but not painfully) for the last three years since I started typing day jobs.

My massage therapist says he submerges his arms in hothot water at night until they're pink and parboiled, which promotes blood and lymph movement and thus healing. He says it hurts worse at the time, because of swelling, but that's why you do it before bed, not in the morning before work.

Tylik suggests I bring in my sitting ball and sit on it at work, which would certainly help my overall useage, but (like Dog) I'm not sure my wrist problem will benefit more than peripherally.

I'm trying to figure out if there are more stretches I should be doing, if I should pick up drug store wrist braces to train myself out of twisting when I hit tab, if there's something I'm missing here.

Must fix. Suggestions and resources appreciated.

Comments

[jadine.livejournal.com]

I found cheap wrist braces to be helpful in preventing further damage to my wrists while I worked out long-term solutions. You can get good selection and prices online.

You may want to consider a specialized keyboard. Or, if reaching with your pinky is mostly the problem, try a quick and dirty fix: tape your pinky to your ring finger, so you can't do that, and train yourself out of it that way.

[gement.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the pinkies tip! I'm using it as a stopgap until I can scam some wristbraces.

[tylik.livejournal.com]

The braces might help retrain wrist position -- works for some, irritates the heck out of others. Probably worth trying, if you can find a pair that are comfortable. Glucosamine -- standard dose would be 1000mg, twice a day, also might get the wrist inflamation down. Part of the problem with this sort of thing is that even if you're really being careful, if it's already irritated it would continue to be irritated at the least provocation.

What bothers me about this is that it is extending to the elbow -- this might just be a wrist problem that is aggravated by a lot of use, but it also might be an issue involving how you hold your shoulders and upper back. The latter has pretty serious consequences if left unchecked.

Hmm. Are our paths likely to intersect anytime soon? (I could easily give you a week's supply of the glucosamine, to see if that works for you -- it's one of those things that is expensive in small quantities, but cheap in large quantities.)

[gement.livejournal.com]

I would love to sample your wares...

I'm pretty booked until Friday, but let me know when you might swing by the neighborhood, or even drop your samples in my mailslot if we can't meet up soon.

[tylik.livejournal.com]

Are you ever around campus? Or the I-dist? Hmmm... not sure what I'm schedule is going to be like beyond Friday or so myself.

I'd kind of like the chance to poke at you -- the elbow involvement is kind of weird, and I've been talking with my PT about general strengthening of the midback in support of shoulder issues... (We thing we have an undescribed syndrome here -- she calls it "Microsoft Neck". I just know that it's an issue for a lot of my taiji students...)

[gement.livejournal.com]

I'm coming THROUGH campus three nights this week on my way to Greenwood. We could hook up somewhere in there perhaps. I will call you on my bus ride this evening.

[pomma-penses.livejournal.com]

have dealt with problems like this on and off for seven years now, so things I have found that help me:

* drugstore wrist braces. I am particular to a certain brand (I think it's "futuro"), although they run about $20 apiece. Would be happy to lend you mine, if you'd like to try them out. I think I even have two for one of the wrists.

*hand strengtheners. (as opposed to "stress balls" and the like.) These will hurt at first to use. I suggest the chinese jingly balls that you twirl in your palm, and a type of hand strengther used by climbers, the Gravity Grip. (I like the 1lb gravity grip - it's like a stress ball, but it's filled with lead shot.) Keep these at your desk and use them when on the phone, in meetings, etc.

*stretches and changing habits: sounds like you're already trying both of these.

I have sucessfully avoided going to the doctor through all this time by nipping nerve damage before it became permanent. I regained full hand strength and mobility, but of course there are a variety of RPIs and YMMV.

[gement.livejournal.com]

Please let me try your wrist braces, if I my borrow them for a bit. If you could drop them by the house of an evening? (I won't be here a lot this week, but I believe plantae will be home most evenings.

Do you have a Gravity Grip I could look at before buying one? Also, please teach me the ways of Chinese jingly balls. I've owned two sets and given both away because I couldn't figure out how to play with them right.

[dymaxion.livejournal.com]

Good wrist braces are good for the short term — I think it's worth paying slightly more for the good ones so you'll actually use them.— Unfortunately I can't remember off hand the brand that I like (I can look at them when I get home), but they're amazingly more comfortable than the drugstore kind. For the longer term, a set of fleece wrist warmers is surprisingly useful, as the few extra degrees of heat on your wrists really keeps stuff moving.  Stretching is essential, as is taking breaks.  I've found that doing some basic forward and reverse wrist curls very slowly with light weights helps a lot, too — I do them so my wrists are completely tired after about twenty reps. I can really tell the difference between days I've exercised and days I haven't.

Posture and positioning is fairly critical, and it can take a while to get right.  I use an exercise ball at work for a chair, because it's more comfortable than anything short of my Aeron (and work won't buy me one).  I've also found that, especially with the exercise ball, I need my desk really low — the bottom of the desk is resting on my knees, and then my monitor is raised up about a foot (or resting on the desk, tilted back about 45°, but that's harder to do).  So, play around a bit and see what you need.  Your work should have an ergonomics group who can help you if your furniture can't do what you need — if they don't, complain, because they're required to, within reason. 

Changing peripherals can make a big difference, too.  I'm a massive fan of tablets to replace mice, as I wouldn't be able to work without one, but they may not be for everyone, and it sounds like your problem is more with your keyboard.  There are a lot of fancy keyboards out there.  Unfortunately, most of them are expensive and a lot aren't that well made compared to more mainstream models.  I've been very happy with my Comfort Ergomagic, although it's not perfect.

