RE: OT: was back pain, now mouse-hand pain

["Dean, Hal " <HDean@wcupa.edu>]

What we are discussing here is repetitive stress injuries. I personally 
experienced a variety of right-side pain, loss of function, and numbness - 
sometimes hands, sometimes wrist, sometimes elbow.

There is web site that I looked at years ago and found very helpful, 
probably still a good place to check out - Google "Musicians and Injuries".

Some advice and some things that I've done (not one and the same).
1. all stress on joints is exacerbated by tension that you bring to the 
task; always try to be aware of that
2. the nerves run from fingers up under the elbow to the shoulder; tendons 
also follow this path; it is all connected
3. Strength in the entire muscle train is therefore a great advantage
4. If, like Luis and like me, you play guitar AND work with computers, be 
aware that guitar playing can put that nerve sheath on a sharp edge 
outside the normal range of motion, potentially under tension... as a 
small person, I have found that it is better for me to avoid large guitars
5. I use a Wacom pen tablet rather than a mouse. Tablets have their own 
effects, but for me at least are much less stressful.
6. Per's advice about spreading the task load around to other muscle 
groups is spot on
7. Take breaks frequently.
8. pay attention to the ergonomics of your keyboard; consider a tray. 
Likewise your chair.
9. Yoga
10. reread point no. 1  

Hal Dean


-----Original Message-----
From: L.Angulo [mailto:labaloops@yahoo.com] 
Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 6:08 AM
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: Re: OT: was back pain, now mouse-hand pain

i dont know how you guys can explore so much software,plugins etc. it 
requires hours of sitting in front of the PC and staring at the screen,i 
suffer from backaches and my eyes arent the best either so for me it d be 
impossible to explore all of the great  stuff you guys talk about here
sometimes even the LD emails are enough for me!
Luis

www.myspace.com/luisangulocom


--- Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com> schrieb am Do, 14.5.2009:

> Von: Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com>
> Betreff: Re: OT: was back pain, now mouse-hand pain
> An: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
> Datum: Donnerstag, 14. Mai 2009, 0:38
> Very important knowledge, Tilman!
> What you can do as well, if having
> to work hard with a computer, is to switch over to a laptop
> with track
> pad every second hour. Then don't click with the right
> hand's index
> finger but with the thumb. What I do as well is to shift
> fingers and
> hands all the time. Juggle over the mouse for the left
> hand. If that
> doesn't feel comfortable for you, just make some lovely
> caffe latta
> and dring it with your right hand while mousing a way with
> the left.
> And move cup far away from keybard! ;-))  After ruing
> a couple of
> keyboards in the past I am today a Master Keyboard Non
> Destroyer. But
> my sons keep pouring milk and stuff into their machines.
> Seems it
> takes a couple of generations for the gene pool to adapt
> properly...
> (ouch, will stop typing this post now since it starts
> turning into
> nonsense....)
> 
> Greetings from Sweden
> 
> Per Boysen
> www.boysen.se
> www.perboysen.com
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 7:08 AM, Tilmann Dehnhard <tilmann@dehnhard.com>
> wrote:
> > dear fellow loopers, please be very careful with the
> computer mouse.
> > after mixing a recording using almost only the mouse i
> had terrible pain in
> > the hand and inflammation around the elbow. my right
> hand got slow and kind
> > of numb. i changed to the left hand for a year. took
> some serious
> > conditioning to stop reaching for the mouse with the
> right hand...
> > today i am able to switch hands whenever fatigue and
> stress build up.
> > letting go of the mouse when not in use and simply
> moving and massaging the
> > fingers regularly has helped me, too.
> >
> > one of the main problems is that the mouse-clicking
> finger joints do
> > experience stress from the operation. unfortunately
> the movement is too
> > small to trigger blood circulation and other
> recreative measures usually
> > maintained by the body.
> > this was discovered when a condition surfaced called
> the "sms-thumb" - a
> > terrible stinging pain in the thumb from using
> cellulars for messaging.
> >
> 
>