Simple relief from ever present carpal tunnel pain

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/02/08/simple-relief-from-ever-presen.html

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I’ll only buy it if it’s also endorsed by Tim “4-Hour” Ferriss and Gwyneth “Goop” Paltrow.
                             

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I have not tried sticking a rock in my vagina to help ease CTS.

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Emu… oil…?

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Not the type of relief I need, sadly.

Wrist pain, I can deal with. What I can’t deal with is waking up in the middle of the night with half of my hand temporarily numb and paralyzed (until I manage to massage life back into it).

Thankfully, the exercises that prevent my hand from waking me up half-terrified after spending the day on the computer also work to relieve the pain while I’m spending the day on the computer.

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I wear braces for that. My hands will “claw up” while i sleep, when things are really bad. I think I blogged them but will find. I get the wrist braces that have splints above and below the wrist, and generally 3-4 straps to allow even pressure on the splints.

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Probably too late for you folks with nerve damage but others on the brink might consider switching to the dvorak keyboard layout. I did so in 1997 specifically because of the burning sensation I was getting typing qwerty for long periods. The month of typing slowly while I relearned how to touch-type no doubt helped a lot … but I have never again had pain from typing.

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Chuck Palahniuk was having a book signing at the local comic book store for his new coloring book. He was rubbing that stuff on his arm every four or five signatures.

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This exercise allowed me to keep climbing and worked wonders on computer induced carpal tunnel. Simple and works wonders (at least for me).

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Works well on my hands. Has helped with some sprains as well, and on a sore neck.

Ever have an success with a “pain in the ass”?

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Thanks, but, as I said, I’m controlling it through exercise (primarily one of these):

Before that, I was using one of these, which also seemed to work (but was much less convenient to use or carry):

I’ve tried wearing braces, but they’re even less convenient than the Powerball, and didn’t offer any particular benefit over the exercises. Plus, they disagreed with my sensitive skin.

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There was a time not so long ago when Colemak was supposed to be the new hotness.

Seems to me I don’t hear nearly as much about carpal tunnel syndrome now as I used to. Remember all the wacky split-keyboards and suchlike? (The Kinesis patent seems to have expired now, so you’d think cheap knockoffs would be on the rise now if there was much to it.) I was surprised to learn that high schools apparently don’t even bother with formal touch-typing classes anymore; maybe that has something to do with it.

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I may have to check this out. Occasionally when sleeping i roll over my stomach and end up sleeping over my hand, which isn’t painful at all but the following day it wrecks havoc on my tendons. They get inflamed and will stay that way for a few days and makes typing hell, if i type carefully while applying a mentholated topical cream i can work through the pain until it subsides but it’s not efficient. If this works it’ll be good to have :slight_smile:

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I have had some success with these:

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First you have to catch the Emu.

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Which is made a lot more difficult if it’s been oiled.

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Salonpas patches also deliver topical salicylate; haven’t used them for Carpal Tunnel, but they’d probably be good for it.

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Same.

I use a “IMAK RSI Pil O Splint Wrist Support for Carpal Tunnel” (check Amazon) on each wrist/hand. The foam/fabric portion that cradles my hand isn’t stiff-stiff, but it’s enough to ‘remind’ my hand not to clench while I’m asleep.

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I guess if they called it “emu fat” it wouldn’t be quite as appealing.

In any case, it does feel to me to be better than “mink oil,” which I always imagine involves wringing little minks by hand, like one would a wet towel.

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All I can find by searching is this:

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