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Back at work
Sep. 24th, 2008 11:54 amThe much-delayed chapter on voice strain is still in the pipeline, although it may be a few more weeks yet. It would be sooner if I wasn't so lazy. If anyone is specifically waiting for the voice strain chapter (due to suffering from the same problem themselves), leave a comment and I'll speed up a bit.
I went back to work on the 4th of September. Both my RSI and my voice problems are a lot better than they were a few months ago, although I am far from being cured of either of them. I'm fortunate in that my workplace have allowed me to ease back into work gently. So I can take plenty of breaks and spend some time reading, rather than having to be constantly hammering on the keyboard all day.
I'll go into more detail about this phase of my recovery in a future post, but I'll quickly mention some pieces of hardware and software that have helped me:
I bought the "Evoluent 3" vertical mouse. This is much more ergonomic than a normal mouse, because you don't have to twist your forearm to use it. Also, the buttons require very little force to press.
I use the software "RSIGuard" to remind me to take breaks at regular intervals. This is very important as I usually get so engrossed in tasks that I am incapable of keeping track of time and taking breaks at sensible intervals.
At work, and when using the computer at my mum's house, I got new keyboards to help my symptoms. At work I got a small laptop-style keyboard. For my mum's computer, I got a basic £9.99 Microsoft keyboard. Both of these were an improvement on the keyboards I had been using before, as they require less force to press the keys. I haven't replaced the keyboard on my own home PC as it is already sufficient for my needs.
I went back to work on the 4th of September. Both my RSI and my voice problems are a lot better than they were a few months ago, although I am far from being cured of either of them. I'm fortunate in that my workplace have allowed me to ease back into work gently. So I can take plenty of breaks and spend some time reading, rather than having to be constantly hammering on the keyboard all day.
I'll go into more detail about this phase of my recovery in a future post, but I'll quickly mention some pieces of hardware and software that have helped me:
I bought the "Evoluent 3" vertical mouse. This is much more ergonomic than a normal mouse, because you don't have to twist your forearm to use it. Also, the buttons require very little force to press.
I use the software "RSIGuard" to remind me to take breaks at regular intervals. This is very important as I usually get so engrossed in tasks that I am incapable of keeping track of time and taking breaks at sensible intervals.
At work, and when using the computer at my mum's house, I got new keyboards to help my symptoms. At work I got a small laptop-style keyboard. For my mum's computer, I got a basic £9.99 Microsoft keyboard. Both of these were an improvement on the keyboards I had been using before, as they require less force to press the keys. I haven't replaced the keyboard on my own home PC as it is already sufficient for my needs.
