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Thread ID: 66898	2006-03-10 10:13:00	Wrist rsi - anybody experienced it?	Greg (193)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
437209	2006-03-10 10:13:00	I'm wondering what are the early symptoms of RSI - does anybody here experience wrist problems? 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. I woulda thought that it would feel odd on the opposite side of my arm, eg the pinkie finger side if it was due to excessive mouse use. I used to use a cool silicon gel-filled wrist rest; reckon I should get another? Would be interested in hearing other computer users' knowledge or experience. Thanks!	Greg (193)
437210	2006-03-10 11:08:00	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	plod (107)
437211	2006-03-10 11:38:00	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. :(	Greg (193)
437212	2006-03-10 15:30:00	RSI is closely related to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome ( . intelihealth . com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/9339/9678 . html" target="_blank">www . intelihealth . com) . . . 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 ( . dynomed . com/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/hand_and_wrist/Ulnar_Nerve_Entrapment_at_the_Wrist . html" target="_blank">www . dynomed . com) 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 .	SurferJoe46 (51)
437213	2006-03-10 17:40:00	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 .	Speedy Gonzales (78)
437214	2006-03-10 20:03:00	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	Myth (110)
437215	2006-03-10 20:05:00	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.	beama (111)
437216	2006-03-10 20:24:00	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.	Mike (15)
437217	2006-03-10 21:42:00	Would a Speech Recognition Programme be of any help to you??? PJ	Poppa John (284)
437218	2006-03-10 22:11:00	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.	ninja (1671)
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