Wrist rsi - anybody experienced it?

less time on the computer would help :rolleyes: It's a bit like a smoker asking how to ease the pain of coughing up half there lungs first thing in the morning.
Me personaly suffers another form of RSI :p

It's a bit like a smoker asking how to ease the pain of coughing up half there lungs first thing in the morning.
Sad but true I s'pose. :(

RSI is closely related to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/9339/9678.html) ...and I've had that.....

CTS shows up as a strange thing in that you wake up at night thinking you've been sleeping on your arm/wrist and that it has had the circulation cut off...we call that "asleep" here in the states, and then you change position and go back to sleep and it may happen again late on in the night waking you often.

I had severed my right thumb off and for the repair, they had to flex my hand backwards and cast it in that position for three months for the tendon auto-transplant grafts to heal...the surgery was successfull..but I've had CTS ever since.

There are three main nerves in the wrist that control the fingers and the palm of your hand..I think I remember them as the radial, the ulnar and the medial.....they all have specific symptoms and feelings.

The "funny bone" that you strike when you hit your elbow and send electric feeling up and down your arm is (I think) the ulnar (http://www.dynomed.com/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/hand_and_wrist/Ulnar_Nerve_Entrapment_at_the_Wrist.html) and it is responsible for the thumb and index finger and 1/2 of the middle finger. The radial nerve is in control of the pinkie and part of the fat area of the palm just below it; the medial nerve has control of the ring finger and the other 1/2 of the middle finger.

I might have mixed up the names here of the nerves, but they are still distinct and have seperate symptoms and strategies for repair and mediation.

I had to wear a wrist splint for a few months at night to reduce the impact on the wrist, and it worked...for a long time (like 10 years or so)...but it's back now in vengeance...and I don't think this time it's going to go away without surgery.

I used to get it ages ago, but hardly get it now. You know when you have RSI, or whats now called OOS (occupational overuse syndrome).

Your wrist will be pretty sore after a while. But I got used to it, after using computers at work (when I used to work with computers, nearly all day, every day). And then using the computer/s at home, it gradually went away.

I dont really get it at all now.

Leaning with one elbow on the desk doesnt help either.
I used to get it when I worked in the timber industry, the best way of stopping it is to either limit the movement thats causing the issue, or take microbreaks (every 10 minutes or so, spend 30 seconds stretching the muscles in the affected area.. SLOWLY).
Yours maybe caused by typing, in this case Im not sure what will help.. but try the microbreaks

I ve got a mild form of it, symptoms for me are shooting pain up the arm tingling and numbness.
When these symptoms make themselves known I simply change my mouse from Right to Left handed untill things settle down. This takes some getting used to but after a while it becomes secound nature.

Then of course as every good keyboardess knows you should always take finger exercise breaks (every half hour) to help avoid this. There used to be a freeware program that would annoy the hell out of you every half hour that would encourge this.

Reason I ask is that my symptoms are weird... over the last month I've developed a (slight) numbness in my arm, from my thumb up to about inside of elbow. It is always there, but with more or less noticable during the day. When it fades I get a tingling, as in pins and needles. You've basically summed up what I used to get at work (where 99% of my work is mouse work) - Doctor said it was OOS (occupational overuse syndrome), and your symptoms are pretty much identical to mine. Occasionally I'd also get a numb little-finger, but usually it was down from my thumb to my elbow. Sometimes it was a burning thumb (felt like it was on fire).

The first person you should see is your doctor (or perhaps a doctor who specifically treats this sort of thing), the second person you should see is a workplace therapist (can't remember the name they give them) who will come into your place and set up your desk, mouse, keyboard, screen, chair, whatever else to get you in the right position so that the pain goes away and doesn't come back. My work had to spend a bit of money (close to $500 I think) buying a couple of things to help, but boy was it worth it (another guy I know with the same thing didn't do anything about it and ended up being off work and until he resigned a few weeks ago he was working short days because of it).

To sum up, do something about it, and do it now!

Mike.

Would a Speech Recognition Programme be of any help to you??? PJ

I've had it, it's not fun. Took a lot of adjustment to get back to normal.

First thing, throw out the $10 keyboard and mouse and make sure you have a high quality keyboard and mouse - consider going ergonomic for both. My mouse and keyboard at work was ~$350 but it made a world of difference.

Get a good seat, position yourself proeprly (there's stacks of info online for doing this). Arguments about wrist rest mouse pads go both ways. I use one, but they do encourage you to mouse from the wrist which is bad for OOS.

