I'm Michelle (the girl in the video). This thread is really fascinating to me. I'll add some more details to the discussion below. I was diagnosed with epicodylitis (tennis albow) and I tried a range of different treatments: electrical therapy, accipunture, anti-inflammatory tablets and some kind of light therapy(?) But without any results (probably why I can't remember the last treatment).
Also notised there were some questions about neck pains, If I adjust the nose-pad to the right level and angle it right it forces me to sit up straight. However, in the video my back is arched quite a lot because I was sitting at a table that was too low (but it was only a temporary setup).
I read the entire article and was amazed ... not by your solution per-se but rather by your attitude. I don't know anything about you but I'm going to say your greatest asset is your sense-of-humor (even shown in the picture). You're obviously talented - so much so that it had to ooze out of you somehow, but most people wouldn't consider doing what you've managed to do (and certainly wouldn't have publicized it).
A scientifically minded approach to pain can be found at https://www.painscience.com/ No magic bullets, but perhaps something that can help.
As for my two cents, I like trigger points. I have used that technique effectively for years to eliminate angry pain. While the science is apparently still questionable, it is a simple method (find some painfully acute spots somewhere around sources of pain and massage it for 20 seconds or so, several times a day). It is talked about at the site above in addition to a variety of other pain management notions, mainly with a scientifically disappointing dose of reality mixed into it all.
Thanks Michelle for sharing your unbelievable yet amazing story. You have made me to regain trust in human power which seems infinite. God bless you and I wish and pray you get your hands cured and you use both mouse and nosePad to create awesome stuff.
Michelle, you are a beautiful person inside and out. Most people would have quit and gone on to have a miserable life away from their occupation of choice. You did not. That's commendable.
And sharing this. Bold. Lots of people would be afraid of ridicule. Remarkable.
Finally, much must be said about Omada Health, a company that looked past your handicap and allowed you to do things your way in a nurturing environment. They deserve huge praise and recognition for this.
I hope you are able to reach out to others who might be able to benefit from your ideas. I am sure your story will be inspiring to many even when not exactly in your shoes. Sometimes people just need to realize there might just be other ways to see their problems.
You need to be a featured speaker at a TED conference.
In case it helps others, here's a picture of a custom desk I designed and built many years ago as I started to suffer from carpal tunnel, elbow, shoulder and back problems. I am convinced paying attention to ergonomics saved my hands.
I use crazy input devices on crazy ways too. Magic trackpad and a 3d connection 3d mouse on a TV arm screwed to the wall along the computer screen so I can work standing up or with a stool.
A a lap-along wearable stenotype device instead of keyboard. Speech recognition for other things.
I can work much better, more comfortable and faster than anybody else after years of training.
The elasticity of the brain is incredibly impressive. Very neat solution. My parents are surgeons, and I know they worry at least a little bit about the safety of their hands. While my hands are definitely very important to my being able to work I know I don't worry as much as they do. That's funny, because for the most part I think about Carpal Tunnel Syndrome as a career-ending condition.
I recently suffered some amount of tendonitis in my wrist and it prompted me to make quite a few changes:
* Better posture
* Better seat adjustment
* A nicer (mechanical) keyboard
* Practising touch typing more (i.e. correcting myself any time I use the wrong finger)
* Resting my wrists evenly
I made all these changes simultaneously so I don't know what changed it or if it was a one-time thing and resting fixed it. An interesting thing is that I found that I overuse my right hand.
`vim` binds simple movements to hjkl and that's fine because they're on the home row, but it also means that a lot of the time I'm holding down one key while reading code. I've switched to moving around code better now, using larger jumps, and when scrolling a lot I use my left hand. I've also rebound some other things so that they're easier with home row keys. Anyway, learning to be faster at all this took very little time. I am very impressed with how fast we learn new acts if they keep repeating them.
To me the most important factor is how relaxed your muscles are when working. That is, even while frantically typing on my keyboard my fingers spend most of their time resting. It's very easy to keep your muscle contracted the entire time and that's where the danger is.
