Writing through the pain.

[Pru Freda]

I'm getting old, right.. Hell, let's be honest, I've gotten old, and the old body is starting to wear out. Not much I can do about that.

I suffer a lot with post-stroke neuropathic pain that affects the left side of my body (I'm left-handed, natch). I've never been a touch typist, but now prolonged typing, the sort that would see me write 1000 words a day is painful. Usually, by the time I've written 500 or 600, I'm ready to call it quits. (And the typos! You just wouldnl't believe hais hard it isssss to control my frickinf fingerwws.)

Added to which, I now have osteophages (little spurs of bone) on the upper part of my spinal column that (literally!) give me a severe pain in the neck. None of the pain killers I've been prescribed give me total relief and sometimes (like now, hence this post) at me wit's end with it.

Does anyone, please, know of any pain relief strategies I might try?

Thank you for reading.

[vrabinec]

Voice recognition software. Dictate instead of typing. It has actually gotten pretty damn good recently. I use it on my I-phone to dictate notes and messages. As for the pain, I don't know. Anything stronger than Advil makes me so queasy that I'd rather take the pain.

[Daniel]

I wish I could help, Lynda, but all I can offer is sympathy. Constant pain is draining and frustrating, and many of the treatments have their own side-effects, in addition to not being very effective.

I'm sure you've already thought of this, but if it were my problem to solve, I would try some kind of ergonomic solution. I'd try to identify the conditions under which the pain is the least, and then find ways to work under those conditions. For example, I have carpal tunnel that becomes excruciating within fifteen minutes or so of using a mouse. I've learned that I can work for a couple of hours with a track ball, but I can work all day using a pen tablet.

I hope you find something that works.

[Deleted]

This is actually more for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (I think), but I can't see how it can hurt. Just a few isometric exercises.

1. Lean with your hand on a table, fingers spread, arm at an oblique angle. Press, but not so it hurts. Repeat a few times.

2. Make a tight fist, but again not so tight it hurts. Keep for a few seconds. Release and spread your fingers as wide as they will go (again, without straining).

Helped me. Hope it does help you too.

[Deleted]

May 2, 2014 10:45:19 GMT -5 Daniel said:

I wish I could help, Lynda, but all I can offer is sympathy. Constant pain is draining and frustrating, and many of the treatments have their own side-effects, in addition to not being very effective.

I'm sure you've already thought of this, but if it were my problem to solve, I would try some kind of ergonomic solution. I'd try to identify the conditions under which the pain is the least, and then find ways to work under those conditions. For example, I have carpal tunnel that becomes excruciating within fifteen minutes or so of using a mouse. I've learned that I can work for a couple of hours with a track ball, but I can work all day using a pen tablet.

I hope you find something that works.

I'm planning to get a pen tablet soon for just this reason - I now get really bad pain in my wrist when working too much. It's not so bad when typing, but when I'm doing more mouse-heavy stuff like cover design it can get excruciating. I've tried gel wrist-rests but they don't seem to do much.

Sympathies, Lynda. That sounds awful. I've been through a lot of 'remedies' for a chronic spinal problem I've had since I was 18 (yup, I'm falling apart  ) and after many years and multiple doctors all I'm left with is advice to take (addictive and debilitating) painkillers on a daily basis. Not great.

[Deleted]

As Daniel suggested, ergonomics may provide some relief, and if you can afford dictation software as Vrab suggested, that would definitely help in the long term. (There's a learning curve and a period of training the software to understand you, so it will take some time and effort.)

For management of pain, I have found that acupuncture is amazing. I would never have believed it if I hadn't experienced it firsthand. I don't know how expensive it might be over there; here, I can access acupuncturists on my health plan, so it's very affordable.

Having suggested that, I may as well go the full woo-woo and suggest you try qigong. I have a lot of neck and spinal issues; this time last year, I was seeing a chiropractor once a week (mostly to alleviate chronic lower back pain) and having anywhere from 2 to 4 migraines per week.

Late last summer, I started a qigong practice from a DVD I bought online and started doing it twice a day for 15-30 minutes at a time. I was doing it for other reasons, but was astonished to find after a month that my back pain had been reduced by probably 90 percent and I had only had maybe one or two migraines all month. I haven't seen the chiropractor since October. The migraines I do have now are primarily the results of the hormonal tempests typical for a woman my age.