If you work somewhere get an ergonomic assessment of your work environment. Consider a foot rest thing. Height of monitor, location of most used items on the desk.

Consider getting a rest management program (I used WorkPace which is NZ developed) to enforce breaks, stretches and exercises.

Yes RSI or whatever they call it now. I get it occasionally but I am 73 and spend too much time on the computer as its about the only manual work I can do these days. But as a teenager and in my early 20s I spent a huge amount of time typing and NEVER knew anybody who had problems. The reasons were simple. Keyboards were more angled. They required more effort, which included different actions like the return "handle' which made us do other actions. We NEVER rested our wrists - our hands were always in the air. And of course unlike computers we needed to stop fairly regularly to change paper, do some filing, release keys that had got crossed in mid air etc.
To avoid RSI - never ever use a wrist guard or rest. Keep your hands high. Do have regular breaks - when teaching computer skills I always insisted my students took a 5 - 10 min break every hour. Very difficult to enforce this but it is good practice. Don't work on a laptop if your desktop is available - laptop keyboards now they all have pressure pads, are unbelievably badly designed. An old laptop I had with no pad had its keys at the front where they should be - so much better to use.
Finally ration your use of the mouse - don't ask me how - as I mention above I also get RSI
Tom

So lets make a fortune, Thomas. We'll convert Imperial 66 typewriters and sell them as computer keyboards.

The IBM 1620 used an IBM electric typewriter (typebar model., not golfball) as its console device. PDP8s and 11s used Teletypes as consoles, too. Clatter, clatter, clatter, but no RSI. :D

Good on yer Graham - how did you know it was an Imperial typewriter I used?
I believe incidentally that typewriter is the longest word you can type on one line of the keyboard.
Funny you should mention electric typewriters but now I do recall that in 1949 or thereabout Miss Topping in our office was issued with an electric typewriter. I never liked it - no real feel. Not compared to our Imperials. And the keyboard was almost flat like our keyboards are now. Then I also remember poor Miss T having a sore arm - probably RSI - none of us thought of that at the time. I would ask her the eventual outcome but she would be 107 years old by now.
Tom

Just at the tail end of round one with RSI myself...

as mentioned earlier in the thread, the best thing you can do is go see your GP. OOS is so broad that it cant really be covered completely in a forum thread.

Your GP will no doubt recommend some physio/accupuncture, don't ignore this advice, just do it. You may also be prescribed some anti-inflamms like diclofenac - pay attention to what your GP says - dicolofenac can cause havoc with your bowel, in which case you just switch to diclofenac gel (aka voltaren)

The physio will show you a few stretches to do - do them. It might take a few visits, but the best thing I did was pay attention to my physiotherapist.

Next, get yourself a visit from an occupational/workplace therapist. You'll be amazed at just how little you knew about how to sit correctly at a desk. You can read about ergonomics till the cows come home, and I did, and I thought I knew, but the best way is to be shown. Again, pay attention to what the therapist says. I am now of the opinion that anyone working in an office environment should be getting basic ergonomics training as a prerequisite of employment. Prevention is better than the cure - who would have thought?

For normal computer usage, get yourself a 3M ergonomic mouse. To give you an idea of how good they are - with an average intellimouse, I could work for about 5 minutes before experiencing sharp pains up my forearm. With the 3M ergo mouse I could go about 8 hours straight before experiencing dull pains creeping in.

Keep your normal mouse plugged in if you game though.. the 3M mouse isnt good for gaming ;)

I've been using ergo keyboards religiously for 10 years now, so that's moot for me. They take no time at all to adjust to if you're a touch typist, so give yourself a treat and get yourself one.

Finally, install some RSI software - workrave is a free open source one - and set it to force breaks. I have mine set to a microbreak (30secs) every 15mins and a break (10mins) every hour.

After all of that, go have a follow up visit with your GP and let him/her know what you've done and any changes you've experienced. They'll probably ask a few more questions, do some on the spot tests and give you some feedback.

After doing all the stretches suggested by my physio, paying attention to what the occupational therapist said and integrating that knowledge, installing and using RSI software and adhering to my micro breaks and breaks, the pain receeded back from my entire forearm to just my wrist. While the 3M mouse does reduce the horrible mouse-camber significantly, it does still promote wrist twisting.

Anyway, a couple of days ago I had a follow up GP visit which consisted of a partial physical testing my flexibility, forearm and hand strength, reflexes and coordination, and it looks like the damage is relatively non permanent. :) The GP noted that now I am "empowered with the knowledge" required to reduce the symptoms, I can actively build habits that prevent a recurrance.