This is something I learned from my music teachers. I would get nervous while playing and my muscles would get all stiff leading to missed notes and sounding dry and whatnot. Most importantly, I was thinking about how to position my muscles to get the sound I wanted rather than thinking about the sound I wanted and letting the muscles do their thing. They made me realize your muscles needs to breathe and to use the window between impulses to relax them.
I could have the best posture, best keyboard layout and everything else but if my muscles stay contracted the entire time I'm working I'll definitely feel it at the end of the day. Be it on the guitar or computer.
I found that a standing desk forced me into better ergonomics. While I don't think that most of the purported health benefits are well substantiated, just simply having to stand straight meant better ergonomics for me. Things like keyboard height for wrist alignment and monitor height for eye alignment become static variables. Slouching, crossing legs, adjusting seat height, adjusting seat recline resistance, etc all become non-issues.
I haven't experienced the RSI pains I used to get in my hands since switching back to a mechanical keyboard a few years ago... I use buckling spring model m style boards at home and work, and I like it a lot... some don't like the noise though.
That said, keyboard and monitor height properly adjusted probably help for many too... I don't bottom out with a mechanical keyboard.
In my experience, all of these are great except the last one. I used to rest my wrists and now I can't because my RSI progressed. I wish someone had told me 10 years ago to keep my wrists straight when I type.
I use an angled keyboard and a vertical mouse to reduce twisting.
I used to have lots of issues in the neck and shoulders. I started going to a gym and focused mainly on training neck, back and arms carefully. It has completely removed all my symptoms in the last 6 years.
I also started using a wacom tablet as a mouse replacement. The absolute positioning of the pen removes all these small-dragging-motions.
Sincerely... all I can think about is not that she found a good solution to her problem, but the fact that she "achieved the same level of accuracy" (and I suppose speed).
This is not something about her capabilities, but about the limitation of current input devices regarding our hands.
This is the proof that using a touch pad with your nose is not worse that using it with your hand. There is something wrong in this: try using any real-world interface with your hand, how the shapes, the stiffness, the flexibility of any handle, pen, button, spring you interact with give you some kind of information and let you operate with a superior kind of consciousness.
Or you can look at it from an optimistic-almost-narcissistic point of view and say that the interfaces that we have are so well-deaigned either by accident or on purpose that the same level of accuracy can be achieved with whatever appendage.
Personally, I think we stumbled onto a design that works well after years of trials. When you look at children using tablets, for example, you quickly realize that they don't have the same dexterity as adults, yet they are able to use the device with almost the same capability as adults. With tablets in particular, I don't think this was an accident...
We could make input devices/interaction paradigms that are highly specific to one domain usable by only certain people because of learning curves or physical limitations, or input devices that can be used by anyone with sacrifice in speed and productivity.
>This is not something about her capabilities, but about the limitation of current input devices regarding our hands.
I think it's more a story about our adaptability in general.
Many years ago, I worked with a developer who happened to be blind. While coding, he used an audio screen reader. If you've ever heard one, you know that they can be set to read incredibly fast, such that it sounds like absolute gibberish to the untrained ear.
So, whereas I couldn't even discern the words/characters being read, it made absolute sense to him. Much as I was amazed by it, I also know that he didn't start there. Years of practice, finding shortcuts, etc. made it as much second nature to him as reading code on the monitor was for me.
Of course, it also didn't hurt that he was brilliant.
I wonder if her neck started getting tired from all that movement.
It seems that it's mostly people who grip their mouse really tightly/type with tense fingers that experience the most problems - I remember when I first started typing, my fingers tired too easily because the keys were heavy, and I was exerting a lot of force trying to get the fingers to exactly where I wanted them to go. Later, when I got a "looser" keyboard and discovered that I didn't really need to hit the keys exactly in the middle but whatever could actuate them worked, my speed more than doubled and I could type for hours without feeling tired at all. The relaxation really helps. Same with mousing - if you find that you have to grip your mouse tightly to make precise movements, turn down the DPI and try lubricating it so it requires as little effort as possible to move. Personally, I don't really like using trackpads because of that friction.
People's mouse grip varies immensely. But the one thing that should be easily controlled, in any reasonable case, is the surface.
