How I Cured My Tendonitis (not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, but it feels
similar)

Starting in 1997 I started feeling pain in my wrists when I used the
computer for long periods of time. Over time it happened more and more
frequently so that my wrists often hurt even when I wasn't using the
computer at all.

Like many people with wrist pain I thought I had Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
However, at one point (I think it was 1999) I went to a doctor to get
a test which measured nerve damage in my wrists and it turns out there
wasn't any nerve damage. That was good news because that meant that
what I had was Tendonitis. Tendonitis, over a period of time, can cause
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (by damaging the nerves in the wrists), but at
least at that point in time there wasn't any nerve damage. Even so,
my wrists still hurt a lot whenever I typed. This really worried me
because I'm a computer programmer, so being able to type is critical
to my ability to continue to work.

What is Tendonitis

Tendonitis (in the wrist) is a swelling of the tendons in the wrist
which puts pressure on the nerves in the wrist. This makes you feel
pain in your wrist as well as your fingers. Despite the pain in the
fingers there's nothing actually wrong with the fingers. The pain originates
entirely from the pressure on the nerves in the wrist.

Stretching

After about 6 months of this I went to a doctor and she gave me some
wrist exercises to do. Those stretches helped. In particular, there's
a stretch where I extend one arm out straight and then pull back on
that hand (with the palm facing outward) using my other hand and hold
it there for about 15 seconds. I then repeat on that hand and pull back
with the palm facing inwards. I would then repeat that for the other
hand. There were other stretches, but I eventually stopped doing them
because that stretch was the only one that actually helped me.

Doing those stretches allowed me to continue using the computer, but
I'd have to do them every 20 minutes and they would only give me temporary
relief.. Furthermore, they were only a temporary fix. Over time my wrists
continued to worsen.

The Kinesis Keyboard

I'm a programmer and I was really worried that I might eventually not
be able to use the computer at all. In 1999 I bought a Kinesis
keyboard and that helped a lot! It didn't cure it, but it stopped
aggravating the problem and I was able to type for longer periods of
time without the pain increasing to the point where it hurt enough that
I needed to stop typing.

In particular, the Kinesis Professional is the keyboard that I now
swear by. I would NEVER go back to a standard keyboard. I bought one
for work and one for home. Before I used the Kinesis Professional I
tried other "ergonomic" keyboards, but most were designed
in such a way that, in my opinion, they actually aggravated the problem
because they were convex and forced me to twist my wrists outward. The
key is that the Kinesis Professional has a concave design which allows
my wrists to sit in one position and reach all the keys without having
to twist my wrist to reach keys like the enter or backspace key. The
enter, backspace, and spacebar keys are underneath my thumbs which makes
them much easier to press than on a standard keyboard. My wrists don't
have to twist in order to reach for keys and twisting the wrist is what
aggravates tendonitis the most.

The Pro-Ice wrist ice wraps

However, it's really the Pro-Ice
wrist ice wraps that really more or less cured my tendonitis. In 2000
I bought four Pro-Ice wrist ice wraps. I kept 2 of them in my freezer
at home and 2 of them in the freezer at work. Whenever I felt my wrists
swelling up, but before I actually started to feel pain, I would stop
using the keyboard and put on those wrist wraps. I would then put my
wrists (while in the wraps of course) on my legs and lean over to force
the ice in the wraps to be in contact with my skin as much as possible.
After about 20 seconds it really starts to hurt (because of the cold),
but I would force myself to stay like that for at least 60 seconds.
I would then take both of the wraps off my wrists.

At that point I would be able to type for a while without feeling any
pain (usually about an hour or so). When my wrists started to feel swelled
up again then I would put on the wrist wraps for 60 more seconds. It
was kind of annoying to have to do this, but after a while it became
somewhat routine.

Here's the wonderful part. After doing this for about 3 months, the
need to use the ice wraps actually became less frequent. Another 3 months
after that and I was really more or less cured!

Note that yes, I tried just using an ice pack or a bag of ice cubes,
but neither of those things helped anywhere near as much as the Pro-Ice
wrist ice wraps because the wraps are designed so that the ice has maximum
coverage of the entire wrist area. Ice cubes are all over the place
and don't line up to touch the skin enough. Ice packs tended not to
be cold enough because of the layer of fabric between the ice and the
skin. The ice wraps are pretty cheap (only about $25 as of 2002-06-05),
so they're definitely worth it.

Epilogue

I am writing this on 2002-June-05. My wrists have remained more or
less cured for approximately 2 years now. I still use the computer just
as much as I always have, yet I only need to use the ice gloves maybe
once every few months. (I've noticed that my wrists tend to swell up
when I don't get enough sleep.)

I attribute the remission of my tendonitis completely to the Pro-Ice
wrist ice wraps and I attribute my continued lack of problems completely
to my Kinesis Professional keyboard. If I use a standard keyboard it
definitely aggravates my wrists a little bit. Also, other convex "ergonomic"
keyboards actually are more aggravating to my wrists than a standard
keyboard is, so I have absolutely no desire to ever stop using the Kinesis
Professional keyboard.

My understanding of how tendonitis is caused is as follows: Tendonitis
is an inflammation of the tendons in the wrist which causes pain. Moving
the fingers and wrist cause the wrist to be inflamed. Continuing to
move your fingers and wrist while the wrist is inflamed causes more
inflammation. The reason why using the ice wraps caused the tendonitis
to go away is because it reduced the inflammation enough so that when
I was typing I wasn't aggravating the problem further.

In other words, wrist movement causes inflammation. Wrist movement
while the wrists are inflamed causes more inflammation which causes
some sort of aggravation in the wrists which makes it easier for inflammation
to occur. If you reduce the inflammation then you allow the wrists to
heal themselves so that you reach a point where wrist movement no longer
causes inflammation.