5 Ways of Dealing with Repetitive Strain Injury

Here's a post that I first published on another blog of mine, The Life and Times of The Renzie Man. A little bit of advice for all you fellow gamers out there, especially those who have yet to experience the pain and discomfort of Repetitive Strain Injury. Read on!

I’ve had the misfortune of not being able to type for more than a couple of weeks. The doctors said it’s RSI, or Repetitive Strain Injury. Or Cumulative Trauma Disorder (CTD). Or Work related Upper Limb Disorder (WRULD). Whatever it is, the joint area that connects my right pointy finger with the rest of the hand got all swollen up, and for a time, unbelievably painful, particularly with the smallest bit of movement.

Which meant that I was pretty much getting by with just the left hand for two weeks. So it’s been ice packs and hot packs for me, and a lot of pain killers.

On the plus side, I’m just a little more proficient with navigating with a mouse using my left hand.

It’s actually pretty serious, particularly for people who spend a big chunk of their waking hours in front of a computer. Surfing isn’t much of a problem. It’s really those who type a lot, or play games a lot, or in my case, both. Repetitive Strain Injuries can keep you from performing your job well, or if you’re a gamer, it can keep you away from that MMORPG you’ve been obsessively immersed in for days.

I do a lot of writing for clients (e.g. continually churning out articles and blurbs on a keyboard), on top of maintaining a number of blogs. After three to four hours of non-stop keyboard-work, what do you suppose I do to take a break? Play computer games! Oh the tendons on my hand are just happy to do more button-mashing and mouse-clicking!

You take your hand’s well-being for granted until the pain slowly creeps in. At first, it just feels a little tired. So you go on with your work-play routine anyway. Then you feel the joint stiffness. Swelling starts building up. After a day, the pain sets in- so bad that at this point, you can’t even move your mouse anymore, or type with both hands. The swelling spreads to the surrounding areas. It dies down after a while, but it still takes at least two weeks for you to get yourself back to two-hands-typing form.

Dealing With Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI)

1. Prevention is key. Don’t wait for RSI to happen to you. Or in my case, don’t let it happen again. Take a few minutes break after an hour of keyboard-mashing. Fifteen minutes every hour or hour-and-a-half should be alright. And use those fifteen minutes to do something else- not by checking Facebook, or Plurk. Really take time to walk away from the keyboard and recreate some other way. Make a sandwich, read a book or plant an herb garden or something.

2. Your state of well-being counts. Which means proper nutrition and lots of exercise. Strengthen those arm muscles to improve circulation and endurance. Drink lots of water. Eat the right kind of food.

3. Invest in more ergonomic keyboards, mice and other interfaces. There are lots of nice keyboards out there designed to keep the wrists in a more functional position while typing, as well as all kinds of gaming interfaces for those who play all day. Adaptive technology enables the consumer to have access to a wide selection of special keyboards, mouse replacements and even pen tablet interfaces and speech recognition software. Might be wise to consider these. Heck, I know I would.

4. Observe a good sitting work posture. Being conscious of your posture at work also plays a role in preventing Repetitive Strain Injury, or RSI (and a lot of other body pains for that matter).

5. When things start to go downhill, consult a licensed medical professional. The tendency of some people is to self-medicate. Unless you’re a medical professional yourself, you shouldn’t go ahead and pop some pills for the pain. Besides, there are a lot of available pain management protocols available for different kinds of Repetitive Strain Injuries, for different kinds of lifestyles. Help your doctor figure out the best one for you.

So there you have it. Hopefully it doesn’t happen to you- coz it’s really such a bitch to have, what with all the pain and discomfort.

Cheers, everyone!

A Quick Break From Gaming - 2008 July

Hey there, fellow gaming enthusiast.

It's actually been quite a while since I've posted anything really substantial on this blog. I've been in Los Angeles for a little over a month- and if you've been reading any of my other blogs, you probably already know that I have plans of moving there definitely within the year.

I've already cut all my corporate ties (i.e. retired early from my radio career in Metro Manila and had gone completely home-based) back in the Philippines, and I'm starting to appreciate my new work-life situation.

What it means, really, is more time for me to do the shit I want, whenever I want. And yes, that means, among other things, more gaming.

At least I managed to get some stuff done while I was in Los Angeles:

--> I managed to get me a sweet new PC. It's got a nice new monitor, much better sounds and I thought I should try me out Vista for a change. I'll be using it for a lot of photo/video/audio editing on top of my regular gaming stuff.

--> Moved quite a lot of games to Los Angeles, but I still have a substantial amount of toys and games left to bring to the United States. At least I can play World of Warcraft from L.A.

--> Seriously considering getting me into Age of Conan. Been getting good word-of-mouth. But do I really have enough time for another paid MMORPG? I don't think I'm playing enough WoW as it is :)

--> I still have my eye on a new Xbox 360. I bought me a new Canon EOS 400D Digital Rebel XTi instead.

--> I was considering getting a DS Lite. Or a Sony PSP. But I have serious doubts- I don't think I really want to get into handhelds. Maybe when I have a spare US$150, then I'll think about it again.

--> Checked out the new 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. Not too keen about it. I'd rather stick to the old 3rd or even 2nd Edition rules. Seriously. In fact, I'm playing Icewind Dale II all over again.

--> Got my sister hooked on World of Warcraft :D

--> Also managed to get my hands on Mass Effect for the PC, which I'm playing right now. Awesome game.

Well, at least it's good to be back. This blog is in need of some housekeeping. I didn't even realize Felicia Day left me a message last March. Felicia Day, man! Of "The Guild" and "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog"! How could I have possibly missed that?

Let's get back to some blogging now, shall we?

Cheers, everyone!