A mouse mat will often reduce friction greatly, and you can augment your mouse with custom teflon "feet". Gamer peripherals, basically.
I see a lot of people who just run their mice across their desk, which no doubt works, but is sub-optimal in that it's not a particularly durable surface in most cases. This will lead to scratches, and thus increased friction on top of the noise and now ruined surface.
Another thing I've seen is a really nasty build-up of gunk (for lack of a better term) underneath the mouse. All of this adds up to increased friction and a "sticky" feel at times, which results in erratic movement and possibly a need for tighter grip.
Then, of course, there's always the option to switch the mice out. A wired option will obviously forgo the batteries, lowering the weight of the unit, at a negligible convenience price.
When I started to get some pain in my wrists, I noticed it most when I was using photoshop and clicking a great deal. I tore apart an old USB mouse and wired a pair of foot switches in so I could click with my feet as well. It helped quite a bit. Now I rather prefer it, especially the right click action.
That's a really fun idea. I wonder how you could control programs differently with 2 or even 4 input devices?
Ie, twin cursors on the screen, each controlled by a separate mouse? Tablets introduced a number of interesting new interface mechanisms - double tap, pinch, stretch etc. Could we bring these to non touch-screens?
Do you play the piano? I wonder if doing something like this would affect or improve your ability to play piano. I always found one of the hardest things to learn was the pedal rhythm while playing.
Have you checked Dr. Sarno's approach for RSI and related problems. If you have tried all those options and they didn't work you should definitely give a try.
I can second this: I spent years looking in utterly the wrong direction with things, even making this: http://tiledtext.com so that I could program with motion sensors instead—then someone recommended to me (for a second time, since I ignored it the first time) Dr. Sarno's work.
BTW: that you're left hand started in so soon after is probably a good indication that this isn't entirely physical!
Sarno's stuff works (as you'll find plenty evidence of on the internet (e.g. http://www.satori.org/rist/)), but the theory it's framed in is pretty bad, so be prepared for that...
I stopped using mice, knobs (IBM/Lenovo) and touchpads (built-in or external) probably twenty years ago. A few months into an intense design project I started to feel burning pain on my wrists. I was working 18 hour days, 7 days a week. Yes, if I was awake I was in front of the computer.
This was a hardware and software project and I was doing it all. This meant lots of precise motion at times. Running Solidworks or Altium Designer often meant very accurate tiny movement while pressing down on a button. Horrible stuff for your wrist.
I had been exposed to just how bad this could get. I was friends with several people who did visual effects for motion pictures. Same kind of work. They ran 3D workstations for a dozen or more hours per day, every day. One fellow had to have surgery on both wrists due to the damage he caused. His was always in pain after that.
I decided I had to deal with the situation. I didn't want to end-up like that.
First decision was that mice and touch pads where horrible input devices. I tested everything and concluded that low friction thumb-operated trackballs were the best.
Beyond that, the relative angle of the hand to the forearm seemed to have a HUGE effect on causing inflammation, pain and injury. The flatter and more relaxed,the better. In fact, the most relaxed position had my hands drooping over the keyboard and trackball with virtually no tension on the upper tendons. This meant my standard desk had to go.
What I needed was a desk with a cavity into which my hands would droop and meet the keyboard or trackball. My forearms had to be fully supported in order to remove pressure from shoulders and posture.
I welded together a few iterations of the idea and ended-up with a desk that was just fantastic. I could work on this thing for 16 to 18 hours a day and have no wrist burn whatsoever. Of course, I also implemented regimented breaks and exercises, but the desk, as well as switching to a trackball, made the most difference.
I can't help but think this girl did herself huge damage by using the touch-pad for long hours. I particularly dislike touch-pads on laptops (of any make and model) the are in the wrong place and add tension to your tendons precisely where you don't want it.
As for Michelle, wow, what an amazing person she must be.
She mentions being excited about the Leap Motion. That's not very accurate so she probably had to give up. There is better hand tracking software under development. This company's Kickstarter project got canceled when Oculus bought them: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nimblevr/nimble-sense-b...
