I am getting carpal tunnel syndrome in my right hand, from overuse. Really annoying. But...I wanted to share with everyone this AWESOME brace I found at Michael's craft store. Here's the link:
It has a little bead pad for the area of the hand that rests on the keyboard/edge of the table when typing, and makes the angle much less severe, so my fingers reach DOWN instead of UP. It also has a stiff wrist back for extra support. The brace is reversible and quite nice to wear, even helps me with hand writing (I am a student and take alot of notes so I love this brace!). I use it in combination with a really thick-gripped pen I found at Staple's.
Michael's also has some nice fingerless mitts for increasing circulation and thus helping keep cold fingers warm: Comfort Gloves
I tried those on too and want to get them at some point, but the brace is more important for now.
Hope that helps someone else! ^^
I am taking a vacation for the holidays, have 3 months before I enter my next school thing, so I'm going to get a proper brace for my poor hand and take some time off. Might look into some vitamin B-6 and the like; I have been researching treatment. I don't often have wrist pain; the symptoms are mostly a really tight feeling, and include the little finger (which is unusual, but the sensation is mostly around my index and middle finger). My index knuckle is REALLY tight feeling, and I have a constant cramp between my index and thumb muscles. Hopefully taking a break will help, I usually heal well. We'll see!
A few years ago, I think the fantasy baseball scouting pushed me over the edge wristwise so I switched and started using my mouse w/ my left hand instead of my right hand. It wasn't as hard to get used to as I thought and has some advantages @ work, as I an mouse lefty and use the number pad righty to save time? I figured I'd toss it out there?
I also switched mouse hands some years ago. I also eventually had to wear braces sleeping and then during the day. Over time, I was not able to improve the condition and this last summer I had to have surgery on my right wrist. In the end, it was never the numbness that troubled me, it was the compression and nerve spasms that would disturb my sleep. I hate that. I think having diabetes leads to thickening of the tendons and that can just aggravate CTS.
I don't think mousing aggravates it as much as typing does. I do alot of typing and that combined with the amount of hand writing I do at school is taking its toll. For me, it's the compression that annoys me most; my hand is not truly numb as I can still feel touch and hot/cold, it just feels swollen. My hand doesn't disturb my sleep; I'm pretty sure I don't bend it then. Also, in my case, I don't feel that its related to diabetes. It's just complete overuse from my crazy life. Dropping things is annoying, but when I'm concentrating on things, I haven't lost any dexterity.
An exercise recommended by a chiropractor to my husband is the rubber band from a bunch of celery put around your fingers including thumb and open and close your hand. Like sit ups for the carpel. It seems to help him
I did a very intense (higher than recommended) B6 and B12 therapy for 6 months, PLUS, physical therapy... I would use braces at night for sleeping, the ones with the metal parts in them (not the laces, as those get stretched out)... and it worked real wonders for me. I now don't really have any major issues.
When I did physical therapy, the therapist used an ultrasonic massager which actually seemed to help loosen the join and increase circulation. I considered purchasing one, but at the time the were basically all medical professional models with restricted access. Now there are less expensive (relatively) that are available to regular people like us. Here is one at Amazon. I can't vouch for this approach or any of these products, only some thoughts based on my experience from physical therapy.
All good ideas =) I will definitley be looking into some treatments and rest n relaxation. I really can't afford to take time off for a surgery, and leave that as the absolute last resort as I am right-handed and would be devastated if it went poorly. At the moment I am certain I can overcome the problem once I get a chance, especially since during the summer I had some time off and the problem seemed to lessen greatly. Positive sign yayayayay!! ^^
To be fair, my mom (who is a physical and occupational therapist) does not recommend the surgery to anyone, as it has a high degree of failure... mostly because most people don't correct what they were doing wrong to begin with, and usually end up where they started... One of the things people do is curling their hands in their sleep, and not working with their work place to find more ergonomic ways to do a job... and those things are all very key.
