photo credit: vitelone

I have been keeping a log book listing my pain level with notes on what I did that day for a while.  I find it helpful to understand what aggrivates my condition and what therapies really helped.

I have an entry for when I wake, noon time, and evening time.  I use the 1-10 pain severity scale.

Because healing happens slowly, you can really see progress when comparing current results to logs months ago.

Taking breaks during computer use is critical to healing. I use a timer like this Polder Digital Timer to remind me to take breaks. I set it for say 20 minutes, then it beeps and I stop using the computer and take a break for 20 minutes.

You can vary the amount of computer usage and break length depending on your injury status.

The Dragon Naturally Speaking 11 Preferred is a low cost voice recognition software that I use. I started using it at version 6 and have found that it has improved substantially. It includes a good quality headset.

The speed and accuracy is pretty good and I like the voice web navigation it offers. Dragon does require some training time but the results speak for themselves. It is not perfect but less typing = more healing. It is hard to use in an open office environment though.

Hot and Cold Transition Baths have helped my hands feel better.  I fill 2 pitchers, 1 with hot water from the tap, and another with cold tap water plus a few ice cubes.

I dump my arm into one pitcher for 30 seconds, then into the other for 30 seconds.  I repeat about 3-5 times.   This helps by improving circulation to your arm.  I do this every day.

Icing is an important technique to help minimize pain and reducing swelling from an Wrist Pain – Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Again it is a pain-reliever not a treatment or ergonomic technique.

I liked to put ice cubes in a pitcher of cold water and dunk my hand, wrist, and upper arm into the cold ice water.  This gets the entire area iced thoroughly. My hands needed to feel almost numb before they were removed from the ice water. As some put it, when you are numb, you are done. I found that I need to ice longer than I did previously.

Hot and Cold transition baths are also a good way to increase circulation due to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome problems.

This site has some good times on how to make icing work well for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome sufferers.

You can read more about icing and how long to ice from this guide to Repetitive Strain Injury. Wrist Pain – Carpal Tunnel Syndrome takes time to heal, so lay off the computer.