My pain began one afternoon in 2003 or was it 2004. I was reading a novel and my
arm began to pain. I then developed pain in the index finger of my right hand. If I
did not type, there was no pain. I am blind and have a partially formed left palm so
all the typing is done by my right hand. I do use my left hand for hitting some of
the keys like escape, "e", "a", f1 etc.
My parents and I were worried and consulted several doctors. I was 25 years old at that time so no one could believe that I would have such
pain. The pain was not disabling. It was annoying. I have tried wrist rests, acupuncture and Lyrica along with ultra sound therapy. I tried a lot of soft keyboards and they helped some. The acupuncture and physiotherapy helped so did the ultra sound. By help I mean that they did reduce the pain.
Most doctors I saw diagnosed my pain as tendinitis.
Along the way, I discovered J-Say and Dragon Naturally Speaking and got very
involved with the technology. I changed jobs in 2005 which meant moving to
another city. I started researching on RSI. Thanks to the knowbrainer forums, I
met Hilary N who knew about Dr. Sarno. She was a programmer and Dr. Sarno's method had worked for her. She was absolutely grounded and we had some lengthy Skype conversations.
I had to get the books in accessible format and avoid the shipping costs. That
did not happen as soon as I would have liked. My cousin finally got them for me in 2008 in paper format. I read the healing back pain book and went on to Fred Amir's book. The pain by this time was very bad. I would be in a lot of pain especially if I would sit and type in a position where my hands were lower than the level of the keyboard. My parents and I had changed the computer table in my room. We believe that the pain was a result of bad posture on the previous table. After reading Dr. Sarno, I am sure this is not the case.
Before I forget, I was also diagnosed with muscle spasms of the spine. No doctor
recommended any radical measures and all of them dissuaded me against doing
anything drastic. I was just told to exercise, put my hands in warm water and not
to type. My current doctor (I have not seen him for over 5 years now) put me on
some finger stretching exercises. They really helped reduce the pain.
I have also tried a pain management clinic. This is where the acupuncture and
lirica came in.
My current status is as follows.
1. I am not on any medicines thanks to Fred Amir and Dr. Sarno.
2. I still occasionally get finger pain but can get rid of it in a matter of seconds. I
either think of the blood vestals of my finger filling with oxygenated blood or
remind myself that the pain is not structural. If it was structural, it would be
occurring all the time. This incite has come recently.
3. I had the opportunity to participate in a session conducted by Dr. Alan Gordon
on this wiki. He suggested that I focus on the fact that 99% of my pain has gone.
Before I spoke with him, I was always working on ridding myself of that 1% of
pain.
4. I continue to use speech-recognition but as a productivity application.
I have typed this story pain free.
arm began to pain. I then developed pain in the index finger of my right hand. If I
did not type, there was no pain. I am blind and have a partially formed left palm so
all the typing is done by my right hand. I do use my left hand for hitting some of
the keys like escape, "e", "a", f1 etc.
My parents and I were worried and consulted several doctors. I was 25 years old at that time so no one could believe that I would have such
pain. The pain was not disabling. It was annoying. I have tried wrist rests, acupuncture and Lyrica along with ultra sound therapy. I tried a lot of soft keyboards and they helped some. The acupuncture and physiotherapy helped so did the ultra sound. By help I mean that they did reduce the pain.
Most doctors I saw diagnosed my pain as tendinitis.
Along the way, I discovered J-Say and Dragon Naturally Speaking and got very
involved with the technology. I changed jobs in 2005 which meant moving to
another city. I started researching on RSI. Thanks to the knowbrainer forums, I
met Hilary N who knew about Dr. Sarno. She was a programmer and Dr. Sarno's method had worked for her. She was absolutely grounded and we had some lengthy Skype conversations.
I had to get the books in accessible format and avoid the shipping costs. That
did not happen as soon as I would have liked. My cousin finally got them for me in 2008 in paper format. I read the healing back pain book and went on to Fred Amir's book. The pain by this time was very bad. I would be in a lot of pain especially if I would sit and type in a position where my hands were lower than the level of the keyboard. My parents and I had changed the computer table in my room. We believe that the pain was a result of bad posture on the previous table. After reading Dr. Sarno, I am sure this is not the case.
Before I forget, I was also diagnosed with muscle spasms of the spine. No doctor
recommended any radical measures and all of them dissuaded me against doing
anything drastic. I was just told to exercise, put my hands in warm water and not
to type. My current doctor (I have not seen him for over 5 years now) put me on
some finger stretching exercises. They really helped reduce the pain.
I have also tried a pain management clinic. This is where the acupuncture and
lirica came in.
My current status is as follows.
1. I am not on any medicines thanks to Fred Amir and Dr. Sarno.
2. I still occasionally get finger pain but can get rid of it in a matter of seconds. I
either think of the blood vestals of my finger filling with oxygenated blood or
remind myself that the pain is not structural. If it was structural, it would be
occurring all the time. This incite has come recently.
3. I had the opportunity to participate in a session conducted by Dr. Alan Gordon
on this wiki. He suggested that I focus on the fact that 99% of my pain has gone.
Before I spoke with him, I was always working on ridding myself of that 1% of
pain.
4. I continue to use speech-recognition but as a productivity application.
I have typed this story pain free.
