Chancing my arm
You may have noticed a certain lack of activity on here recently. It’s down to a number of things that have all come together at once, but it’s mainly because I seem to have developed repetitive strain injury in my left wrist and arm, and typing has become a painful exercise. It throbs even when I’m not near the computer and it’s been bad enough at times to stop me sleeping.
My arm’s been feeling a little strange for a while, and heaving boxes full of books around during the move didn’t help things at all. However, the real culprit was the two or three weeks when I had to use a laptop instead of my desktop computer – the typing position was very awkward as I didn’t even have a desk to sit it on at the time and had to crouch over a coffee table. I’ve had something similar happen before. A while ago, before we moved, I set my desktop up to be as ergonomic as I could manage – this was prompted by problems I was having with my neck that time (I think I may be slowly disintegrating). That plus a bit of Bowen therapy got my neck back to normal but now I’m going to have to look very hard at the whole thing again.
Apart from a bit of height adjustment (which is going to be difficult given the existing office furniture) the obvious solution is an ergonomic keyboard. These are really weird……they split the keyboard in two with each half set at an angle – a bit like Tower Bridge looks when it’s halfway open (see above). They also add in a kind of humped effect going from front to back, plus one or two other strange little delights. I’m going to have to find somewhere to try them out and make sure I can still touch type in these crazy positions, but a bit of experimental hand twisting has convinced me that this might well be the answer. I hope so.
The downside is that I do believe these keyboards are quite expensive to buy, so I’m hoping I don’t have to pay an arm and a leg for it. I’ll just have to go there armed with lots of cash, but it will be worth it – a real shot in the arm to be able to type painlessly again. In the meantime, since the sun is over the yard arm and I’m literally chancing my arm to keep typing, I’m off for a large glass of wine. OK, ok, I’ll stop now, I really will…….
March 8, 2012 @ 3:39 pm
Hello Gilly
What a pain, literally! I have problems with my right side which means sometimes even holding a pen is very difficult. I bought voice recognition software which I don’t use every day (though you’re meant to really) but do use when typing is too much. I’ve found it pretty amazing, to be honest. It isn’t cheap, though there’s different levels of package you can buy (I use Dragon Professional). If you’ve got a serious and ongoing problem, I would highly recommend considering the investment.
March 8, 2012 @ 3:59 pm
Alison – thanks so much for your reply. I’ll definitely look into voice recognition software – I’ve never been sure how good it is, so it’s good to have some feedback on that. I think I can get a student discount which will save some money. To be honest, I’m in such a lot of pain right now that I’d pay almost anything for something that would help. It got a bit better yesterday, enabling me to type this blog post, but the result of doing that has been that today I can barely type at all.
March 8, 2012 @ 7:02 pm
OUCH! I’m sorry this has cropped up. Doesn’t seem quite fair with all the changes you’ve been enduring. I hope the one you find will give relief. I get sore wrist areas sometimes and have one of those soft wraps that will immobilize it for a few day to give it a rest.
will be anxious to hear how the “London Bridge” keyboard works for you.
March 9, 2012 @ 1:46 pm
Ooh, not very nice at all. I know how much pain tehse things can cause and hope you find a good solution. I knew someone who used Dragon at work – she found it really excellent for all standard wordprocessing tasks. Not sure how it would work with blog entries but am sure you could find some way to compose them in an editor and post. I really hope this gets sorted soon.
March 27, 2012 @ 4:39 pm
I’ve managed to do wordpress blog posts ok using Dragon. Challenge now is to introduce the puppy to me talking to myself. Tried it today and he seemed to find it quite unsettling!
March 27, 2012 @ 8:31 pm
That’s really interesting, Alison – I didn’t realise you could use it with WordPress. I haven’t done anything about buying it yet because a combination of shiatsu treatments, yoga stretching and some readjustments of my desk and chair have worked absolute wonders and I’m now able to type again without pain. I’ll definitely think about it for the future, though.
Dogs’ reactions to things can be very funny sometimes. I had a dog once that used to howl like a banshee if I played the theme tune to Midnight Cowboy; no other song got any response. I hope your puppy gets used to it soon. I’m really envious; I’d love a puppy!