And Control VR uses gloves but might prove to be very accurate: http://controlvr.com
The VR headsets are driving the development of this technology.
Beyond the obviously admirable content of the story, just wanted to say: beautiful website, the pacing of the story was really well done. Loved the animations, the optional extra reading, breaking up the story with pictures. Very simplistic but well done.
I had RSI 3 times. The first time I did not know what it was and ended-up not being able to hold a pen. Took many months of recovery and I was lucky my doctor knew what it was. I had heat treatment, some sort of laser and vibration therapies and a couple of other things. Don't know which of them helped, but they sure did.
The second time, I was in a different country and was sent to a surgeon. He had no clue what RSI was and said that I should not worry until it gets worse and ready for Carpal Tunnel surgery. I said "no thanks" and found a sports therapist instead who was ready to help.
The main lesson here is that "see a doctor" does not always work. I am sure if I saw surgeon the first time, I'd be having some stitches on my wrists right now. Back then, RSI was not well known thing at all. Hopefully, it is more easily recognized now.
SmartNav by NaturalPoint (http://www.naturalpoint.com/smartnav/).
I'm using it for over 8 years for moving the cursor. Clicking is via a regular mouse, though voice and switches are supported. All typing is done through an on-screen virtual keyboard (Hot Virtual Keyboard). After short self-training the speed and accuracy are above of a regular mouse. Neck fatigue is a rare issue even after 8-10 hours of daily usage, the "trick" is calibrating the settings for minimal movement.
I'm using this setup for everything from programming to some light gaming (RTS). Adjusting and configuring the environment can bring substantial improvement. For example, using ReSharper for Visual Studio vastly reduces typing.
Hi, your article was really inspirational, very well written and indicative of your amazing motivation and passion for your career. Dystonias are neurological disorders that can cause muscle spasms and cramping and do not go away with rest, anti-inflammatories, trigger point therapy, etc. Unfortunately dystonias are often misdiagnosed and untreated, even sometimes by well-trained specialists. The main treatment for dystonia-related conditions is Botox. I have cervical dystonia and have had wonderful success with Botox. To correctly diagnose a dystonia you need to see a neurologist that specializes in movement disorders.
I remember CMU (or a site that was linked from a links page in CMU vision site) had a project called Nouse where you can operate the computer with a video camera using your nose. The nose doesn't touch anything.
Great example of adaptability and resilience. I understand a little bit about her pain as I had to move to my left hand after experience pains in my right. Though I did nothing as extreme as the OP.
Just reading the responses here - am I the only person who has zero problem using a trackpad and keyboard with my hands for >=8 hours a day? Maybe it's that I'm not a designer and so the precision of my motions isn't such that I'd experience problems like this. I think the only problem I've ever had was back when I tried using a Microsoft Natural keyboard, and my hands were sore after an hour.
Also, good for her, finding a solution that works well for her, strange though it seems at first blush. I like her work, too.
I've tried head tracking devices and found my neck and shoulders get stressed. I imagine the same thing would happen hunched over a trackpad with the nose. The small neck movements are similar to head tracking.
Check out the Imak SmartGlove with Thumb, I can't use a computer without it. Well, of course I can but it is much less comfortable. The glove plus a Kensington Expert Mouse (which is actually a trackball with a scroll ring) plus a good chair (eg Steelcase Leap) will help a LOT.
My cousin was born without hands. He is using his feets for most things. Today he is 22, he drives a car, handles computer and tablets... His typing is ok, so he could be programmer if he chooses to. And he wants (and probably will) to move to his own place.
He does not use special devices, just big mouse and large AT/IBM keyboard.
I just wonder if she could've easily fixed all the issues by changing her mouse or how she hold it instead of opting for this nose-touch-pad.
If she is still doing thous 11-15 hour work days and her neck doesn't get tiered, I really think she might have had too hard of a grip on her mouse or just a bad mouse in general.
[+] [-] mvandy|11 years ago|reply
Also notised there were some questions about neck pains, If I adjust the nose-pad to the right level and angle it right it forces me to sit up straight. However, in the video my back is arched quite a lot because I was sitting at a table that was too low (but it was only a temporary setup).
