Carpal Tunnel - It's what your left (or right) hand's not for.

No. The dog didn't eat my blog posts. The doctor did.

Alright. She didn't eat them . But she did tell me not to post any. Apparently blogging was bad for my health. Of course, she said working was bad for my health as well, but I couldn't really stop doing that.

Hmmm. Perhaps I should start again .

Hands up, who has Carpal Tunnel Syndrome? Actually, hands down. Putting them up probably just squashes the median nerve some more. Which, it turns out, is a Bad Thing^TM. And which, it turns out, it appears I may have been doing for a while. So now I get to wear a wrist splint on my hand. And say 'ow' more often that I used to. And - you knew I'd get to the point eventually, right?  - and I bought myself a present. Because that's what I thought I'd talk about, now I've reached the point where I think I can get away with ignoring my poor, long suffering medical advisor and post something. Because I got myself a new toy, and (for me - I'm not saying everyone would react the same) it's amazing. So what the heck am I talking about?

I'm talking about this:

No. It's not a strange alien invader. It's not even an escapee from a Pac Man screen (yes - I'm showing my age again ). So what is it?

It's a mouse.

And it's not just a mouse. It's a vertical mouse. It has buttons, just like an ordinary mouse. It comes in left handed flavours and right. But this mouse? It doesn't make me say 'ow'. When I'm using it, my hand isn't twisted over like it is with an ordinary mouse. And that, or so the long suffering doctor I mentioned above tells me, is what compresses the median nerve. And leads to all the carpal-y things that, trust me, you don't want to be led to.

I'd say where I got it, my new toy, but that might get me into all sorts of trouble for advertising and things. If you want to find it, just do a web search on 'vertical mouse'. But, and here's the real point of this posting, I only came across it by accident. And it made me wonder, all you people who shouldn't be putting your hands up, all my now-fellow carpal-y clobbered types, what you may have come across. What may have helped. Keyboards, stress balls, exercises, beer lifting - actually, not the beer lifting. Diabetes and beer don't go together, or so I'm told . But it made me wonder. Because I'm sure there are lots of you - lots of us - out there. And now I'm an 'us' too.

No - this isn't a plea for help. I'm OK now. It wasn't much fun to begin with, but you learn new habits, new tricks. I just wondered. Because I found my new toy by accident, and I wondered what else people may have found by similar chance. what might have worked for them, because everyone's different, and what works for one might well not work for another. But it might. If we knew about it.

So there you are. The floor is open. Even to people who can put their hands up without saying 'ow'. Because you know what? tomorrow it might hurt. Tomorrow, you might be cast into the Slough of Un-Blogging. With extra 'ow'.