The other recommendation given to me by both the physio and my gp is that I take up yoga or pilates. I'm trying to schedule in some time, shift work is a bit of a bugger like that. You might like to consider something similar.

So, unfortunately while I am 'empowered' now, it's not knowledge that can really be imparted via text - you really need to go out and learn it for yourself.

So, unfortunately while I am 'empowered' now, it's not knowledge that can really be imparted via text - you really need to go out and learn it for yourself.I agree 100% with what Whetu has said, especially this last line. Go see a doctor, and do something about it before it's too late.

Mike.

I have been thinking about sorting out my ergonomics at work but I think if I complain about it they might fire me or something seeing I'm on a 6month 'trial' period. I've only just started, can't really rock the boat too much can I?

I mean the desk &/or chair is just at a crap height. My arm is well below the desk so not at the right height, and I'm reaching up sortof. The chair can't be raised any higher so the armrest on it is below the desk as well. I was getting a sore wrist for the mouse hand, under the forearm it sortof a dull pain. I have sortof managed to make it go away for the meantime by bringing my mouse pad into work which has a gel wrist rest on it.

I have been thinking about sorting out my ergonomics at work but I think if I complain about it they might fire me or something seeing I'm on a 6month 'trial' period. I've only just started, can't really rock the boat too much can I?

I mean the desk &/or chair is just at a crap height. My arm is well below the desk so not at the right height, and I'm reaching up sortof. The chair can't be raised any higher so the armrest on it is below the desk as well. I was getting a sore wrist for the mouse hand, under the forearm it sortof a dull pain. I have sortof managed to make it go away for the meantime by bringing my mouse pad into work which has a gel wrist rest on it.

Without knowing too much about your circumstance/company I'll generalise

ask your employer what their policy is, I think you'll find they have to abide with OSH regulations. The Department of Labour may also be interested in getting involved. (OSH is part of DOL, I'm meaning more like ERS - Employment Relations etc) Your work probably has a dedicated OSH representative - a colleague who looks after OSH/ACC related matters, usually someone HR-ish, go have a chat with them.

Failing that, just do the best you can by yourself - RSI software like workrave, if adhered to, should make a significant difference. IANAL but any attempt by your employer to prevent you practising anti-OOS methods is probably illegal (see: OSH, DOL, hell even 'causing bodily harm/injury')

Get in touch with OSH/ERS/DOL for advice if you're unsure, they're pretty good to deal with, which says a lot, being govt departments and all ;)

I am right-handed and have been using my left-hand for my mouse for over 10 years and never experienced any OOS (RSI) issues. It took me only a day to adjust to using my left-hand for my mouse and after using computers for over 20 years, this change must have helped me avoid any problems.

I used to have it in the forearm. It was excruciating using a mouse.
Then I had a ski accident and was referred to a physiotherapist by my Dr.
He fixed my ski injury, then I asked him for advice on my RSI.

The first thing he did was to get me to throw away the Voltaren.
Then he got me to photograph my workplace.
Once he looked at the photo, he immediately figured out why I had a problem.
I had the mouse on the edge of the desk and was moving it using my wrist and fingers. He changed that so that now I have my whole forearm resting on the desk and I move the mouse using my shoulder muscles. My wrist and forearm muscles are not used. Within weeks the RSI had gone and hasn't come back in 2 years.

I used to have it in the forearm. It was excruciating using a mouse.
Then I had a ski accident and was referred to a physiotherapist by my Dr.
He fixed my ski injury, then I asked him for advice on my RSI.

The first thing he did was to get me to throw away the Voltaren.
Then he got me to photograph my workplace.
Once he looked at the photo, he immediately figured out why I had a problem.
I had the mouse on the edge of the desk and was moving it using my wrist and fingers. He changed that so that now I have my whole forearm resting on the desk and I move the mouse using my shoulder muscles. My wrist and forearm muscles are not used. Within weeks the RSI had gone and hasn't come back in 2 years.Interesting. If you can get used to working like that I can see why it'd help a lot. Strangely it's a technique I was taught in playing squash - to use the wrist a lot less than a full shoulder movement. it improved my game-play a lot.

Yep, I have to agree. My desk is an L-shape with the monitor/keyboard/mouse at an angle in the corner. Using the mouse my whole right arm from elbow down is resting on the desk and when using the keyboard my left arm can rest on the chair arm. Very comfortable and despite using the mouse a lot for graphics work I get no problems. I do also take regular breaks as well to rest the bits, so maybe this helps.