While I was dropping Alex and Fiona off at nursery today, I felt (and heard) something in my wrist go pop as I lifted Fiona out of her car seat. Since then, almost every movement of my wrist hurts a lot, and I can’t exert any kind of force (pushing, pulling, gripping) with my right hand without experiencing a great deal of sharp, stabbing pain.
Curiously enough, I can still type. I think this is because my typing posture is pretty good, and I keep my wrists straight while I’m tapping away at the keys. I still think it might be time for a natural keyboard. The only problem with that is that they’re wider and taller than normal keyboards, and I’m not sure if one would fit in the sliding tray under my desk, and still leave me enough room for my mouse. Maybe it’s time for a trackball. (Takes up less room than a travelling mouse.) Might be time to brush up on my Windows keyboard shortcuts, too.
I actually went to see my doctor for the less severe version of this problem last week. Now that it’s taken a jump for the worse, I think I’m going to have to go back again…
I have been suffering from RSI/carpal tunnel for a while and I have tried many different things to make my life easier. The best configuration I found so far is a natural keyboard from Goldtouch – http://www.goldtouch.com – (that I bought on eBay for peanuts) and an optical cordless mouse. The idea was to keep my arms as close to my body as possible and limit the movement of “reaching out”. The keyboard I have is shorter (does not have the num pad, which I really don’t need with a Qwerty). You can uplift the middle and split it as well in order to choose the most comfortable position. It’s not the fanciest alternative, but it works out well for me. It has a special handle that will make it flat after you finished using it, so you can put it under your desk. I hope this helped.
As for Fiona, she’s a beauty and I really believed the water trick. Yeah, you had me on this one!
Cheers and good luck with the pain, Irina (aka Riri)
PS. It looks like Goldtouch have been bought by http://www.keyovation.com/, but you can still find them on eBay.
http://search.ebay.ca/goldtouch-keyboard_W0QQmaxrecordsreturnedZ300QQsalocatedincountryZ2QQsorecordsperpageZ50