Ah, here's a problem I know what's it like to live with! I have chronic tendinitis in both elbows from computer work, and when it first hit me, it was so bad that I had to stop working for several months until we got it cleared up. It will however, always be a problem for me. That's the worst thing with repetitive strain, it almost never goes away completely, you have to learn how to manage it and not get complacent and think you are "cured". It also has a nasty habit of migrating from one place to another...my elbows are fine at the moment, but I am having lots of back and neck problems. I use elbow supports that you can get from ergonomic supply stores, looks almost like robotic arms attached to my desk, but nothing has helped me quite so much.
One of the best things you can do is take regular breaks...get up and walk every hour and STRETCH your arms and legs. Move your head side to side, get everything moving and learn which muscles in particular get tight and try to keep them loose. Get a GOOD chair with good back support, try not to slouch. Some other things I used...I did use the voice recognition software for awhile. I used it mainly as a help to reduce the amount of typing I did and particularly in my case, the mouse work. Real helpful if I had lots of cut and paste to do (all those cntl-C and cntl-P's can wreck havok on your fingers!) It takes a little getting used to and definitely would slow me down some, but certainly helped me get through the bad periods. I also had a little ergonomic freeware program that would pop-up and remind me to get up and stretch. Annoying but effective. I also used the gyromouse. You can use this mouse off the desk, just would hold it in my lap and move it around in the air without putting so much strain on my elbows. Again, not as accurate or easy to use as a regular mouse, but worked great for web browsing or other simple mouse tasks. It would work on the desk like a regular mouse if I needed more pinpoint accuracy. My problems were more related to mousework than keyboarding, so this helped me a lot. ---------------------------- Mary Jo Sminkey Author, CFWebstore Cold Fusion E-Commerce [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.cfwebstore.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=4 FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