Anyway, no idea if you're interested in trying it, but if you are, I can share some things to try. Qigong is really easy to do, even for those with limited mobility. It's not strenuous or taxing physically; it's more of a meditative practice of gentle movements that somehow work magic on the body (and spirit).

[Pru Freda]

Bless you all for the sympathy and suggestions. I'll give some of them a try and report back.

I've been wondering for a while about Dragon Naturally Speaking, though I'd probable feel a right dildo using it. I'll look into it again. Thanks.

[vrabinec]

"Feel a right dildo"? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

[Deleted]

May 2, 2014 13:24:52 GMT -5 vrabinec said:

"Feel a right dildo"? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

I suppose it's better than feeling a wrong dildo. Because who hasn't had that experience?

[vrabinec]

Or the left dildo, which I understand can be messy.

[Deleted]

May 2, 2014 13:27:33 GMT -5 vrabinec said:

Or the left dildo, which I understand can be messy.

Depends on how one normally "dresses." Or so I've been told.

[Daniel]

May 2, 2014 11:02:27 GMT -5 @krg said:

I now get really bad pain in my wrist when working too much. It's not so bad when typing, but when I'm doing more mouse-heavy stuff like cover design it can get excruciating.

That was my experience too. At the risk of thread derailment, let me share some pen tablet tips:

• It's best if you can put the tablet next to your keyboard so it will be at a good working height. Putting it up on the desktop instead of the keyboard tray puts it at a bad angle for your wrist and makes clicking more difficult.
• Avoid the really small pen tablets. Extend your keyboard tray if necessary so you can accommodate a bigger one. The reason is that the resolution of the pen tablet has to be mapped to the resolution of your monitor. If you have a small tablet and a big monitor, the pen will move across the screen in multiples of pixels. This isn't a big deal when you are just clicking buttons and moving around in Windows, but if you get into a graphics program, you won't be able to position things as well as you'd like. (I do have a small pen tablet, but I switch to a trackball for graphics-intensive activities.) If you have a dual monitor system, this problem is magnified because now the tablet must map to the width of both monitors combined.
• You can solve the above resolution problems by putting your tablet into "mouse mode," which means you'll have to sweep the pen across the tablet surface (without touching it) in order to get from one edge of the screen to the other. One of the things I love best about a pen tablet when it *isn't* in mouse mode is that you can go directly to any place on the screen with a single motion. It's a more intuitive feel, IMO.
• If you are starting to have fine motor loss like me, be sure to map the pen buttons to right-click and double-click. (Those aren't always the defaults.) Trying to double-click the surface of the tablet (instead of using the pen button) can accidentally move things or select text instead of double-clicking. This can be a real pain when you are in Windows Explorer and accidentally move a folder.

That's all I can think of at the moment. It takes a little while to get used to a pen tablet, but I love my Wacom Sapphire and my wife loves her Wacom Bamboo. Good luck!

[Deleted]

May 2, 2014 14:02:30 GMT -5 Daniel said:

May 2, 2014 11:02:27 GMT -5 @krg said:

I now get really bad pain in my wrist when working too much. It's not so bad when typing, but when I'm doing more mouse-heavy stuff like cover design it can get excruciating.

That was my experience too. At the risk of thread derailment, let me share some pen tablet tips:

• It's best if you can put the tablet next to your keyboard so it will be at a good working height. Putting it up on the desktop instead of the keyboard tray puts it at a bad angle for your wrist and makes clicking more difficult.
• Avoid the really small pen tablets. Extend your keyboard tray if necessary so you can accommodate a bigger one. The reason is that the resolution of the pen tablet has to be mapped to the resolution of your monitor. If you have a small tablet and a big monitor, the pen will move across the screen in multiples of pixels. This isn't a big deal when you are just clicking buttons and moving around in Windows, but if you get into a graphics program, you won't be able to position things as well as you'd like. (I do have a small pen tablet, but I switch to a trackball for graphics-intensive activities.) If you have a dual monitor system, this problem is magnified because now the tablet must map to the width of both monitors combined.
• You can solve the above resolution problems by putting your tablet into "mouse mode," which means you'll have to sweep the pen across the tablet surface (without touching it) in order to get from one edge of the screen to the other. One of the things I love best about a pen tablet when it *isn't* in mouse mode is that you can go directly to any place on the screen with a single motion. It's a more intuitive feel, IMO.
• If you are starting to have fine motor loss like me, be sure to map the pen buttons to right-click and double-click. (Those aren't always the defaults.) Trying to double-click the surface of the tablet (instead of using the pen button) can accidentally move things or select text instead of double-clicking. This can be a real pain when you are in Windows Explorer and accidentally move a folder.

