Sunday, February 24, 2008

Injury on the Field. The Blogging Field.

Blogging has become hazardous to my health. No. Really.

On Friday, I woke up to an extremely sore and stiff right hand. Well, actually it is just the middle finger on my right hand. It hurt to straighten it and curl it. It really, really hurt when I tried to grasp something and put force on it. I mean shooting needles of pain so bad that I had to stop what I was doing immediately and recover for a moment.

Yesterday I was sitting at my computer reading something and my right hand became numb and tingly. I looked down at my hand and had an ah-ha moment. My mouse is up on my desk, not on the keyboard tray, to keep it out of reach of little hands. Little hands that like to destroy things. Without thinking about it, I have been holding the mouse while propping my wrist on the edge of the table and often times sort of leaning on it.

Turns out that this is not good for your hands. Big surprise, huh? I have been putting some much pressure on the inside of my wrist that I now have inflamed and swollen tendons, hence the hand pain.

I have moved the mouse back to its proper place and and trying to rest my hand.

Who would have thought you could hurt yourself blogging?

5 comments:

Jennifer S said...

All right, girl, you've gotta power through the pain. The very life of your blogging habit is at stake...

Seriously, who knew you could hurt yourself blogging? Thanks for the cautionary tale...

Anonymous said...

Welcome to carpal tunnel...now multiply that times about 100 and you'll experience my hands in the last 3 months of pregnancy. Try some B6.
Your SIL

Anonymous said...

I actually got a new mouse and mousepad for that same issue. I bought one of the Microsoft Naturals... expensive but nice and big, makes me use my whole hand and elevates my hand up some. I also replaced the keyboard for the same reason. Nobody thinks of ergonomics at home... but we should. Get better soon!

BlondeMomBlog (Jamie) said...

I actually will sometimes get what I call "mouse hand."

Are you sure you haven't been flipping people off in line at Walmart? ;)

All kidding aside, I am notorious for not following ergonomic rules when I sit and write. I'm trying to watch my posture when I sit and type. It's helping!

Rima said...

Oh yeah. You can totally get carpal tunnel syndrome from blogging!