JWZ on Dealing with Wrist Pain

Kodi writes "Jamie Zawinski has put an interesting page on his site describing his fight with wrist pain. The most important thing is that you don't ignore it. Also check out the Typing Injury FAQ, which he links to. " Having had a scare a couple weeks ago, I can testify to the truth behind this - we've done some AskSlashdots about this before as well. Don't assume it'll fix itself.

Comments

stretching

[trance9]

Stretching is very important. Stretch your arms, your forearms, your neck, your back, etc., do it frequently. Don't be too aggressive--mild stretching is the best.

Stretching helps promote healing, and keeps muscles from tightening up. A good massage is also a reasonable preventative measure--work on shoulders and upper back problems as problems here are often are responsible for inefficient use of your fingers, wrists, and forearms.

Re:Wrist pain

[CrayDrygu]

The other wrist pain incident was just after Microsoft came out with their "middle-button wheel" mouse. I made heavy use of the wheel when I first got one of these things, and found that it led to wrist pain (perhaps because rapidly spinning the wheel with the middle finger is a rather unnatural motion).

I got one of the wheelmice, and now I don't know what I'd do without the wheel. You're right, though -- using your middle finger to scroll the wheel is rather uncomfortable.

I found a position (without even trying, it just kinda happened) to hold the mouse that makes it a lot more comfortable. You need to hold it at an angle, like shown here:

http://silverlight.org/cray/wheelmouse.g if
I drew this in MS Paint, gimme a break =P

It may seem a little awkward to get used to at first -- and it probably is -- but once you get used to it, it's realy easy. Up and down motion can be achieved just by pushing and pulling with your fingertips, side-to-side with your thumb and ring finger, and scrolling can be done comfortably with your index finger.

If anybody else tries this and likes it (or already does this) I'd be interested in hearing about it. My email's cray@[domainGivenInURLAbove].org