Same here, and adoration aside, I've gone from, "Goddamn it, I think I need surgery," to, "I have no pain at all" in a few years. Stretches, and a new keyboard.
After less than a decade of programming around 8-10 hours every day, I could barely use my hands anymore. My forarms and shoulders were like marbles. I even stopped playing musical instruments because moving my finders was torture. Vim and split keybord (Dygma Raise) was my solution. I could feel the difference right away now, almost a year later, I don’t feel any pain at all. I feel lucky because I know people who have had to have surgery.
Came to say this, happy that someone else did. It changed my life. I now have a graveyard of weird ergonomic devices and wrist arm braces, and can happily code all day on my laptop keyboard in any position. A few years ago I couldn’t write 2 lines without excruciating pain.
I was in that same position about a year ago. On a whim, I decided I'd try one of those split keyboards and it helped enormously. I hated it for about a week (typos), but then I adjusted and the pain is gone.
Well, I am anecdata in that I was diagnosed with cubital tunnel, recommended surgery and 99% cured it with extreme ergonomics.
I was working on a large library with a verbose coding style and a clear plan. It was a year long sprint typing more than ever before. Started feeling pain down the side of my forearm and random needle stabs in my hand. Doc said I required surgery.
Instead I took a many-pronged approach to ergonomics:
1. 2 keyboards and 2 mice. Switched to a Microsoft ergonomic on my desk and a flat keyboard on my lap. A mouse on the desk and another on the other side on a pedestal by my chair. Switched between them all frequently.
3. Held my wrists straight and fingers completely loose when typing. Imagine the classic zombie pose with their arms straight out and hands loose. That was me. Moved my whole arms to type rather than move my wrist or fingers at all. Same with the mice.
4. Stopped wearing any rings or a wristwatch.
Took months of this for the pain to go away. And, had to continue it through the project. But, since then I’ve never needed to type nearly that much and the random pain never came back. If I get on another typing bender I can feel a reminder that my hands don’t like it. And, if I ignored that I’d probably get right back into trouble. But, for the past couple decades I’ve been staring at code for 100x more time than I spend actually typing.
I was diagnosed with cubital tunnel (tennis elbow) after a multi-month stretch of intense coding. I became seriously concerned when I started feeling needle stabs in my hands at random points in the day. Doctor told me I needed surgery. I managed to dodge that, but it wasn't simple. I had to commit to paying attention to my hands 24/7 for months. Once I made up my mind, it wasn't really hard, just continuously inconvenient.
Here's what it involved:
Self-massage and stretching before, during after typing and throughout the day. Mostly improvised, but this video "Essential Hand Stretches For Guitarists" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSrfB7JIzxY helped a lot.
One keyboard on my desk, another on my lap. One mouse on my desk, another below the desk on a pedestal on my left-hand side. Constantly switched between them to cut down on repetition.
Hunt-and-peck typing with my fingers hanging loose as if my hands were paralyzed. Similar minimal-contact, minimal wrist-effort use of the mouse.
Don't let my forearm rest on anything ever.
Stopped wearing rings or my watch.
Lots of breaks. Lots of getting up and walking around.
It has been 10 years and my hands still don't like typing a whole lot. But, I never typed nearly as much as I did that one year. I haven't had any significant problems since that recovery.
Anecdote: I had serious wrist/hand pain after using a mechanical keyboard for years. I changed to a low profile keyboard, and I don't have pain anymore. Who knows, maybe it was coincidence.
honestly kind of. I have (multiple) varied layout keyboards as swapping between them changes finger/arm/wrist levels. My finger/wrist pain (almost) went away when I started moving to a different layout every few weeks. I was worried about needing surgery before 30; now since splurging on (many) keebs my hands feel in a better shape than a decade ago.
Nerve damage is serious business kids! If you feel it coming on, you need to pay attention and take action. Don't wait until you start randomly feeling needle stabs all day like I did while in the middle of a year long, high pressure, large code volume project. Doc told me to get surgery. I cured it myself the hard way instead. Huge inconvenience for many months. Very happy with that decision today. Here's what worked for me:
* Two keyboards and two mice. One set on my desk. The other keyboard on my lap and the other mouse on a pedestal at my side. I would switch up which keyboard/mouse I was using every 10 minutes or so.
* Typing like I couldn't move my hands. Literally letting them hang limp and moving my arms a lot.
* Pay attention. Take breaks. Notice what feels bad. Notice when you need to change up what you are doing --probably many times an hour. Take off your watch/rings. Watch out for resting your forearm/wrist on anything.
My anecdote is I switched to a vertical mouse[1] and a split keyboard[2] and it solved it for me. I went from constant dull throbbing pain and fear of career death to not even thinking about it anymore. Yay!
Similar story. I had a year where I was so productive that I typed my way into cubital tunnel syndrome. Felt like getting stabbed by needles at random points in the day. Doc said I needed surgery. Instead I changed my routine dramatically for a few months.
2. When typing, hold my hands out limp like a zombie and move my whole arms and torso to hit the keys with limp middle fingers.
3. 2 keyboards. 2 mice. One set in the normal placement. Another keyboard in my lap. Another mouse on a pedestal to the left of my chair. Switch which device I'm using every few minutes.
In a few months the pain was gone and hasn't come back. I still get a bit tingly a decade later if I type a lot. But, besides that one year, I've always spent way more time reading code and thinking about code than actually typing code.
I feel like I've conquered mine. I can primarily thank the Kinesis Advantage2 keyboard, it's basically the only reason I can type now. I have no pain using it, and I honestly get a shooting pain every time I switch over to my laptop's keyboard.
One more thing is getting up and walking around for 5 minutes every 30min. We basically sit ourselves into these problems, and getting up is a helpful solution. I even knock out a bunch of 5-minute chores in a day thanks to this.
Finally, find some 10min yoga sessions to do in the morning. Do 'em a few times a week. They'll stretch your hands out in ways you wouldn't expect.
Oh, and smartphones suck to hold, find the tiniest one possible. iPhone SE is killer for this
Never is a strong word- mine went away. I had debilitating carpal tunnel RSI, and with the right ergonomics (*) it went away completely in a few months, and no sign of it for the couple of decades since, still using a keyboard for most of my waking hours.
I’d say time spent typing is much less of a factor than how that typing is done.
(*) The first big fix for me was switching from a desk to laptop on a couch where I could change positions every few minutes. The short travel and light weight of laptop keys also helped. I switched back to a desk more recently, but I kept the low-profile light keys, and the general awareness of postural stress.
Thanks for the comments. It’s good to hear I’m not the only one who’s suffered this. I ended up writing most of that blog post on my phone as it’s actually more comfortable to type on at the moment than my keyboard.
I’m getting better though. I think I’m 4 weeks in now. I have better mobility and can type two handed for short periods. I’m not looking forward to the potential future complications though. Arthritis is not something I want so I’ll discuss with the doctor at my follow up in a couple of weeks.
I've found that changing keyboards between a flat mechanical and a Microsoft wave keyboard every 6 months keeps the pain away. Don't need anything fancy, just gotta change the exact factors of the repetitive motion.
I'm 23 and have been using computers very heavily for the last 10 or so years - probably an average of 6 hours a day. During a particularly intensive day of typing last week I started getting pain in my right hand. I had to resort to hunt-and-peck index finger typing to get the feature I was working on finished.
I'm horrified, it feels like I'm way too early in my career for something like this to happen, but I guess that's what happens when you do something so repetitive for tens of thousands of hours.
What in particular have you found success with that helps? I'm kinda in denial right now, it's already gotten better over Saturday but I know I shouldn't be ignoring it.
Well worth it for me.
reply