I use to be somewhat athletic when I was a kid. I danced, played basketball, ran track. I wasn’t exceptional at any of those, but I was pretty active for a bookworm. When you’re doing physical activities you expect to occasionally deal with injuries. In my dancing days I dealt with twisted and sprained ankles, I had a nasty hamstring injury once that lasted through track season, and there were the regular aches and pains that came came from doing sports. Those were all expected. What I didn’t expect was having to deal with physical problems from writing.

Apparently sitting all day at the computer brings its own risks of physical injury.

Over the last several months I’ve dealt with wrist and thumb issues. All in my right hand (I’m left-handed, btw). I was able to pin down my wrist issues to the mouse I had started using way too much. I cut down on using it and wore a wrist brace for awhile, which did wonders showing me how much I was actually straining my wrist, and I altered my hand posture accordingly.

Things went along just peachy for awhile. Occasionally my right thumb would twitch if I typed for too long without taking a break, but nothing major. My right thumb is the one I use to press the space bar and apparently I can learn advanced calculus, but not how to type with my left thumb hitting the space bar.

Then I began to get an ache deep in my hand. It’s buried in that big meaty part of the hand below the thumb. Weeks go by and this ache, while not constant, becomes a familiar thing. It felt like an achy muscle, and what’s good for achy muscles? Massage. My husband, like the nice guy he is, offers to massage it for me. He’s the type that likes to give back massages that hurt like hell but then make those achy muscles feel so much better. (Whether they only seem to feel better because he’s no longer rubbing them is up for debate.) So he begins to do a commercial strength deep tissue massage on my thumb.

Colossal, ginormous, I-can’t-believe-I’m-that-stupid mistake.

After this well intentioned massage, my hand is now constantly in pain. Come to find out, I’m not a medical a professional and I know jack shit about anything. I have the beginnings of tendonitis. Despite aggravating the crap out of it, it has not become severe. Turns out I just need to wear a brace when I sleep and while I’m not working for several weeks. It was emphasized to me that wearing it while typing will not speed up healing, all it will do is cause straining in my other fingers. Man did that make me feel transparent, because that was exactly what I was going to try.

Moral of this tale? Writing is a dangerous thing and should only be done by professionals, or people not stupid enough to ignore constant pain and then press on the source of pain in a misguided attempt to relieve it. Seriously, pay attention to discomfort as you type and take action early, don’t let it turn into something big.

So how do you cut down on typing related injuries? Sorry, writing less is not an option. Right now I’m just trying to be smarter. That means paying attention to my hands and taking breaks when necessary, slapping a brace on at the first sign of pain instead of waiting until the pain is a distraction, and being more conscious of posture while I type. But what are some of your tips? Let me know!