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Wiki code for CuringTendonitis

1: <H1>How I Cured My Tendonitis (not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, but it feels \\
2: similar)</H1>\\
3: Starting in 1997 I started feeling pain in my wrists when I used the \\
4: computer for long periods of time. Over time it happened more and more \\
5: frequently so that my wrists often hurt even when I wasn't using the \\
6: computer at all.\\
7: \\
8: Like many people with wrist pain I thought I had Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. \\
9: However, at one point (I think it was 1999) I went to a doctor to get \\
10: a test which measured nerve damage in my wrists and it turns out there \\
11: wasn't any nerve damage. That was good news because that meant that \\
12: what I had was Tendonitis. Tendonitis, over a period of time, can cause \\
13: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (by damaging the nerves in the wrists), but at \\
14: least at that point in time there wasn't any nerve damage. Even so, \\
15: my wrists still hurt a lot whenever I typed. This really worried me \\
16: because I'm a computer programmer, so being able to type is critical \\
17: to my ability to continue to work.\\
18: \\
19: <H2>What is Tendonitis</H2>\\
20: Tendonitis (in the wrist) is a swelling of the tendons in the wrist \\
21: which puts pressure on the nerves in the wrist. This makes you feel \\
22: pain in your wrist as well as your fingers. Despite the pain in the \\
23: fingers there's nothing actually wrong with the fingers. The pain originates \\
24: entirely from the pressure on the nerves in the wrist.\\
25: \\
26: <H2>Stretching</H2>\\
27: After about 6 months of this I went to a doctor and she gave me some \\
28: wrist exercises to do. Those stretches helped. In particular, there's \\
29: a stretch where I extend one arm out straight and then pull back on \\
30: that hand (with the palm facing outward) using my other hand and hold \\
31: it there for about 15 seconds. I then repeat on that hand and pull back \\
32: with the palm facing inwards. I would then repeat that for the other \\
33: hand. There were other stretches, but I eventually stopped doing them \\
34: because that stretch was the only one that actually helped me.\\
35: \\
36: Doing those stretches allowed me to continue using the computer, but \\
37: I'd have to do them every 20 minutes and they would only give me temporary \\
38: relief.. Furthermore, they were only a temporary fix. Over time my wrists \\
39: continued to worsen.\\
40: \\
41: <H2>The Kinesis Keyboard</H2>\\
42: I'm a programmer and I was really worried that I might eventually not \\
43: be able to use the computer at all. In 1999 I bought a <a href="http://www.fentek-ind.com/ergo.htm">Kinesis \\
44: keyboard</a> and that helped a lot! It didn't cure it, but it stopped \\
45: aggravating the problem and I was able to type for longer periods of \\
46: time without the pain increasing to the point where it hurt enough that \\
47: I needed to stop typing.\\
48: \\
49: In particular, the Kinesis Professional is the keyboard that I now \\
50: swear by. I would NEVER go back to a standard keyboard. I bought one \\
51: for work and one for home. Before I used the Kinesis Professional I \\
52: tried other "ergonomic" keyboards, but most were designed \\
53: in such a way that, in my opinion, they actually aggravated the problem \\
54: because they were convex and forced me to twist my wrists outward. The \\
55: key is that the Kinesis Professional has a concave design which allows \\
56: my wrists to sit in one position and reach all the keys without having \\
57: to twist my wrist to reach keys like the enter or backspace key. The \\
58: enter, backspace, and spacebar keys are underneath my thumbs which makes \\
59: them much easier to press than on a standard keyboard. My wrists don't \\
60: have to twist in order to reach for keys and twisting the wrist is what \\
61: aggravates tendonitis the most.\\
62: \\
63: <H2>The Pro-Ice wrist ice wraps</H2>\\
64: However, it's really the <a href="http://www.proicetherapy.com/store.html">Pro-Ice</a> \\
65: wrist ice wraps that really more or less cured my tendonitis. In 2000 \\
66: I bought four Pro-Ice wrist ice wraps. I kept 2 of them in my freezer \\
67: at home and 2 of them in the freezer at work. Whenever I felt my wrists \\
68: swelling up, but before I actually started to feel pain, I would stop \\
69: using the keyboard and put on those wrist wraps. I would then put my \\
70: wrists (while in the wraps of course) on my legs and lean over to force \\
71: the ice in the wraps to be in contact with my skin as much as possible. \\
72: After about 20 seconds it really starts to hurt (because of the cold), \\
73: but I would force myself to stay like that for at least 60 seconds. \\
74: I would then take both of the wraps off my wrists.\\
75: \\
76: At that point I would be able to type for a while without feeling any \\
77: pain (usually about an hour or so). When my wrists started to feel swelled \\
78: up again then I would put on the wrist wraps for 60 more seconds. It \\
79: was kind of annoying to have to do this, but after a while it became \\
80: somewhat routine.\\
81: \\
82: Here's the wonderful part. After doing this for about 3 months, the \\
83: need to use the ice wraps actually became less frequent. Another 3 months \\
84: after that and I was really more or less cured!\\
85: \\
86: Note that yes, I tried just using an ice pack or a bag of ice cubes, \\
87: but neither of those things helped anywhere near as much as the Pro-Ice \\
88: wrist ice wraps because the wraps are designed so that the ice has maximum \\
89: coverage of the entire wrist area. Ice cubes are all over the place \\
90: and don't line up to touch the skin enough. Ice packs tended not to \\
91: be cold enough because of the layer of fabric between the ice and the \\
92: skin. The ice wraps are pretty cheap (only about $25 as of 2002-06-05), \\
93: so they're definitely worth it.\\
94: \\
95: <H2>Epilogue</H2>\\
96: I am writing this on 2002-June-05. My wrists have remained more or \\
97: less cured for approximately 2 years now. I still use the computer just \\
98: as much as I always have, yet I only need to use the ice gloves maybe \\
99: once every few months. (I've noticed that my wrists tend to swell up \\
100: when I don't get enough sleep.)\\
101: \\
102: I attribute the remission of my tendonitis completely to the Pro-Ice \\
103: wrist ice wraps and I attribute my continued lack of problems completely \\
104: to my Kinesis Professional keyboard. If I use a standard keyboard it \\
105: definitely aggravates my wrists a little bit. Also, other convex "ergonomic" \\
106: keyboards actually are more aggravating to my wrists than a standard \\
107: keyboard is, so I have absolutely no desire to ever stop using the Kinesis \\
108: Professional keyboard.\\
109: \\
110: My understanding of how tendonitis is caused is as follows: Tendonitis \\
111: is an inflammation of the tendons in the wrist which causes pain. Moving \\
112: the fingers and wrist cause the wrist to be inflamed. Continuing to \\
113: move your fingers and wrist while the wrist is inflamed causes more \\
114: inflammation. The reason why using the ice wraps caused the tendonitis \\
115: to go away is because it reduced the inflammation enough so that when \\
116: I was typing I wasn't aggravating the problem further.\\
117: \\
118: In other words, wrist movement causes inflammation. Wrist movement \\
119: while the wrists are inflamed causes more inflammation which causes \\
120: some sort of aggravation in the wrists which makes it easier for inflammation \\
121: to occur. If you reduce the inflammation then you allow the wrists to \\
122: heal themselves so that you reach a point where wrist movement no longer \\
123: causes inflammation.\\
CuringTendonitis

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