Helpful hints, and wrist problems

[Cathy Quinones <quinones -at- MINDSPRING -dot- COM>]

I instigated this same thread last summer (my left wrist was hurting
quite a bit) and got a bunch of great advice.  Luckily for me, the
problem resolved itself, with some rest and an improvement in posture
(and possibly indirectly through exercise).  Recently I added a wrist
rest to my keyboard (read, denim tube full of rice), and that's
helping me stay honest (its being there reminds me to keep proper hand
posture).

Now, here are some other random info-bits that I picked up along the
way, stuff I don't remember seeing discussed in the list or in
relevant web pages.  I was commenting about my aching wrist last
Thanksgiving, and both my sisters were present.  I asked one of them
to diagnose my problem; she's an emergency doctor, and said that
unless I had a gaping wound in my wrist, she wasn't interested.  After
I voiced some threats, she said to try this: place hands back to back
and pointing downwards, and apply some pressure so both are bent at
the wrist (arms would be pointing straight forward, elbow joints would
be at a ~90 degree angle), then hold that position for a minute.  Note
if there's any tingling or numbness in any fingers.  In the case of
carpal tunnel, the numbness affects the thumb and index fingers, as I
recall.  In my case, the numbness was slight and on my left pinky
only.  She said that finger is served by a nerve that runs all the way
up to the elbow, the same one that causes the whole arm to jerk when
one hits that "funny spot" at the elbow.

At this point my other sister chimed in: "you know, I had something
like that going on after I had the baby, it only went away when I lost
some of the pregnancy weight."  In her case, she doesn't spend a lot
of time at the keyboard, but her left forearm had bothered her for
awhile.  I said that makes sense, I did pack some extra weight (no
doubt a connection to spending more time at the keyboard!!) in the
last year or so.  Once I started exercising more and lost some pounds,
the pain went away.  So, it is possible that a hunk of misguided arm
flab was compressing a nerve somewhere, a nerve that was already
getting stressed by bad posture.

You see, in between having one sister tactfully call me fat while the
other suggested that I slash my wrist to get her attention, I got some
interesting info.  I thought I'd share :)  Now, everybody assume the
reverse prayer posture and test for nerve pinching!



Cathy Quinones
quinones -at- mindspring -dot- com
http://www.mindspring.com/~mintz/coverpg.html
(that's my web page with pet bird care info)