Mouse-induced tendinitis (was Interleaf and CTS)

[Eric Brown <eric_brown -at- SFU -dot- CA>]

David Meek said:

>I've never suffered from CTS, nor do my wrist and hand hurt from
>mousing, but I have noticed my shoulder (specifically my
>deltoids) hurts after prolonged mousing.  Is anyone else
>experiencing this problem?

I've had mouse-induced tendinitis for years -- the pain is felt in the
upper right arm, but the actual location of damage is the shoulder joint.
Massage helps, but the only real solution is exercise. The tendon becomes
pinched in the shoulder joint because my muscle tone is poor (I'm a skinny,
lazy desk-jockey); whenever I exercise the joint I experience a few days of
pain followed by complete relief, as the improved muscle tone pulls the
muscle and tendon mass out of the joint area and away from irritation.

This solution was offered by the third specialist I visited, a
sports-medicine doc with lots of experience and a dislike of pills. He also
advised to purchase those hinged arm-rest thingies that someone else
mentioned. They looked a bit too medieval for me.

I used Interleaf for years. At the moment I use a Mac 80% of the time, a PC
the rest, and Word principally on both platforms. The trackball on the
Powerbook is OK, but mousing is so much faster that I usually end up back
in the same ol' rut.

I began using the Mac in '83 or so, while doing a project for Apple, long
before they were released on the market, so I've been a mouse user for more
than a dozen years. My problems began four years ago. I expect we'll be
hearing much more about mouse-induced RSI in the years to come.

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Eric Brown
Marketing Communications
869 Drayton Street
North Vancouver BC V7L 2C2
(604) 980-6947 fax 980-6933
eric_brown -at- sfu -dot- ca
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