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RSI

Hello everyone,

I do hope there is some advice out there for me. I am a garden designer, and also a freelance Vectorworks technician for other designers and so therefore spend a lot of time on the laptop with my old regular PCLine scroll mouse! The last few weeks I have begun to notice a dull pain in my thumb joint, that, when I manipulate my thumb, is quite excruciating! So, two and two makes the beginning of RSI (I will of course be getting this checked and verified by the doc!).

What I am wondering is, has anyone else has suffered this, and what they have done to reduce this, or what have they replaced their regular mouse with. I have spent a lot of time surfing the net, and have been bamboozled with various different mouse types, and pads and pens, and ways to hold the mouse properly...but with a good ergonomic/rollerball mouse setting you back around on average £60, it is not something I can just randomly purchase without trying first....the cost implication can add up if I don't think about this carefully.

I have looked at the Logitech rollerball mouse, but wonder as it is my thumb that hurts, whether using a roller with that thumb would infact accaserbate the issue!

And are the small Wacom tablets big enough to use when drawing in VW and will it take a long time to get used to etc etc.

And can I re-train myself to not hold the mouse with my thumb (apparently we shouldn't be doing this! but old habits and all that!)...too many questions really! And probably not all with answers.

So, basically, have any of you experienced thumb joint pain, and what have you done or put in place to alleviate the symptoms!

Thank you.

Best,

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bo Cook on March 8, 2012 at 2:22pm

Hey all, gosh, it seems a while ago since I thought I was done for with my future using vectorworks! I found a local company who deal with posture and they sold me an Evoluent Vertical Mouse. It took a while to get used to, and every now and then I can feel my thumb hurting, and that is because I am trying to use it like a normal mouse, and remembering to take it to the various offices I work in, as well as remembering to bring it home is a stress, but it has made such an improvement. I think with my RSI I have to not move my thumb at all. Then it doesn't cause me pain. It is an understudied area. It needs more investigation eh!

Thanks all for your comments. It gave me a great starting point to research and I thankfully found something to help me. I do have a future with vectorworks after all!

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Permalink Reply by B. Clint Alderman on March 12, 2012 at 11:04pm

Regarding the pain, AKA Repetitive Stress Injury. The muscle get cramped and start pinching nerves. When it happened to me, the pain was in my right wrist, the "mouse hand" and forearm. I went to a massage therapist friend. To my surprise, she started just on the left side of my lower back, then along the muscles up to the shoulders/neck, then over to my right arm. Finally, she started softly pressing on muscles in my forearm to ease them out of contraction. Then on to the fingers. Two 60 minute sessions and a couple of hot epson salt baths, the pain was gone! She also showed me how to do several "slow and easy" stretching exercises to keep the muscles loose. Even as I type, it's time to stand up and do some deep-breathing stretches.