Repetitive strain injury logbook

Mission Operations
1

note: this is the logbook. See <> for my main summary.

Beginning before 2020, I began to experience pain and weakness in my hands and forearms. That year I overused my hands further. By mid-2021 I was essentially not able to type more than a paragraph on a keyboard at a time. I noticed I had trouble holding dishes or a pen normally. I would wake up with numb and tingling hands and arms.

After a number of months things felt q bit better. I managed my typing somewhat deliberately for the next few years.

As of 2025, my hands have stabilized to an equilibrium where RSI has faded to a background concern.

2

While I found the advice from the regular (seemingly more sports-focused) physiotherapist helpful, I wanted to know a bit more about what was wrong with my hands - I wanted to talk to an expert in hand RSI.

I found an occupational therapist in town that seemed to have good expertise - actually, I found two, but the first did not reply. While I had pain on the days bracketing, I did not type much before the appointment, and presented symptom-free.

Contrary to the appointment I had some 8 months ago, the test involving tapping on the wrist (I believe this is called Tinel’s sign) did not cause numbness and tingling to propagate up my hand - to the contrary, there was no response at all. None of his tests were positive, starkly contrasting as well with the previous physio appointments ~6 months ago, where most tests clearly induced dull pain.

The “Q-tip” nerve glide pain was nonexistent at this time -

I mentioned forearm pain and pain in the palm - he seemed confused by the palm pain.

I had a small amount of pain when gripping the grip-strength tester.

The therapist’s suggestion was that I previously had both tendinitis (tendinopathy) and carpal tunnel, but the carpal tunnel had now resolved.

He recommended the following regimen (“since you aren’t currently in pain”). I don’t think it’s a good idea for other people to follow this blindly - he was careful to point out

  • 5 lb weight Table edge front curls back curls 8 - 12 reps - pain free arc

My arms both currently have a lot of weakness pulling the weight up

foam Ball squeesing, hard, same reps, once per day, both hands, don’t over do it

Ball I can close strneth

Pulling exersizes

He also stressed that there should be no pressure on wrists while typing.

3

Accuracy of Provocative Tests for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

10.1016/j.jhsg.2020.03.002

Great paper.

4

Here’s an observation: Before writing the above comment, did the “Q-tip” nerve glide. I did not have the symptom I reported before - a dull “stretching” feeling in the pads of the last two fingers - in my right hand.

Now, after writing it, my right forearms are feeling poor, I have tried it again - and I have the symptom. Clear, unmistakable.

This is not really very meaningful, but it’s interesting.

5

Tried a cheap pen tablet. Haven’t got the settings and palm rest set up in a comfortable manner yet, but some people say it works for them.

Scrolling a mouse is one repetitive action. Push-to-scroll features (autoscroll)

I also bought an MX Ergo trackball mouse for work, though I’m a bit concerned that my thumb will get worn this way.

spacemouse-like methods

6

Up arrow - enter for scripts, replaced with ‘gravekey’, seems to work well.

I often take my hands off the keyboard to move the arrow keys. I don’t really have a modifier key

Backspace is another issue

7

I (along with other people online) am surprised that logitech designed the k860 with such a prominent wrist rest - the conventional wisdom I am aware of is that your wrist shouldn’t be in contact with anything.

The only concern I have when using it is that the numberpad makes the board a little wide, which many of the microsoft sculpt boards don’t have. I haven’t actually had any issues with this in practice though.

The keyboard is also significantly higher than a standard board, so you might need to be careful with your desk height.

Logitech have an ergo setup guide online for this specific keyboard which is helpful.

Edit: after ~4 months using a K860 at work and at home, I’ve had no issues with it. The mouse distance has not turned out to be a concern for my workflow.

8

home row (hjkl) arrow-keys is something I might want to get used to.

There are lists of assitive or accessible- mouse options.

Talonvoice

9

Found a video where I’m struggling with RSI in the right hand in june 2020

June 29 - left arm, right arm is fine, after abiut 3 days of doing EPU python. Pain is in the forearm, about a quarter of the way down, and the inside palm is tingling aa bit.

Pain at the right joint,

carried heavy groceries and heavy laptop bag on shoulder and hand
Aug 8 - had to stop at 8 pm, didn’t type hard, right wrist and forearm cold pain;

Aug 9; left palm, pad of pinkie and the finger beside it
Forearm

Aug 10: fairly bad but mad it through the day. Both hands but mouse hand far worse. sscrolling mousewheel but also page

Shooting numbnews if I hunch shoulders and touch nerve under arm

Could I hire a typist? Might keep me focused too…

Aug 13: very bad. Worst in 6 months. Didn’t type much today but I overdid it last week. No heavy lifting recently. shoulder numb, muscles, etc
severe pain when closing finger at inside wrist-forearm, also behind the arm

aug 15: so, so bad. bought ergo keyboard. just made it through the day.

Really just want to learn if there are excersizes
Nerve glides

He says it’s tendonopathy + carpal tunnel before but that test was negative now

Aug 24: worked till 1 the night before. Programmed from 9:30 to 5 pm, right wrist got progressively worse over the day.

10

“but came up with scheduled breaks and also changed my posture”
Split and ortholinear did nothing for my RSI

Split and ortholinear did nothing for my RSI

11

“Perform two-key commands with two hands; rather than stretching to reach shift and another key with the same hand, use both hands”
Brown CS: Preventing RSI

12

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8486013

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I wonder if something like the razer orbweaver, for the left hand, wouldn’t be a good idea, particularly because of the thumb that could be used for scrolling.

16

foot pedals, can cause rsi themselves though

17

learning Vim might be a good idea to minimize keystrokes for general editing tasks

or some other advanced multi-cursor

18

14 posts were merged into an existing topic: EyeMouse

21

I wish there were more macro keys in the “hot zone” around the g and h keys. one could then map hjkl to arrow keys and mode-switch without needing the pinkie. I wonder if I can re-wire the split spacebar on the k860 to printscreen or something

22

wanted to map various keys to get Alt+hjkl or F3+hjkl arrow keys. However, chrome doesn’t respect maps.

but…

Sorry, you can’t use ‘setkeycodes’ on USB keyboards. They don’t use the
PS/2 protocol, and hence it doesn’t make sense.