Hi, I want to share my experience regarding repetitive strain injury, that was first misdiagosed as carpal tunnel syndrome by the primary care. I hope it is helpful! I am still recovering from it so any advice will be appreciated too!
I'm mostly work on my computer and that's cause my injury last October.
Here are the timeline of my symptoms.
- First week: negligible sore on my hands.
- Second week: started to feel tingling at front and back of my hands. Then, few days latter, the tingling spread out to forearm and elbow.
- Few days after tingling spread to my forearm, my forearm to the back of my hands lost strength. I cannot type, cannot move fingers individually, cannot chop green onions, cannot open peanut butter jar :( I have to stop working for almost 2 weeks.
A week after that, I got a chance to see OT. And we've been working on nerve gliding, extensor and flexor muscles, and pinch strengths. my symptoms improve a lot to almost normal within a month. Though I still feel sore on the base of my thumb.
Then in December, I got a chance to see a a specialist and do a nerve conduction test. It turns out that my nerves are perfectly fine. So, the doctor said that my symptoms are muscle injury from repetitive tasks. My doctor recommended me to do a massage and I find it very helpful. I can feel a tight muscle knots in my forearm. (I don't feel numbness, so that's why she said it's not CPT).
Then, in January it was getting worse. My forearm got sore and fatigue after a long use (30 mins). So, I went back to OT and I do hammer curl every day. My symptoms improve. However, till this day, I cannot raise my hands/flex my elbow more than 15 minutes without support.
For all of the journey I've been through. I figured out what caused my injury is I was typing without enough support on my arms.
What help a lot are strengthening exercise, stretches, a good chair that its armrest fit my body size. What enable me to work since last year is a kinesis advantage pro 360 keyboard. Till this day, my forearm will get sore very quickly if I have to pronate my arms and type on a flat keyboard.
I hope this information is helpful to those who experience similar symptoms as me.
I would also appreciate any advice on how to get a full recovery! And also how to comfortably set up the keyboard. (The way I set it up right now is I put it on a keyboard tray and I put my vertical mouth in the middle.)