221–230 of 398 posts
I had severe rsi on my forearms from too much coding with bad posture and no exercise. It got me for more than 3 years. It was a muscular issue the nerves were fine. I lost endurance in the forearm / wrist muscles and it didn't seem to come back no matter what I tried. Doctors therapy exercise etc. It was a nightmare. I went on a leave. I barely kept my job. At times I couldn't use the computer for more than 10 minut…
Any suggestions for Linux-based tools?
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Getting a diagnosis when you don't have something easily understood can be an utterly soul destroying process. I have fibromyalgia. Not as a label stuck to something that can't be understood, but firmly fitting to a disease that isn't yet fully understood. (Yay for me - I have every known symptom at one time or another.) It took ten years, an enormous amount of pain, two neurologists, three GPs, a psychiatrist and a…
> and now they're able to help. what was the nail-down / how are they able to help now?
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Treatment is a multi-pronged attack.
I have a drug cocktail aimed at desensitisation of the nervous system. It works well enough to take the edge off, but not during a flare up or relapse. It's the least important and least effective part of treatment.
I have a psychologist, aimed at pain management. The mental techniques around dealing with pain and stress on a daily basis. This becomes more important during a flare. It is also probably the most important part of treatment.
I have a physiotherapist. I need to maintain a certain level of physical activity or the illness can rapidly get worse, whilst at the same time, too much activity can also cause the same process.
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I should also point out that if I became completely resistant to treatment, a possibility for the future if things get worse, then my pain specialist is also involved in a series of trials using ketamine that usually results in desensitisation of the nervous system over the course of a couple weeks.
Point being, there is always hope for increasing quality of life, even if there is currently no hope of cure.
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Definitely interested. I’ll check it out. Same boat, software engineer, my index and middle finger main knuckles on both hands inflame from the slightest use even after years of therapy, doctors visits, etc. Also tendinitis in both elbows/arms. Note to those who are pushing off fixing your ergonomics, don’t. If you feel pain, numbing, tingling; do not ignore it. Listen to your body, don’t be like me.
I'm 23 and have been using computers very heavily for the last 10 or so years - probably an average of 6 hours a day. During a particularly intensive day of typing last week I started getting pain in my right hand. I had to resort to hunt-and-peck index finger typing to get the feature I was working on finished. I'm horrified, it feels like I'm way too early in my career for something like this to happen, but I guess…
I had always used non-ergonomic mice and kbs, until one day I started noticing some wrist pain when in certain positions. After a few months the pain increased and I figured this wasn't right so I bought one of those Microsoft Natural Keyboards, and after a week or so, the pain went away.
Some time later I started with wrist pain again but now in positions related to the mouse use, so I bought an Evoluent mouse and again, after a couple of weeks the pain was noticeably lower, and so I was convinced that the position of my wrists was not ideal for thousands of hours of use.
So, my point is, you don't have to wait until it's too late to try to figure out a way to fix that. I don't think age is the only factor here, so just try out something on the affordable side and see if you get better, regardless of how young you are, begore things get worse.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm 23 and have been using computers very heavily for the last 10 or so years - probably an average of 6 hours a day. During a particularly intensive day of typing last week I started getting pain in my right hand. I had to resort to hunt-and-peck index finger typing to get the feature I was working on finished. I'm horrified, it feels like I'm way too early in my career for something like this to happen, but I guess…
I learned to use mouse with my other hand. I was literally forced to one day, out of pain. Took me 2 days to feel normal with it. Nowadays, I juggle back and forth, depending on comfort.
I kept two mice on each side of the computer for years and alternated between them as required.
I developed an RSI a few years ago, and I had to leave my job. It was devastating to lose both my career and my passion to an injury. Since then, I've been working with a friend on a new voice coding app called Serenade [1] that aims to enable anyone to program by voice. With Serenade, you can speak natural English voice commands like "delete second function" and "add class person". Not only can this be faster than t…
I was actually VERY close to being in this same boat, one of my nerves in my shoulder was pinched so badly that it started to take damage. Took me a few months to regain full use of my left (dominant) hand with lots of physical therapy.
Seeing this gives me real hope that there is hope for everyone regardless of a sudden life altering possibility.
I developed an RSI a few years ago, and I had to leave my job. It was devastating to lose both my career and my passion to an injury. Since then, I've been working with a friend on a new voice coding app called Serenade [1] that aims to enable anyone to program by voice. With Serenade, you can speak natural English voice commands like "delete second function" and "add class person". Not only can this be faster than t…
Definitely interested. I’ll check it out. Same boat, software engineer, my index and middle finger main knuckles on both hands inflame from the slightest use even after years of therapy, doctors visits, etc. Also tendinitis in both elbows/arms. Note to those who are pushing off fixing your ergonomics, don’t. If you feel pain, numbing, tingling; do not ignore it. Listen to your body, don’t be like me.
I've found that a mix of proper ergonomics, regular breaks, CBD oil (for inflammation), wrist braces and physical therapy exercises can do a lot of good.
My only serious RSI experience was on Laptops, with the task switching combo - Alt+Tab (or Cmd+Tab/Cmd+`) - which was really killing my left palm with severe pain.
Since that time I'm remapping left-Alt/Cmd+Tab to left-Alt/Cmd+Spacebar (Karabiner on Mac, Sharpkeys+Autohotkey on Windows), and I'm constantly amazed how good and productive that combo is. And that it should have been used for computers instead of Alt+Tab from factory.
I'll share the configs gladly ofc if anyone's interested.
This story resonates. A few years back I was dealing with mild pain while coding. I stupidly ignored it for months as it got significantly worse, to the point where it became impossible to type for extended periods. I tried lots of things. My doctor did a nerve conduction study, which apparently ruled out carpal tunnel syndrome, but he wasn't much help beyond that. He gave me some straps that I slept in and wore arou…
If you have carpal tunnel, lifting weights can make things worse. It puts more stress in the narrow canal that your tendons go through, which cause the pain.
I spent thousands of dollars on ergonomic chairs, keyboards, mice. It helped but didn’t solve the symptoms completely. I was unable to do things like use a laptop without pain.
Several years later I started doing basic body strength exercises. I thought I had permanent nerve damage by that point, but within about 4 weeks all symptoms were gone. That was 10 years ago.
I think a lot of these problems are related to shoulder, neck, and arm muscles. Stress, cold, seem to exacerbate the symptoms. Nothing I read in years of research had the right answer.
I developed an RSI a few years ago, and I had to leave my job. It was devastating to lose both my career and my passion to an injury. Since then, I've been working with a friend on a new voice coding app called Serenade [1] that aims to enable anyone to program by voice. With Serenade, you can speak natural English voice commands like "delete second function" and "add class person". Not only can this be faster than t…
Definitely interested. I’ll check it out. Same boat, software engineer, my index and middle finger main knuckles on both hands inflame from the slightest use even after years of therapy, doctors visits, etc. Also tendinitis in both elbows/arms. Note to those who are pushing off fixing your ergonomics, don’t. If you feel pain, numbing, tingling; do not ignore it. Listen to your body, don’t be like me.
Also try programmable keyboards or custom keymap layouts, which will allow you to map Return to the caps lock key to balance RSI a bit. I have issues with my right index which I almost completely blame on Diablo 1/2, swapping left + right click helps a lot.
I’ve also tried and wouldn’t recommend: Dvorak (no noticeable difference) Egrodox (extremely hard to learn)
Maaaaybeee tiled window managers, dunno where I stand on that one but it probably doesn’t help a lot ergonomics wise.