Happy Birthday, Arm Head Jerk Pain
posted on may 15, 2005, tag: me
I turned 24 today. We spent the weekend in Boston to celebrate Paige's college graduation. I spent most of my 24th birthday driving home from Boston. I'm getting old.
Also, the problems I've been having with my wrist and elbow the past 5 years have gotten significantly worse lately—so bad that I've been unable to type or use the mouse or open bottles, et cetera without lots of pain in my arm and shoulder—so I'm having trouble doing anything computer related. I'm typing with one hand, and it's very hard. This entry has taken about 6 minutes so far to type (I won't even mention how many typos I've had to correct (in fact, typing these little notes takes a lot of effort!)).
I'm going to have x-rays and "nerve testing" done this week and hopefully then they'll figure out what to do to make it better. Until then, things will be slow around here.
Comments
There are 6 comments, comments are closed
Paige on 05/15/2005:
Happy birthday! Thanks for coming up to Boston and sitting through the longest commencement ceremony ever. And thanks for staying sober just so you could drive a whole mess of our really drunk friends back to yr hotel.
Good luck with the arm stuff, hopefully you'll be back to typing with both hands in no time.
Dan Phiffer on 05/15/2005:
I find that taking frequent "micro-breaks" helps a quite a bit. Also, angling my laptop just slightly (about one inch up in the back) makes a big difference with my wrist comfort level.
Lashlar on 05/15/2005:
Ouch. I hope that they get it fixed soon. I used to have rather frightful pains in my wrists until I moved to using a laptop stand that elevated the laptop at an angle (something like Dan Phiffer). After that, the pain stopped.
Jeni Grant on 05/16/2005:
When I was diagnosed with CTS about seven years ago, I started reading all the medical literature I could get my hands on. One interesting thing I found was that a lot of people who have CTS or are otherwise prone to repetitive stress injuries also have vitamin B6 deficencies. I started taking about 150mg of B6 a day after that. In a couple of months I went from being unable to use my hands (quite literally) to having almost full range of motion. I even managed to avoid surgery and months of physical therapy. Forgive me for sounding like a total granola-eating Birkenstock-wearing hippie - I just remember how much it sucked and how happy I was to find something that didn't require huge doctor's bills.
Sean Slavin on 05/16/2005:
Careful with those hands. I had a CTS surgery for each hand about 8 months ago. About 2 months ago, I quit my software engineering job and moved on to other things. There has been a huge improvement now that I'm not on the computer 8-10 hours a day.
I don't know too much about the B6 thing but I have heard of it. What I do know is that you should start stretching. Start with your neck and back then move to your shoulders and then down to your wrists. Everything is connected and if your core is tweaked it will effect your extremeties. Nerve troubles in hands can be caused by something pinched further upstream.
If it gets really bad, you may want to check with your HR rep about Worker's Comp. The process is a pain in the ass but all treatment would be covered. I won't lay out the whole story here but if you're interested, feel free to email.
Happy birthday!
Greg on 05/17/2005:
Happy Belated Birthday!
I forgot my TypeKey login info so it took me a while to get back over here to post with the correct info. I feel for you and CTS, my Dad has that and it's truly like you describe. Sorry to hear you have it at 24 years old! I found this link,
http://www.kencybmethod.com/ which maybe of some informational help. I hope you can get proper medical treatment and your employer will pay for it.
Best Regards,
Greg