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Ask HN: Avoiding carpal tunnel / repetitive stress injuries

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Re: Ask HN: Avoiding carpal tunnel / repetitive stress injuries

#41

Post by pohart »

iamelgringo wrote: post #28

Get religion about ergonomics. I've spend close to $1k on my workstation's ergonomics at home (decent desk, chair, keyboard, tried a bunch of different mice, adjustible monitor arms, etc...) I probably need to invest another $500-1000 just to get it tuned even further. A small price to pay, to not have to quit coding. Is the pain in your R hand on your wrist (palmar side?) or is it in the back of your hand? It' makes…

before spending $1000, adjust your chair, keyboard, and mouse so that your posture is good, your shoulders are relaxed and your wrists are in a neutral position. You may not be able to do this with a standard keyboard, but a split keyboard is less than $100. if your chair doesn't adjust, get one that does. I personally like a chair that doesn't have armrests, as they sometimes cause me to raise my shoulders or contort my wrists, and I am comfortable resting my arms on my body/legs/

Re: Ask HN: Avoiding carpal tunnel / repetitive stress injuries

#42

Post by pohart »

wensing wrote: post #38
elai wrote: post #25

For me, I was starting to get wrist pain with my mousing. I purchased 12 different mice, tried them all out, keeping note of how I felt in my hand. I eventually found out that really large mice is what work for me. The M$ intellimouse explorer specifically. The MX revolution, and all the other fancy mice weren't as good as the huge honking intellimouse explorer. The huge thumball mice were also good, but I didn't hav…

This is really interesting, because right now I use a very small wireless travel mouse. Actually, I've ditched it and have begun mousing with my feet: http://www.bilila.com/foot_mouse_slipper_mouse From 2000-2006 I used the MS Intellimouse. I should have stuck with it. Perhaps now if I must use a traditional mouse again I'll purchase another. Great tip.

small mice always cause me problems

Re: Ask HN: Avoiding carpal tunnel / repetitive stress injuries

#43

Post by pohart »

JFred wrote: post #31

I've had it, and it did get better slowly. It cost me many thousands of dollars of lost work. The doctors are pretty useless in many cases. 0. Proper sleep, exercise and nutrition are important. 1. Hit the keyboard more gently. 2. If you're a wide person, like me, your elbows are out to the sides and your hands come in from the sides. So get a split keyboard like the Microsoft Natural. There are plenty of other keybo…

while it's possible that mentioning it to your employer may have negative consequences, I think it much more likely that your employer will get you what you need as far as an ergonomic workspace. Unfortunately you need to have some idea of what you need in an ergonomic workspace to ask. So if you have the money, try different things at home. You may also be able to borrow coworkers items to try them. Frequently, someone who has dealt with RSI and found some simple solutions will be excited to share whatever helped them.

Re: Ask HN: Avoiding carpal tunnel / repetitive stress injuries

#44

Post by rtra »

What I did, after my 2 years away from computers. It sucked, but I was in real pain.

- Switched to a big logitech trackball, which I use with my left hand - Negative tilt splitted keyboard (microsoft natural 4000, I higly recommend it) - setup my chair/screen height - Xmonad (proper window manager) - minimize GUI usage.

I've been doing ok. I even started drumming (hard!)

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