Purple Mice and Sore Hands
Off and on over the years of being and independent practitioner my right hand has hurt - repetitive stress. I find taking a B-complex vitamin helps, but I know my ergonimic set up at my desk is not ideal. Well, I'm starting to work on it.
Last weekend at MindCamp I met Kate Dumortier of Unwind at Work. Kate offers stress reduction services to companies using chair massage, but also has a lot of smarts around ergonomics. She suggested I check out the mice at Evoluent.
A few days later I rip open a box with my new purple keyboard and mouse.
The mouse is arranged so that you can hold your hand in a more neutral position. So far so good: I like it. it is very sensitive so you don't have to move your hand much.
The keyboard is smaller and has the number pad on the left, so your hand has less space to traverse to your mouse. My old keyboard, a wireless Logitec ergonomic model with the slight space in the middle of the keyboard felt very nice. My arms and hands were more relaxed. it is weird to use a straight keyboard again and I'm not so sure I'm so happy. I feel tension in my left hand already, but I think part of this is again adjusting my posture.
What I love about both of them is that they are PURPLE! Yay, no more dull gray or beige. Give me COLOR!
Now all I need is a new chair. Oi!
posted by Nancy White at 5:02 PM
3 Comments:
Nancy:
I had a big problem with RSI a few years back and while ergonomic equipment like mouses and keyboards can help - as well as making sure your work station is ergonomically correct -- it also helps to take breaks. I used to have a timer and it would bing every 20 minutes which meant I had to stand up and stretch. It is important to do some habit change - as if your injuries go too far - you will have permenant damage.
RSI is no small matter. It accounts for 34% of all lost-workday injury and illness — and costs almost $20 billion annually, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The National Academy of Sciences has concluded that an estimated $50 billion is lost by businesses every year from sick leave, decreased productivity and medical costs linked to repetitive stress disorders. The Academy has published two reports since 1998 which directly link repetitive motion to workplace injury.
The damage sustained from RSI is due to structural changes in the muscle fiber as well as due to decreased blood flow. Nerves can also be involved. The immobile tissue and surrounding inflammation compress the nerve which can cause numbness or tingling and eventually weakness if the nerve is damaged severely.
For those of you who need evidence, see this study on "Overuse Syndrome." In this study, biopsies were taken from hand muscles of injured and normal subjects, which demonstrated the structural damage in the muscle fibers and correlated the damage with the severity of the injury. In another study, biopsies were taken from neck muscles, and reduced local blood flow was found in the injured areas. The greater the pain difference, the greater the reduction in blood flow.
Some Useful Resources to help you out from RSI:
http://www.safecomputingtips.com
http://eeshop.unl.edu/rsi.html
http://www.rsi.deas.harvard.edu/
RSI, belatedly, thanks for these great links.
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