[+] [-] smoyer|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jostylr|11 years ago|reply
As for my two cents, I like trigger points. I have used that technique effectively for years to eliminate angry pain. While the science is apparently still questionable, it is a simple method (find some painfully acute spots somewhere around sources of pain and massage it for 20 seconds or so, several times a day). It is talked about at the site above in addition to a variety of other pain management notions, mainly with a scientifically disappointing dose of reality mixed into it all.
[+] [-] liveoneggs|11 years ago|reply
http://web.stanford.edu/~ouster/cgi-bin/wrist.php http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ousterhout
[+] [-] pknerd|11 years ago|reply
Best wishes from Pakistan.
[+] [-] jenandre|11 years ago|reply
helps lots of musicians and others with repetitive injuries.
[+] [-] rebootthesystem|11 years ago|reply
And sharing this. Bold. Lots of people would be afraid of ridicule. Remarkable.
Finally, much must be said about Omada Health, a company that looked past your handicap and allowed you to do things your way in a nurturing environment. They deserve huge praise and recognition for this.
I hope you are able to reach out to others who might be able to benefit from your ideas. I am sure your story will be inspiring to many even when not exactly in your shoes. Sometimes people just need to realize there might just be other ways to see their problems.
You need to be a featured speaker at a TED conference.
In case it helps others, here's a picture of a custom desk I designed and built many years ago as I started to suffer from carpal tunnel, elbow, shoulder and back problems. I am convinced paying attention to ergonomics saved my hands.
http://i.imgur.com/tFVcegp.jpg
[+] [-] Htsthbjig|11 years ago|reply
Necessity is the mother of invention.
I use crazy input devices on crazy ways too. Magic trackpad and a 3d connection 3d mouse on a TV arm screwed to the wall along the computer screen so I can work standing up or with a stool.
A a lap-along wearable stenotype device instead of keyboard. Speech recognition for other things.
I can work much better, more comfortable and faster than anybody else after years of training.
[+] [-] arjie|11 years ago|reply
I recently suffered some amount of tendonitis in my wrist and it prompted me to make quite a few changes:
* Better posture
* Better seat adjustment
* A nicer (mechanical) keyboard
* Practising touch typing more (i.e. correcting myself any time I use the wrong finger)
* Resting my wrists evenly
I made all these changes simultaneously so I don't know what changed it or if it was a one-time thing and resting fixed it. An interesting thing is that I found that I overuse my right hand.
`vim` binds simple movements to hjkl and that's fine because they're on the home row, but it also means that a lot of the time I'm holding down one key while reading code. I've switched to moving around code better now, using larger jumps, and when scrolling a lot I use my left hand. I've also rebound some other things so that they're easier with home row keys. Anyway, learning to be faster at all this took very little time. I am very impressed with how fast we learn new acts if they keep repeating them.
[+] [-] jeremiep|11 years ago|reply
This is something I learned from my music teachers. I would get nervous while playing and my muscles would get all stiff leading to missed notes and sounding dry and whatnot. Most importantly, I was thinking about how to position my muscles to get the sound I wanted rather than thinking about the sound I wanted and letting the muscles do their thing. They made me realize your muscles needs to breathe and to use the window between impulses to relax them.
I could have the best posture, best keyboard layout and everything else but if my muscles stay contracted the entire time I'm working I'll definitely feel it at the end of the day. Be it on the guitar or computer.
[+] [-] philip1209|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tracker1|11 years ago|reply
That said, keyboard and monitor height properly adjusted probably help for many too... I don't bottom out with a mechanical keyboard.
[+] [-] mleonhard|11 years ago|reply
I use an angled keyboard and a vertical mouse to reduce twisting.
[+] [-] ansible|11 years ago|reply
For just paging through code, I've also mapped the space bar to be page down in command mode, which I find quite convenient.
[+] [-] maljx|11 years ago|reply
I also started using a wacom tablet as a mouse replacement. The absolute positioning of the pen removes all these small-dragging-motions.
