Thursday, December 11, 2008

My arm hurts

Went to see the campus nurse the other day. I have been having intermittent (both in occurrence and in severity) pain in my right arm. I discovered that it is likely not the dreaded carpal tunnel syndrome, since the pain is down the ulnar nerve and not the medial nerve where that particular problem usually surfaces. However, it probably is related to my posture while typing on the computer, an activity I do often as a teacher and writer. It has resulted in the immediate term in a general absence of lecture notes from class or, if I bring them, they are material from old classes or very sketchy, more-outline-than-text PowerPoint presentations. But for the longer term something needs to be done, and quickly. I have gotten recommendations for devices that will help angle the laptop when I'm in my office, or the external keyboard when I am at home, that should help to lessen this. Like I say, it's not serious at this point, and my belief that it's not serious is evidenced by the fact that I'm talking about it on a blog post. But it is something to pray about. I'm going on Saturday to one of the larger malls in the area, at whose computer store I should be able to find a lightweight, rubber laptop stand like the one used by a friend of mine. Stay tuned and stay praying...

1 comment:

Rob L. Staples said...

Your arm pain may be caused by using a mouse with your right hand--if you use an external mouse. It happened to me once and my doctor said that was the cause. I changed my posture and it helped.