But I will say this: I’ve always been waiting for the day my hands gave out, because of some psychic I spoke to on a lark, who warned me to take care of my hands, back when I was 15 years old. She said I would have trouble with my hands later in life. Weird, no?

Moving the monitor way back on my workspace, and elevating it, helped a lot too — it’s at face level when I’m sitting straight, which reduces the temptation to hunch. I also moved the keyboard way back, and my desk height allows me to rest my entire forearms on the surface with my wrists in a neutral position. That also helps me maintain a naturally erect position without thinking much about it.

Old injuries do come back to haunt you… I’m mindful of it – I haven’t hammered my body half as bad as some of those I served with in uniform, but I’ve done things I look back on and wonder how in hell I did it.

Worse still I now do silly things like – oh… you know – type hunched over sitting on the couch

All I can say is it’s time you hang up your spandex suit and mask. That rock and roll wrestling will kill ya! Never mind all those adoring fans – they’ll read your books eventually! Besides – it’s just murder on your knees…

Get better Justine… I’ve ‘only just’ tripped over your world mate. I’m really looking forward to more…

… but no pressure – right?!

I’m sorry things got so bad you had to temporarily abandon your communities. I hope your injury slowly goes away, so you and your muscles can get on with your life!

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Just about all carpal tunnel injuries can be fixed more or less instantly by ditching the mouse and getting a trackball.

The motion demanded by a mouse is unnatural and stresses muscle fibers and nerves. The motion required by a trackball is far more natural. It would be better if the trackball were on top of a joystick, but for some reason they don’t make those.

For some reason no one ever believes me when I tell them about the virtues of the trackball. This is because people are freaking stupid.

The one smart person who actually followed my advice was a writer who was so incapacitated that he’d stopped typing altogether and was forced to buy dictation software. Upon getting a trackball, he immediately— and I mean IMMEDIATELY— returned to his normal 500,000-words-per-year rate. And on a cheap QWERTY keyboard, too.

I don’t know why office managers don’t insist that every employee be equipped with a trackball. It would save a lot of insurance bills.

(Well, I do know the answer to that one. Office managers are stupid.)

So if you have RSI in your mousing wrist, and you don’t want me to call you an idiot and laugh at your pain— WHICH I AM DOING RIGHT NOW, AT THIS VERY MINUTE— you will get a trackball.

Just sayin’.

If you have to work at a computer, there’s not much you can do about it, but there are, as you say, a few small things that can make life better, such as yoga/tai chi/pilates, taking regular breaks, swapping the mouse from hand to hand, having a good desk and chair (and keeping your laptop on a stand so that it’s at head height) that will lessen any computer-related problems slightly. Thanks for posting this!

one article that looks at this topic is ‘the stand up office desk’ by Yaro Starak http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/tag/stand-up-office-desk/
Yaro is a pro blogger so needed a way to work standing up – brilliant! a concept I am trying out myself.

Thanks for the post, Joanna

Yeup. This happened to me. Now keep in mind, I am not forbidden from reading altogether. The therapist knew that reading was part of my quality of life and helped me devise ergonomic ways to read….ways that don’t involve scrunching my neck vertebrae. (I sit in a big armchair with a good light, and have pillows piled on my lap to get the book to a height where I don’t feel like I have to lean forward.)

I also schedule a “spinal break” every hour and a half. It’s even in my Outlook calendar at work. When I play WoW, I schedule spinal breaks. I do neck exercises (google “cervical retraction neck”) and hand/wrist exercises. I have footrests at both my work and home desks. I’ve got a lumbar support pillow for my lower back. And….I know this will really freak out a lot of people….I no longer sleep on my sides or stomach. Instead I have a single memory foam pillow for my head and sleep flat on my back. (If I don’t do this, I have pinched nerves, RSI, and perhaps arthritis issues to look forward to.)

Justine’s advice is very good, and I recommend taking it now as a preventative, because trust me, getting back on the road to recovery gets waaaay harder later.

What I did was relearn typing using the Dvorak keyboard layout. It was hard at first. I was very fast under the QWERTY layout and my job depended on typing. But I’ve gotten most of the speed back and the improved layout means less chance of injury. All modern computers have the Dvorak layout that you can switch to, and there are stickers you can get to re-label the keys.

On the things you’ve suggested, I can say that I’m a huge supporter of the ergonomic setup idea. I have a laptop and for ages just typed using that on my desk without anything else. After a while I started getting really bad pains in both my hands and my arms, and the muscles in my shoulders started getting really painfully tense. Then I bought myself a laptop stand, a keyboard and a mouse and they were honestly some of the best investments I’ve ever made. I still probably use the computer too much and as a result get a few pains every now and then, but it’s nowhere near as bad as it used to be.

I’m thinking I might try the mousing with both hand things too. Even though I’ve got all the aforementioned setup stuff I still have problems with my middle finger from all the scroll-wheeling I do.

I wish you a swift recovery!

Now that spring’s coming, I plan to start walking outside, working out again, and generally just spending less time at the computer. I feel all stiff, and my back hurts!

Pilates rocks. I was diagnosed with such bad RSI that I was told I’d not be able to lift my hands above my head without pain, ever. Pilates took care of the worst of it – it also taught me enough about movement so I can speak to martial artists and understand what they’re saying. I still have to prioritise my computer time (I only IM one person in the whole universe, and even then we schedule meetings, I play exactly one computer game) nearly 20 years on, and do special stretches and stuff. It’s not a path anyone should go down, if they’ve got a choice.

I’m glad to hear you’re coming out of it. And yes, your guests were all cool.

I just finished Liar yesterday and I thought the book was amazing.