[+] [-] _ZeD_|11 years ago|reply
This is not something about her capabilities, but about the limitation of current input devices regarding our hands.
This is the proof that using a touch pad with your nose is not worse that using it with your hand. There is something wrong in this: try using any real-world interface with your hand, how the shapes, the stiffness, the flexibility of any handle, pen, button, spring you interact with give you some kind of information and let you operate with a superior kind of consciousness.
[+] [-] mirkules|11 years ago|reply
Personally, I think we stumbled onto a design that works well after years of trials. When you look at children using tablets, for example, you quickly realize that they don't have the same dexterity as adults, yet they are able to use the device with almost the same capability as adults. With tablets in particular, I don't think this was an accident...
We could make input devices/interaction paradigms that are highly specific to one domain usable by only certain people because of learning curves or physical limitations, or input devices that can be used by anyone with sacrifice in speed and productivity.
[+] [-] unclebucknasty|11 years ago|reply
I think it's more a story about our adaptability in general.
Many years ago, I worked with a developer who happened to be blind. While coding, he used an audio screen reader. If you've ever heard one, you know that they can be set to read incredibly fast, such that it sounds like absolute gibberish to the untrained ear.
So, whereas I couldn't even discern the words/characters being read, it made absolute sense to him. Much as I was amazed by it, I also know that he didn't start there. Years of practice, finding shortcuts, etc. made it as much second nature to him as reading code on the monitor was for me.
Of course, it also didn't hurt that he was brilliant.
[+] [-] Ideka|11 years ago|reply
[0]: http://worrydream.com/ABriefRantOnTheFutureOfInteractionDesi...
[+] [-] wittedhaddock|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] userbinator|11 years ago|reply
It seems that it's mostly people who grip their mouse really tightly/type with tense fingers that experience the most problems - I remember when I first started typing, my fingers tired too easily because the keys were heavy, and I was exerting a lot of force trying to get the fingers to exactly where I wanted them to go. Later, when I got a "looser" keyboard and discovered that I didn't really need to hit the keys exactly in the middle but whatever could actuate them worked, my speed more than doubled and I could type for hours without feeling tired at all. The relaxation really helps. Same with mousing - if you find that you have to grip your mouse tightly to make precise movements, turn down the DPI and try lubricating it so it requires as little effort as possible to move. Personally, I don't really like using trackpads because of that friction.
[+] [-] grimman|11 years ago|reply
A mouse mat will often reduce friction greatly, and you can augment your mouse with custom teflon "feet". Gamer peripherals, basically.
I see a lot of people who just run their mice across their desk, which no doubt works, but is sub-optimal in that it's not a particularly durable surface in most cases. This will lead to scratches, and thus increased friction on top of the noise and now ruined surface.
Another thing I've seen is a really nasty build-up of gunk (for lack of a better term) underneath the mouse. All of this adds up to increased friction and a "sticky" feel at times, which results in erratic movement and possibly a need for tighter grip.
Then, of course, there's always the option to switch the mice out. A wired option will obviously forgo the batteries, lowering the weight of the unit, at a negligible convenience price.
[+] [-] noonespecial|11 years ago|reply
When I started to get some pain in my wrists, I noticed it most when I was using photoshop and clicking a great deal. I tore apart an old USB mouse and wired a pair of foot switches in so I could click with my feet as well. It helped quite a bit. Now I rather prefer it, especially the right click action.
[+] [-] tomblomfield|11 years ago|reply
Ie, twin cursors on the screen, each controlled by a separate mouse? Tablets introduced a number of interesting new interface mechanisms - double tap, pinch, stretch etc. Could we bring these to non touch-screens?
[+] [-] joshschreuder|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] PL1|11 years ago|reply
You can check a story very similar to mine: http://www.pgbovine.net/back-pain-guest-article.htm
Disclaimer: I am CS PhD student in a top tier US school. Suffered from RSI, tried everything. Was cured by Dr. Sarno's technique.
[+] [-] westoncb|11 years ago|reply
BTW: that you're left hand started in so soon after is probably a good indication that this isn't entirely physical!
