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Mike W. has <<... found out about a month ago that I am in the early stages
of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Even though I use wrist guards and other
ergonomic devices, the pain keeps getting worse. What suggestions can you
offer?>>
First off, run (don't walk) to a specialist who knows from CTS and get a
proper diagnosis of your problem. Lots of things can appear to be CTS but
aren't. For example, until I moved my mouse to the left side of my keyboard,
I was having all kinds of problems that turned out to be localized in my
shoulder. (Working with your shoulders hunched because your keyboard is too
high can cause similar problems.) Example the second: I also whacked my
elbow big-time a few years back while playing hockey, and that caused
problems that superficially seemed like CTS. Fortunately, they weren't.
What to do about it varies. I saved myself considerable amounts of wrist
pain by buying the Microsoft Natural Keyboard (if you can find the original,
go for it; if not, get the new "Pro" version). Adesso and Logitech both make
competitors, and there are ridiculously expensive specialized keyboards that
might be necessary. It's worth spending some time at the computer store
trying these keyboards to see if they work, since not everybody likes these
keyboards. Second, consider getting rid of the wrist supports and guards; if
they aren't fitted properly, they can do more harm than good. Third, if
(like me) you tend to rest your palms on the palm rest of your keyboard,
stop now; that can also mess up your hands (speaking from personal
experience here), and that has nothing to do with CTS. Fourth, there are
several support groups for this problem on the 'net. The one I recall being
mentioned frequently was named something like "sorehands"; a search of the
archives should turn it up. Fifth, exercising your hands and arms will help
reduce the risk of progressing to full-blown CTS, provided you're doing the
correct exercises--which brings me right back to my first advice, which is
to find a specialist who can work with you to figure out what's actually
going on and what to do about it.
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