Me and my RSI
Aug. 14th, 2012 12:05Back in April I was diagnosed with a repetitive stress injury of the right elbow, specifically tennis (AKA golfer's) elbow, because of bad pain in…my right wrist. Last week I went back to the hand specialist, who said that with my current management regimen I probably didn't need to keep going to physical therapy. My current management regimen involves:
# External (wireless) keyboard - So that I'm not hunching my arms up like a velociraptor when I type.
# External (wireless) mouse - I use it left-handed for the most part.
# Book rest for my laptop - I bought a leather-bound copy of Vanity Fair for this purpose, namely raising the laptop closer to eye level.
# Elbow brace - I insisted on this to the RSI specialist and my PT person because of![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
synecdochic's very helpful post on RSI prevention and you, and I think it does help to wear the elbow brace at night while I sleep. At the least, I've eliminated the previously rather frequent instances of waking up with my right arm asleep or half-asleep under the rest of my body.
# Stretching and exercise - I have a regimen of stretches to do thanks to my PT person, and it's also time to get serious about increasing my upper body and core strength. We'll see how that goes.
# Eternal attempts to have better posture - "You're a slumper," my PT person told me on my first visit, which is basically true.
# Time Out - This program tells you to step away from the computer and take rest breaks. The current new version only works with Mountain Lion (!), so I should probably also tell you about Stretch Break, which is basically the same thing but costs money. (NB, however, that if you have access to a university computing center, your school may have a license to give it to you for cheap or for free; mine does.) Time Out 1.6, the old version, is still compatible with Snow Leopard.
I had a moment of intense envy when someone mentioned RSIs to one of the organizers at AdaCampDC and she had no idea what the abbreviation meant. Hopefully, if I stick to these methods, I'll not have another bout of pain like last spring (I haven't touched the violin since before then, though, and I want to, so we'll see), but it's not like there's a "cure" for this. (Though, by the same token, I was infuriated when the RSI specialist I saw evaded my questions about what the approach was for me to not have arm and wrist pain.) Given how much time I spend on the computer, I thought I'd share what I've learned.
# External (wireless) keyboard - So that I'm not hunching my arms up like a velociraptor when I type.
# External (wireless) mouse - I use it left-handed for the most part.
# Book rest for my laptop - I bought a leather-bound copy of Vanity Fair for this purpose, namely raising the laptop closer to eye level.
# Elbow brace - I insisted on this to the RSI specialist and my PT person because of
synecdochic's very helpful post on RSI prevention and you, and I think it does help to wear the elbow brace at night while I sleep. At the least, I've eliminated the previously rather frequent instances of waking up with my right arm asleep or half-asleep under the rest of my body. # Stretching and exercise - I have a regimen of stretches to do thanks to my PT person, and it's also time to get serious about increasing my upper body and core strength. We'll see how that goes.
# Eternal attempts to have better posture - "You're a slumper," my PT person told me on my first visit, which is basically true.
# Time Out - This program tells you to step away from the computer and take rest breaks. The current new version only works with Mountain Lion (!), so I should probably also tell you about Stretch Break, which is basically the same thing but costs money. (NB, however, that if you have access to a university computing center, your school may have a license to give it to you for cheap or for free; mine does.) Time Out 1.6, the old version, is still compatible with Snow Leopard.
I had a moment of intense envy when someone mentioned RSIs to one of the organizers at AdaCampDC and she had no idea what the abbreviation meant. Hopefully, if I stick to these methods, I'll not have another bout of pain like last spring (I haven't touched the violin since before then, though, and I want to, so we'll see), but it's not like there's a "cure" for this. (Though, by the same token, I was infuriated when the RSI specialist I saw evaded my questions about what the approach was for me to not have arm and wrist pain.) Given how much time I spend on the computer, I thought I'd share what I've learned.