Posted by bluedog on January 31, 2003, at 10:17:31
In reply to RSI -- typing injury, posted by Tabitha on January 31, 2003, at 2:15:08
> Annoyed with family doc who didn't know diddly about any of this stuff, just told me, oh, it's no big deal, you just take anti-inflammatories then get the carpal tunnel surgery.
>Careful with those anti-inflammatories...they can create more problems than they are worth. I'd only use anti-inflammatories if your in the middle of a major flare up and then only short term. Have you checked out the med board posts on natural anti-inflammatories...I would pay particular attention to the fish oil, Turmeric(curcumin) and glucosimine sulfate posts. I believe that a combination of these supplements has helped my inflammation problems enormously.
Also I honestly believe you should make sure you get really good nutrition and rest as much as you are financially able to... the body has amazing self healing capacity given the right conditions. I can't emphasise enough proper nutrition to give the body the proper foundation to heal itself. For gods sake don't listen to your doc and "Just" have the surgery. I have a colleague at work whose problems actually became worse after surgery on both her hands and is extremely angry with the doctors for ever having recommended this course of action to her. My mum had carpal tunnel syndrome and is forever grateful that she didn't listen to her docs advice to have surgery.. she simply made changes to the way she did things and the problem eventually resolved.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________> Now I still have joint pain (getting arthritis?) in all the fingers and muscle aches all up the arms and in the armpits, back, neck, chest, basically entire upper body. I keep feeling lucky that I don't have carpal tunnel, but I've got everything else possible.
>
> It's worst when I'm resentful and pressured at work. Seems like it's that as much as sheer volume of typing that causes the flare-ups.
>I honestly think you have hit the nail on the head with this little paragraph. Excessive and prolonged (chronic) muscle tension puts an enormous amount of strain on your joints. Sounds to me like you are holding substantial amounts of tension in your upper body and probably even your entire body without even realising it. I used to have exactly your problem and still at times get this problem until I learned to release the tension I hold in my entire body.
Do you have poor posture at the keyboard?....do you slouch and hunch your shoulders without being aware of it?....do you clench your jaw when you are typing?....I'd be willing to bet that you have at least some of these problems.....poor posture can greatly aggravate rsi in the wrists and hands.
I do yoga and other relaxation and stress management techniques to help me but the one thing I found the biggest help of all and what I personally found made the single biggest impact in helping to alleviate all those niggly aches and pains in ALL of my joints was a series of Alexander Technique lessons that I took. The Alexander Technique has been used for well over a century by those in the performing arts including piano players and actually will teach you how to use your body efficiently and as nature intended you to use it. These lessons are not cheap (but then neither is massage)and nor are they easy because you have to re-learn how to use your entire body and break long held bad body habits but if you can find a good certified teacher in your area I really could not recommend this technique highly enough. It really helped me without a shadow of doubt.
Just look in your local phone book or ring one of the performing arts schools in your area to see if they can recommend anyone to you to give you lessons. Also if you do a Google search or Yahoo search on the Alexander Technique you will find a wealth of information on the net about the technique and may even find links to teachers in your area.
Give it a go...you have nothing to lose!!!
__________________________________________________________________________________________________> Anyone have any home remedies for this stuff? I do some stretching but not very consistent about it.
Definitely be more consistent with the stretching but make sure it's GENTLE stretching. Hard stretching can aggravate the problem. I know this from personal experience.....you need to be very gentle with yourself.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________>The wrist supports help more than anything. I have this other gadget for massaging the forearm muscle, and a book about trigger point massage, but all the massage seems to aggravate the inflammation.
Give up anything which makes it worse...sounds like it's too early for massage at this stage or else get youself a better massage therapist. Massage may help and helped me but only after the worst of the inflammation had settled down.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________> Will I end up with gnarled arthritic hands, big knobby joints?
>Nah....and worrying about it will only make you more tense.....you can avoid the knobbly joints but you have to be pro-active and start doing something about it now ....sounds like you've already started doing some of the right things
Good luck (by the way I did see your little post a little while back...(you know Pssst) but I had to dart back behind my own little rock before I could post a response.)
warm regards
bluedog
poster:bluedog
thread:35972
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20030120/msgs/35981.html