If you have insurance that will cover it, or can afford it, going to see a physical therapist is a good thing, especially once you've spent a little bit of time trying to fix things and they haven't gotten better.  I've managed to mostly deal without this, so far, but if my wrists start going downhill again at all, I'm definitely going in.

[gement.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reminding me of the variety of subtle options available. I've seen the ergo person once already. Her adjustments cleared up my chronic data entry tension headaches (the full-on light sensitivity and nausea kind), which is when my wrists started aching. The positions that are helping my shoulders are hurting my hands, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

[dymaxion.livejournal.com]

Hrm.  Well, if you have a position which works for your shoulders, you might need to look at different peripherals to make your wrists happier.  I know mine just can't take the rotation needed to use a normal keyboard.  Basically, you've got a few different things which are out of alignment, and compensating for one problem can make another worse.  Thus, once you've made your shoulders happy, you're bearing the strain in your wrists instead.  If you can find something which will ease that strain directly, you may be ok.  If you think peripherals might help, another visit with the ergo person might be in order — if nothing else, she should be able to confirm what's going on and make some more suggestions.  In the mean time, wrist braces, breaks, stretching, and exercises!

Maybe it's sugar... ?

[sprgtime.livejournal.com]

Have you had your blood sugar levels checked recently? I'm wondering if they're a little high.

I was dealing with terrible pain in my hands & wrists, which spread down my arm, could feel that tendon owie you're talking about... it just got worse with time. I went to see some different specialists about it, had tests done... nothing was conclusive. And some of those tests were painful.
I typed less and less - passed most of it off to others. I even gave up doing massage and reflexology because that was too painful - and you know how much I love doing that stuff.

Anyway... that was one of the HUGE side effects I discovered when I gave up sugar in January 2004. The pain got less, and less... and now it's completely gone. It has been gone for a while. But I no longer eat anything with added sugar, corn syrup, or the worst - high fructose corn syrup.

You could try 100% avoiding sugar (read ingredients labels on everything - I did not think I was consuming much sugar) for 2 weeks and see if your problem disappears.
I still eat fruits... natural sugars do not cause a problem, but when I have refined sugar or corn syrup, that pain starts coming back.

Signs of high blood sugar can be: extreme thirst, frequent urination, headaches, feeling drowsy, dry skin, blurred vision, stomach pains, feeling confused... do any of those symptoms seem to have cropped up recently?

Re: Maybe it's sugar... ?

[gement.livejournal.com]

I don't think this is it, but it's not a bad idea for me to try cutting back on general principle. I'll add it to the barrage.

stretch links

[sprgtime.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, and here are some stretches that might help.

http://diet.ivillage.com/workouts/wyoga/0,,9zl1,00.html?arrivalSA=1&cobrandRef=0&arrival_freqCap=2

http://diet.ivillage.com/workouts/wyoga/0,,9zkm,00.html

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

Will you hate me if I could not help but hear this in Cate Blanchett's voice?

I feel it in my wrists...
I feel it in my thumbs...
I feel it in my elbows...


(*giggle*)

[gement.livejournal.com]

I feel it where Mimble thwapped me for being a GREAT BIG DORK...

[airlinepilot.livejournal.com]

Two things:
Potassium... bananas and other foods. I've found my joints hurt less when I make sure I get potassium. Don't know why, but it is.

Dvorak keyboard layout. If it's YOUR keyboard you may want to try remapping the keys. You do know that the QWERTY keyboard was DESIGNED to be inefficient, don't you?

*hugs*

[gement.livejournal.com]

I tried to learn Dvorak once, and I might try again. It's the training period in between that plays havoc with my typing speed in both mappings. Until I can type without ever ever looking at my fingers, I can't get away with it at work.

I will consider whether it's time to learn Dvorak, and keep drinking my gallons and gallons of milk, which hopefully cover the potassium base. I've also had time-release vitamin C recommended for wrist/nerve stuff.

[wistol.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm late in the barrage here.....

How's this, I'll show you a coulpe of stretchs I know that help out alot. As I should (hopefully) be seeing you in the not to distant future, this should make things easy for you. (And these stretches also technically teach you how to put someone in a wristlock, but that's an added bonus.)

[gement.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Also, if anyone knows of a good book on stretches, this is lame but I tend not to retain information unless I've seen it in print. I know I've been shown good stretches before and I just don't remember them.

This pertains to pretty much all stretching I've done in my life; I'll remember a couple that are the most fun, but forget most of the set that balances them out.

[hotpoint.livejournal.com]

Ouch! Hmm, things other people haven't suggested:

If it's specifically the backspace and tab keys where you notice problems, try remapping keys on the keyboard? For instance, there are these near-useless Windows keys in the bottom row; moving Alt to those, and Tab and Backspace to the Alt keys, might let you use your thumbs for those keys instead of your pinkies?

Another tack -- try growing out just your pinky fingernails, thus allowing you to move your finger less to touch the backspace and tab keys? I know a very opinionated soul who swears by that.

Finally, requiring purchase of hardware (or some soldering): it's possible to buy foot pedals for computers; a friend of mine with severe RSI bought a box with 3 pedals attached that plugged into the keyboard port, and found them useful for moving common keystrokes to the feet.

Best of luck with reducing the pain!

[gement.livejournal.com]

Grr. I had high hopes for the remapping suggestion, which could have made a big difference, but I can't work out how to tweak individual keys under Win2K.

The pinky nail suggestion makes me laugh and laugh. Thanks. By the way, we should talk more often.

[hotpoint.livejournal.com]

I don't have a Windows 2000 machine to try this on, but this utility called KeyTweak" appears to let you remap any key on the keyboard.

Glad to give you a laugh! Talking would be fun -- let me know when you've got time!