Sarno's stuff works (as you'll find plenty evidence of on the internet (e.g. http://www.satori.org/rist/)), but the theory it's framed in is pretty bad, so be prepared for that...
An alternative talking about the same stuff without annoyingly trying to theorize so much is (check out the reviews, you'll see the title is quite misleading): http://www.amazon.com/Rapid-Recovery-Back-Neck-Pain/dp/09669...
[+] [-] snowmaker|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rebootthesystem|11 years ago|reply
This was a hardware and software project and I was doing it all. This meant lots of precise motion at times. Running Solidworks or Altium Designer often meant very accurate tiny movement while pressing down on a button. Horrible stuff for your wrist.
I had been exposed to just how bad this could get. I was friends with several people who did visual effects for motion pictures. Same kind of work. They ran 3D workstations for a dozen or more hours per day, every day. One fellow had to have surgery on both wrists due to the damage he caused. His was always in pain after that.
I decided I had to deal with the situation. I didn't want to end-up like that.
First decision was that mice and touch pads where horrible input devices. I tested everything and concluded that low friction thumb-operated trackballs were the best.
Beyond that, the relative angle of the hand to the forearm seemed to have a HUGE effect on causing inflammation, pain and injury. The flatter and more relaxed,the better. In fact, the most relaxed position had my hands drooping over the keyboard and trackball with virtually no tension on the upper tendons. This meant my standard desk had to go.
What I needed was a desk with a cavity into which my hands would droop and meet the keyboard or trackball. My forearms had to be fully supported in order to remove pressure from shoulders and posture.
I welded together a few iterations of the idea and ended-up with a desk that was just fantastic. I could work on this thing for 16 to 18 hours a day and have no wrist burn whatsoever. Of course, I also implemented regimented breaks and exercises, but the desk, as well as switching to a trackball, made the most difference.
I can't help but think this girl did herself huge damage by using the touch-pad for long hours. I particularly dislike touch-pads on laptops (of any make and model) the are in the wrong place and add tension to your tendons precisely where you don't want it.
As for Michelle, wow, what an amazing person she must be.
[+] [-] melling|11 years ago|reply
And Control VR uses gloves but might prove to be very accurate: http://controlvr.com
The VR headsets are driving the development of this technology.
[+] [-] IkmoIkmo|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jacquesm|11 years ago|reply
Related:
http://www.mfpa.uk/
[+] [-] learc83|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] arafalov|11 years ago|reply
The second time, I was in a different country and was sent to a surgeon. He had no clue what RSI was and said that I should not worry until it gets worse and ready for Carpal Tunnel surgery. I said "no thanks" and found a sports therapist instead who was ready to help.
The main lesson here is that "see a doctor" does not always work. I am sure if I saw surgeon the first time, I'd be having some stitches on my wrists right now. Back then, RSI was not well known thing at all. Hopefully, it is more easily recognized now.
[+] [-] melling|11 years ago|reply
http://www.rsitips.com/cold-laser-therapy/
http://www.brooklinephysicaltherapy.com/page4/page18/
I've never heard it mentioned before.
[+] [-] felixg|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JosieRC|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] auvi|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] melling|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fillskills|11 years ago|reply
Thanks for the inspiration Michelle
[+] [-] meepmorp|11 years ago|reply
Also, good for her, finding a solution that works well for her, strange though it seems at first blush. I like her work, too.
[+] [-] EsotericSoft|11 years ago|reply
Check out the Imak SmartGlove with Thumb, I can't use a computer without it. Well, of course I can but it is much less comfortable. The glove plus a Kensington Expert Mouse (which is actually a trackball with a scroll ring) plus a good chair (eg Steelcase Leap) will help a LOT.
[+] [-] johnny99|11 years ago|reply
To see a proper implementation, which allows someone to work at a high level, is awesome.
[+] [-] qwerta|11 years ago|reply
He does not use special devices, just big mouse and large AT/IBM keyboard.
[+] [-] Morphling|11 years ago|reply
If she is still doing thous 11-15 hour work days and her neck doesn't get tiered, I really think she might have had too hard of a grip on her mouse or just a bad mouse in general.