Carpal Tunnel Solutions for a Modern Age

I'm an engineer by trade, writer in my spare time, and type most anything I communicate. I would say I type more than I speak - which is not an uncommon thing in my line of work. In fact, I'd venture to say that in this modern age we are becoming ever more dependent on our fingers and hands to communicate our critical information to the world than our mouths. I abuse my hands daily - type out excessively long emails on my Blackberry; long emails to clients; working on technical documents; working on my fiction projects - it does take its toll.

Between my cortisone injections in my wrist and elbows to keep things functional up until I need surgery, I have the following support mechanisms in place:



1. Dell 2405WFP display: Large LCD display - enough to display a huge amount of information within my field of view. I prefer a single large display over multiple displays - keeps my eyes and posture centered. A dual monitor setup would have me shifting my orientation around, and thus disrupting the ergonomics of the interaction with the computer.

2. A Kensington trackball mouse. This device significantly reduces the amount of wrist movement necessary to interact with the computer. The mouse can be a big contributor to carpal tunnel pain as movement is very often based on moving your wrist to make the major gross movements. The trackball makes the fingers the primary interface method.

3. The most important bit: a proper Ergonomic keyboard. There are a lot of choices out there, but I went with a Kinesis Advantage keyboard. It's a concave design, with the intention to keep the hands and fingers within a specific area - that does not allow much in the way of wrist and finger movement. Less movement equals less injury - in theory. I have to say that the Kinesis is an excellent product; I own two of these - it still does not completely resolve the carpal tunnel issues.

The only real long term fix is surgery, but I'm trying to postpone that as long as I can. There's also a number of other special ergonomic keyboards out there that work well for a number of my coworkers - some split keyboard designs, and the like. Everyone's anatomy and solutions are unique...