[ILUG] Any advice for RSI?

[Justin Mason]

I went to a geezer in the Blackrock Medical Center who diagnosed
tendonitis about 10 years back.  A few things helped:

1. going to him and getting expert advice, much better than any
interwebs crap or uninformed sports physios. ;)  (I gave myself
runner's knee last year by reading a webpage and setting my saddle too
high accordingly, cue 2 months of painful physio to fix it ;)

2. having said that, the "typing injury FAQ", on the other hand, was
quite useful.

3. the MS Natural Keyboard is great. learn to type using it with your
hands exactly straight from your elbow, no flexion at the wrists at
all.  that's key.  I think that's going to make the most difference
for you.

4. don't rest your wrists while typing/mousing at all, if you can.

5. I use wrist restraints but I would wait until you're properly
diagnosed as they can cause damage for other kinds of typing injury.

6. pain relief: immersion of the wrists in hot and cold water baths
alternately is the low-tech and quite effective way.


Do get a referral and go soon, and be careful in the meantime, as
damage can take a long time to heal, if ever, and if it gets really
bad, it may put you out of a job -- bad news :(

--j.

On Fri, Jan 1, 2010 at 21:22, Rory McCann <ebelular at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I think I've gotten the black lung for programmers, that's right, RSI.
> I've been getting sore arms and wrists from typing for many months
> now. I've been to my GP, and have some anti-inflamatories (in pill and
> spray form). I've been taking a 10 minute typing break every hour for
> a few months, which helped at first, but they are still getting sore.
> I'm just using a bog standard laptop, nothing special. My GP referred
> me to a local physiotherapist, however they was suprised that you
> could plug a USB keyboard into a laptop, so I don't have much faith in
> their knowledge of IT.
>
> Does anyone have advice? Any physios in Dublin that know something
> about typing problems? I'm thinking of getting an ergonomic keyboard
> (maybe this one
> http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000B9RYG8/ref=s9_sima_gw_s0_p23_i2?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=1AQ2QPS1HJXAZP5Y03EM&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467198433&pf_rd_i=468294
> ), any advice on special keyboards or mice? Anything else? I could
> give up typing and go live in a monastary, but I'd rather be able to
> keep hacking....
>
> Rory
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-- 
--j.