It Seems That Carpal Tunnel Has Finally Caught Up With Me
A lifetime of writing, drawing, animating and computer...ing has begun to take its toll.
Truth be told, I started noticing the pain in my hand and wrist almost a year ago, but I kept ignoring it and hoping it would go away. In the last couple of weeks I've really been diving back into my animation and the pain has taken a sharp increase.
This is my life now.
I don't feel sorry for myself. I still love doing what I do. If I have to wear a wrist splint in order to do those things, so be it!
~Seth
I'll tell you how I beat mine.
Two containers you can plunge your arms into up to your elbows. Two large sinks, two buckets, etc. I used a sink and a very large pitcher.
In one put water as hot as you possibly can. (I used the sink so I could keep adding hot water.
In the other put ice water.
Yes. You guessed. Put your arm in the hot water for as long as you can. Then plunge it into the ice water for as long as you can. Then back to the hot water. Repeat until you can't. It takes some practice to get use to it but it is SOOOooooo worth it.
It really helps get all the circulation going.
If you are away from home and start having problems see if you can locate some ice water and a paper towel to place around your wrist. even a few minutes will help.
Then years later I found out some things I took all grains (and grain products) completely out of my food. Between the pumped up gluten in the wheat and the GMO's AND the fact that grains have natural enzymes that are not digestion friendly, .... take 'em away.
It took 3 months for me to be really aware of so much less reoccurring pain. In fact, your post made me do a double take because I've been at my pc for way too many hours the last 3 weeks and I'm not having any problems! (apart from neglecting the home upkeep ... but really, clean clothes everyday? over rated.)
I do have grains back in my diet btw. But I've also discovered that I'm allergic to wheat so it's still different. Also, we often soak the grains we cook with for a day first. It starts the sprouting process and reduces enzyme inhibitors in the grains. But if I cheat and have ... too many corn chips ... I can feel the inflammation in my hands again so fast.
OH and Water! Keep hydrated!
ok ... those are my top tips. Well and don't move bricks or furniture around for awhile. ;-)
have fun
Wow! Thanks for all the tips :)
Not a problem! I hope they all work for you as well as they did for me. Fortunately I lived across the street from a massage therapist. She taught me the hot/cold thing.
Oh There's one more about pain control that she taught me ... it's weird but true.
When you start concentrating on relaxing muscles, the nerve endings go bezerk because the muscle is no longer clamped down on them. Just keep relaxing the muscle and breath through it to the other side. The nerve will calm down.
Here's where I looked at her sideways for a good long time before I decided to try it. As you're relaxing the muscles in the pained area, image the point that is hurt can breathe. As you breathe in and out to help the relaxation, imagine that that point can breathe in the fresh air. etc.
I dunno ... It does work. I think it just gives you a chance to focus on something else while you let the nerves go through their freak out and calm down. Right? let's go with that.
O my word! ok and more ... lol I forgot that I forgot so much.
Find some hand warm up exercises to do before you work. Also try to keep your hand parts that aren't working relaxed. You don't need for your whole hand to be muscle bound to hold a pen ... of course you probably already know this anyway as that kind of thing would inhibit your art.
But also you say this started in a year ago. Look around you and see if you can locate things that are different about your desk set up and your diet. Like do you have a different mouse or keyboard or seating arrangement ? ... did you suddenly start eating every peanut in sight? Deep cravings for a specific food can actually be an indicator of an allergy. That's on the low end of probability.
Also hunt around on the web. I promise someone has done studies on the best set up for your desk as a graphic designer.
If you can find a decent chiropractor or a massage therapist that is trained in this sort of thing, they can be a big help. ok HuGe help.
If I remember anything else critical, I'll find ya :-)
During times in my life where I've had full-time desk/computering jobs, wrist pain has been an issue. (I've never had it professionally diagnosed, but I self-diagnosed it as carpal tunnel, at least.) What did it for me was adopting an ergonomic keyboard, namely the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000. I started using them both at work and home, and haven't had "the tinglies" in my wrists since.
But YMMV.
Thanks for the recommendation. I've been looking into getting an ergonomic setup in my office.
Hi will you consider watching this video.
I've seen it a while ago , i hope it can help in any way
I've been using my iphone most of the time :) lol
I've heard you can wrap a rubber band around the carpal ligament while sleeping and it helps immensely . might be worth researching
I hadn't heard that one. I'll look into it. Thanks!