That's all I can think of at the moment. It takes a little while to get used to a pen tablet, but I love my Wacom Sapphire and my wife loves her Wacom Bamboo. Good luck!

Thanks DRM - I've been thinking about getting the Wacom Bamboo, but haven't ever used one before, so this is all really helpful 

[Rinelle Grey]

I have had bad RSI or Carpel tunnel or whatever it is from repeated mouse use, and definitely find a tablet FAR better. I have one of the little Wacom ones, and haven't had any problems with precision, despite having a 27 inch monitor. (I do a lot of graphic work, so precision is important). I've tried using a big one, but I have short arms, so it just didn't work for me. If the problem is typing though, I'm not sure a tablet would help any. An ergonomic keyboard might though? And definitely better chairs/desk/seating position. Get creative. Half reclining on the lounge with a laptop or tablet may work better for you than sitting at a desk! Maybe a standing desk?

Break up your writing time. If writing for 15 minutes ends up in pain, try 10 or even 5, with big breaks in between.

How about things like heat packs to help with the pain?

[Becca Mills]

<nods respectfully to the dildo jokes>

Lidocaine patches might help with the neuropathic pain.

Spinal steroid injections might help with the neck pain. That's the only thing that got my sciatica to calm down.

[scdaffron]

I have a Wacom tablet too. Now I have a Bamboo, but I think I got my first tablet in the early 90s. (It had a serial port, so uh, it's been a while...way back then only graphic artists knew what they were.) I got the Bamboo after the 6x9 tablet I had for years finally refused to work with Windows 7. Like DRM said, you definitely want to program the buttons on the pen. It makes your life better.

Also on the Bamboo, you want to turn off all the "touch screen" crap or it will drive you slowly insane, unless you actually ARE using a tablet. (I'm not.)

I found that having a good keyboard makes a huge ergonomic difference as far as typing is concerned. I have an IBM Model M, which is one of those "clicky" keyboards. If you're a touch typist, having the tactile feedback of mechanical keys is a good thing.

Lynda, since you don't touch type, I don't know if a different keyboard would help. But I've noticed that some people who don't touch type kind of crumple up their body when they are typing. (Hunching over looking at the keys, maybe?) Maybe you are unknowingly aggravating problems. My husband messed up his back by putting his foot on the base of his rolling chair. It took him ages to figure out what he was doing that made his back hurt ;-)

[Pru Freda]

You people are the best! Thank you all for the suggestions.

I do have a mechanical keyboard (Sir bought it for me last Christmas) and I absolutely love it. I'm probably sitting more scrunched up than I should be, which isn't helping. I'm seeing a physiotherapist about the neck next week - hopefully, he'll also have some helpful suggestions or exercises.

Oh, and it's osteophytes, not osteophages (which eat bone. Eek!), I think I had a rush of blood to the head when I typed that.

[Deleted]

I had spinal steroid injections. They were AMAZING. Two bulging disks in my neck. Worst pain of my life, and I've had carpal tunnel surgery in both hands and been on full medical disability multiple times. But, yeah. Injections!

I've used voice recognition software at various times. It works well. Also ergo keyboard, ergo trackball mouse, mousing on the left side.

And I wrote my most lovely, feel-good book while on heavy, heavy Vicodin for months before & after what I like to call my 100,000-mile service. That's a HAPPY book. Another option.

Seriously, I know. It's hard. But I found writing to be the very best distraction of all.

[Suzy]

Sorry to hear this, Lynda. I hope you can get some help from the physio. I have had a lot of pain following my riding accident two years ago (fractured pelvis). But I worked with an amazing physio and now I'm back to what I was before, with the occasional twinge in my back from time to time. Physiotherapy can work wonders.