Carpal Tunnel therapy

Tue Feb 1 01:49:18 UTC 2005

Have you looked at the "Natural" keyboards (at home I have examples by both
Logitech and by Microsoft). Yes, they are UGLY but I find they are very
comfortable to type on, and while hardly a solution to the likes of carpal
tunnel, might help a bit...

"Peter Hiscocks" <phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org> on Sunday, January 30, 2005 5:49
PM wrote:

> I've been meaning to write this out for someone else who needs advice on
> carpal tunnel, so this email is a good incentive.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I went through this some years ago. I thought carpal tunnel was some sort
of
> new-age ailment and never gave it a thought. Then, in the middle of typing
a
> large manuscript, my wrists felt like they were getting electric shocks,
and
> they started to hurt like crazy. Driving the car aggravated the problem
> significantly.
>
> It was very scary, I thought I would have to give up typing altogether. My
> GP sent me off to see someone at Wellesly, and the guy immediately wanted
to
> do surgery. Surgery may or may not work, but the thought of permanently
> screwing up my wrists made me look for an alternative solution. My GP
> thought the surgery was the answer, but he didn't press me on it.
>
> Then my GP then sent me off for physiotherapy, and that didn't seem to
help
> much. It briefly alleviated the symptoms, but any typing brought them back
> immediately. Massage therapy had similar results.
>
> I then talked to a pleasant rheumatoid arthritis specialist at St. Mikes.
He
> didn't have any suggestions.
>
> I found that wrist splints were no help at all.
>
> For the fourth visit to my GP, I asked if something like a sports medicine
> doctor would be a good idea. After all, this must be something that
happens
> to athletes - albeit in a different part of their body. He then
recommended
> Dr. Robert Grisdale (416-485-1344 x 432), who is a Chiropracter and sports
> medicine therapist. I must admit that I had some doubts about
chiropracters
> in general, but Grisdale showed me how to fix the problem, so I'm a
convert.
> He worked on my upper back and gave me a bunch of stretching exercises
that
> really cured the problem. At first I did the exercises on a twice-daily
> basis. Then I dropped slowly down to once a day and then to 'as needed'.
The
> total exercise routine takes about 10 minutes, involves a bunch of
stretches
> and a brief workout with a stretchy band.
>
> Since then I've typed a 700+ page manuscript on analog electronics without
> any major twinges.
>
> Subsequently, I read a theory posted on the net to the effect that the
wrist
> problems are related to muscles in the upper back that tighten across the
> shoulders. Certainly, the muscles in that area were totally locked into
> knots and Grisdale got them loosened up again. I can't provide a
mechanism,
> but it did seem to work. Grisdale's comments was 'You've been building up
a
> debt in your body, and now you need to start repayment.'
>
> My mother (always ask mom!) mentioned that Vitamin B6 had the effect of
> shrinking nerve bundles. The root of the Carpal Tunnel problem as I
> understand it is that the nerve connections abraid on the sides of the
> tunnel, they become inflamed, and worsens the problem. So shrinking the
> cable going through that opening can help. I started at 100mG doses and
then
> when the problem got better dropped back to 25mG on a daily basis. B6 can
be
> gotten from the drug store or wherever without prescription. I can't be
> absolutely positive that this works, but my impression was that it helped
> and my understanding is that B6 is pretty benign.
>
> Some additional points:
>
> - I have a great GP, who I can go back to, if I'm not satisfied with some
> specialist, and request someone else. He never gets huffy. It's great to
> have someone like this who acts as a kind of traffic cop and is not
> judgemental.
>
> - Yoga helps a lot. Stretching exercises seem to be the key to solving
many
> of these aches and pains. I did yoga exercises one winter at a local rec
> centre and that made a positive difference. I also adapted some yoga
> streching exercises into my exercise routine. They seem to work really
well.
> There are different yoga instructors, you need to find one who works at
your
> pace.
>
> - Of course, you need to take regular breaks. Binge typing is what got me
> into this mess in the first place. You *must* have a proper chair, at the
> proper height, with a proper desk. When I got this problem I was working
on
> a table and sitting on a barstool. I now cringe when I think of it. Your
> forearms should be level.
>
> - I didn't use a different mouse or keyboard, I stayed with the ones I
have.
> But I'll bet a cordless mouse would help, and probably a keyboard that
> breaks into two halves. I'd do those things if I got into another episode.
>
> I hope this helps. Maybe we should have a demonstration of the stretching
> exercises at some TLUG meeting ;).
>
> Peter
>
> On Sun, Jan 30, 2005 at 01:02:13PM -0500, Peter King wrote:
> > For the past few weeks I've been having the classic Carpal Tunnel
> > Syndrome: transient tingling, numbness, burning in the thumb, index,
> > and middle finger of the hand, with some associated shooting pains
> > up the forearm. I had a bout of this four years ago, which led to my
> > learning to touch-type; splinting the wrist and relaxing it for a few
> > days helped alleviate the pain. This time it's much worse and seems
> > rebarbative.
> >
> > I went to my doctor, who diagnosed CTS and ordered up blood tests and
> > nerve conduction tests to be sure, but then *immediately* began to
> > talk about surgery. Everything I've read on the Net says that surgery
> > really ought to be a last resort, only after six months to a year of
> > working with "conservative" (non-interventionist) therapies. Plus the
> > fact that I don't really want my carpal ligament severed.
> >
> > It struck me that this group must have a fair amount of collective
> > experience with this medical problem, and, just possibly, also have
> > some collective wisdom about how to deal with it. I don't need medical
> > information; I have all that. What I want to know is what people have
> > tried and how successful (or not) it may have been -- anecdotal reports
> > are just the ticket. I'll pay for the physiotherapy if that's the way to
> > go; I want this problem *gone*.
> >
> > What I've tried to date: wrist splinting, either all day or at night
only,
> > both apparently ineffective; strong doses of ibuprofen as
anti-inflammatory;
> > lightening up (but not swearing off) keyboarding; and extensive
complaining.
> >
> > -- 
> > Peter King peter.king-H217xnMUJC0sA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org
> > Department of Philosophy
> > 215 Huron Street
> > The University of Toronto     (416)-978-3788 ofc
> > Toronto, ON  M5S 1A1
> >        CANADA
> >
> > http://individual.utoronto.ca/pking/
> >
> >
=========================================================================
> > GPG keyID 0x7587EC42 (2B14 A355 46BC 2A16 D0BC  36F5 1FE6 D32A 7587
EC42)
> > gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 7587EC42
>
>
>
> -- 
> Peter D. Hiscocks
> Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
> Ryerson University,
> 350 Victoria Street,
> Toronto, Ontario, M5B 2K3, Canada
>
> Phone:   (416) 979-5000 Ext 6109
> Fax:     (416) 979-5280
> Email:   phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org
> URL:     http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~phiscock
> --
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