Mouse Elbow or Lateral Epicondylitis, a big elephant in the room

[jkon]

Mouse Elbow or Lateral Epicondylitis, a big elephant in the room. Anyone else ?

My first computers didn't had any mouse so this wasn't an issue. Since the early 90's I worked in various settings at the same era , some times sitting some times on the floor some times on the desk. Working in a company for some years in a setting that I could alter but would always involve a desk for more than 10 hours a day I started notice a pain in my elbow. The years passed and am older (that is a factor) but also I spent more time in a desk than programming in other locations. I also have the gym , an I mentioned it because that was my first thought when I suddenly couldn't lift even a glass of water with my right hand.

But it wasn't the gym (mainly) ,it was Lateral Epicondylitis or simply Mouse Elbow or Tennis Elbow it was programming mainly. I have made quite significant changes till then in my desk. I get used of a mini keyboard that allows me to have the mouse in the right hand without stretching it. I am writing more from more diverse environments and different settings (although that is still challenging). I have lowered my main work desk to make my hands 90deg to keyboard. And all those seem to work. The swelling has lowered (not vanished yet), and I can hold a bottle of water in my right hand without dropping it (as for the gym I still go but only legs and cardio).

Would be great to read from others that had this or similar problem how the managed it to minimize real life affects

[AndreRet]

I am blessed to not have suffered from this... yet. I have read a lot about people starting to show symptoms or that already suffered from this.

Best of luck, trust it gets better soon.

[Reverend Jim]

I worked at a desk (computer programmer/maintainerer/etc) for 31 years. For the last ten years as part of a group of hardware/software specialists I was required to attend monthly safety meetings. One particular meeting was all about repetitive stress injuries and how to avoid them. One engineer, whom I thought had no sense of humour until then, mentioned that he used a track mouse (a mouse with a track ball on the top). He held up his hand and moved his index finger left and right repeatedly and asked how to avoid an injury from the repeated motion. I thought (I am still not quite sure to this day) he was poking fun at the insanity of wasting all our time discussing a topic that could have been addressed with a minimum of common sense.

I took a more direct approach. I mentioned that for many years my father made his living as a vegetable farmer and that his reaction to someone complaining about a repetitive stress injury such as the one just described by that engineer would have been either mockery or disgust. I did not leave the meeting as my attendance was mandatory but I made it clear that I was not pleased about having been taken away from more pressing matters.

You might argue that repetitive stress injuries are a real problem and should not be minimized. I am sure they are for people who spend their day doing assembly line type jobs. But for people who do mostly desk work, taking frequent breaks to stand and stretch is pretty much all that is required.

[Dani]

For the past ten years or so, I've had a lot of pain in my fingers, hands, and arms, and I've just chalked it up to carpel tunnel, or sitting at the computer too long, etc. I tend to browse with my hand firmly planted over my mouse, until I need to type something, and then back to the mouse it goes.

For the past few years, the pain got increasingly bad, and for the past year or so, it became debilitating to the point of shooting pain from my arm down to my fingers anytime I tried to do something as simple as holding a pen. Now, the doctors still are not sure what is causing it, but I've started taking Pregabalin for pain management (it treats neuropathic pain), and it's been a game changer for me.

[jkon]

Dani , I also took painkillers for some days along with anti-inflammatory but that couldn't be permanent, and in the long run I didn't had any other option than to make those ergonomic changes (even if I really hated them). Now I have used them and don't mind so much. I hope and wish you this pain to go away even without painkillers.