Interleaf and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

[David Blyth <dblyth -at- QUALCOMM -dot- COM>]

Susan Self says...

>I don't know of any studies, but I have long suspected myself that
>"mousing" a lot is not good for a person. A fellow here who was using
>Interleaf on an X-terminal had carpel tunnel syndrome very badly. He had all
>kinds of wrist protectors and mouse pads and whatever to alleviate the pain.

T'was I (Hi Susan!).

On my last job, I feel like I had two different types of pain - my arms and
shoulders hurt from keyboarding, my wrist and hands hurt from mousing.  I
could get a little relief by switching from mouse to keyboard, or vice versa.

I have less problem on my new job (thank heavens!) and have made the following
adjustments, listed in rough order of significance:

 o I adjusted the height of my keyboard and of my chair.  This is something
   I discovered at my last job, but I left before it had a chance to help.

 o I changed the position in which I sleeped

 o I'm acupunctured once a week.

 o I'm using a trackball, not a mouse

 o I mouse (trackball) more than I use to (so I can't say that more keyboard
   shortcuts would help).  My wrist still hurts, BTW.

 o I'm using FrameMaker, not Interleaf, so shift from mouse to keyboard
   short cuts more frequently.

The most surprising item to me - as you can guess - was changing the
position in which I sleep.  But I eventually realized that I was using
my right arm to support weight while I slept.  I shifted my arm to lay
flat against my side - and gave my shoulder a chance to rest.  That
relaxed muscles down my entire right side and gave acupuncture a chance
to work.

This isn't a perfect solution, as I hurt some while typing this, but
I'm not wearing as much protective gear as I used to - and I feel much
better overall.


David (The Man) Blyth
Technical Writer & Web Site Designer
Qualcomm

The usual disclaimers apply - I don't speak for QUALCOMM, they don't speak
for me....