carpal tunnel syndrome,oh NO!!

[Puzz3D]

I got carpal tunnel syndrome. I like to see my .orgah's advice and stories about stuff.

Maybe you've just got tendonitis and it's not yet full blown carpal tunnel syndrome. You have to be careful with this or it can become a chronic carpal tunnel condition necessitating surgery for relief. If it's just tendonitis, it will get better if you rest your wrist, but it could take weeks of rest. This means no computer gaming until it gets better.

If your injury is related to the mouse and playing a lot of MP games, you can do some things that will help prevent injury to your wrist. Get a light weight mouse with easy to push buttons. I use a wired optical mouse. Wireless mice are too heavy to push around. Then even more importantly, get a small table that's just below the height of your elbow when you are seated at the computer and put the mousepad and mouse on that. This means using a chair that doesn't have arms. If your chair has arms, you could get a mousepad that can be mounted on the arm of the chair. Don't use a mousepad with a wrist rest because they tend to cause you to flex your wrist when you move the mouse. You should move the mouse by moving your shoulder and elbow, and keep your wrist straight. You can also increase the mouse sensitivity so that you don't have to physically move the mouse as far.

Good luck, and definitely follow your doctor's advice.

BTW, heat isn't going to help if the problem is pressure on the nerve because heat will just cause more swelling. You should use cold. If it's just strained tendons, heat might help. A wrist brace will help initially, but it alone isn't a solution because your wrist will get weaker the longer you use the brace which will make your wrist more prone to injury.