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Reddit mentions of Conquering Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Other Repetitive Strain Injuries: A Self-Care Program

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We found 12 Reddit mentions of Conquering Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Other Repetitive Strain Injuries: A Self-Care Program. Here are the top ones.

Conquering Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Other Repetitive Strain Injuries: A Self-Care Program
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Found 12 comments on Conquering Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Other Repetitive Strain Injuries: A Self-Care Program:

u/waitsforthenextshoe · 7 pointsr/Thritis

NSAIDs can make it worse, if taken long term. They prevent inflammation, part of which is necessary for healing to occur. When the inflammation is really bad, it gets in the way of healing, but if you just try and shut it down, then you can't recover either. NSAIDs block both parts of the inflammatory process - the inflammatory 'attack' part, and the recovery part, driven by tnf-reg cells. Neither prolonbed NSAID use, nor leaving things as they are is ideal. Shitty, I know.

I'd suggest two three things, which will help, regardless of whether you are dealing with RSI, arthritis, or something else.

Contrast Baths

Set up two long shallow tubs of water in your bathroom, long and wide enough to fit both arms up above the elbow comfortably. Fill one with cold water, the other with warm water. Extreme cold and extreme heat isn't any more useful - just make sure the cold one is cool, and the warm one is warm enough to stay nice and warm for more than the ten minutes you'll be using it.

Set a time for 1 minute and submerge both arms in the warm one, then a minute in the cold one. Do this for 11 minutes, so that you end with the warm one.

Do this 2-3 times a day, and ideally before you are going to use your hands for anything. If you empty out the cold one, and let the other sit until it is cold, then the water won't get stale and have things growing in it.

This does a bunch of good things: increasing circulation, which increases the flow of nutrients and the cells that fix cellular damage. And, the heat also reduces inflammation via shock protein emission, which recruits tnf-reg cells. It also reduces pain.

The other thing

Get this book and do the exercises in it, specific to the pain you are experiencing:

https://www.amazon.com/Conquering-Carpal-Syndrome-Repetitive-Injuries/dp/1572240393

The third thing

Avoid using it if when it hurts. Carefully exercise it (this isn't 'using it normally' - you'll need to figure out how the tendons and muscles are involved - they will be involved regardless of the root cause - and very lightly stretch/strengthen them) when it doesn't. If it hurts afterwards but not during, you need to back off. Immobilization can be as bad as overuse. You may be in so much pain that you need to exercise it a bit regardless - if the pain is never going away, you have to start somewhere. Sorry to be so vague, but I can't be more help without coming over for a visit.

Good luck.

u/FuckCamelWides · 3 pointsr/carpaltunnel

You do not need surgery. Rest easy friend.
I am a few weeks into au naturale treatment of my "severe" carpal tunnel as they called it and I'm feeling so much better.

It was mis-diagnosed as cervical radiculopathy (piched nerve in the neck) for 7 months, physical therapy that exacerbated the problem and everything. Despite that, I'm already feeling great improvement and I am willing to bet you can too. My entire arm was completely numb for months on end. I felt like chopping the damn thing off. No one having any idea what the problem was really bothered me. One EMG test later and voila, carpal tunnel diagnosis.

  1. Anti-inflamatory diet. Look it up. Change how you eat and what you eat. This is huge.
  2. Braces. You're already doing this. Wear them 100% at night and as much as you can during the day. Take them off for stretches obviously and to let your skin breathe, then put em back on.
  3. Anti-inflamatory meds. Ibuprofen800's. Twice a day.
  4. Supplements. Since I dont eat fish (which are a great anti-inflamatory food) I went and got fish oil pills. I also got vitamin b6, b12, and tumeric/curcumin suppliments. I can't say whether they're helping or not because I'm using them in concert with everything else, but I dont think they're hurting. Hell, even a placebo sugar pill would help if someone told you it would.
  5. Stretching. This is key, but it has to be done right. Check out this book, get it shipped to you used. I was suggested it, and its great. Read around online about it, its widely regarded as great advice. https://www.amazon.com/Conquering-Carpal-Syndrome-Repetitive-Injuries/dp/1572240393
  6. Don't listen to the wrist surgeon who says surgery is the only option. When you're a hammer ever problem looks like a nail, ya know?
  7. Check your posture. You're probably sitting at your desk wrong. All your body parts are connected to the others; you'd be amazed at how doing certain things can jack up other parts. For instance, don't sit at the desk typing and use the armwrests for support, putting lots of weight on them. That will jack up your wrists.

    I was scared when my EMG test results came back too. A trusted friend revealed he too had been diagnosed with carpal tunnel, but didn't get surgery. He suggested that book too. It's about a 4-month journey to recovery, but its totally possible. People that go for surgery are going for the quick and easy route. You don't have to.
u/TLSOK · 2 pointsr/RSI

Looks like you are getting lots of good advice. When you are dealing with this problem it does seem very difficult. I remember times when just using a mouse or a keyboard would hurt. And my fingers would tighten up every night. I couldn't even hold a toothbrush in the morning. I was very scared. I bought a lot of books and tried a lot of things. When I got Sharon Butler's book, Conquering Carpal Tunnel Repetitive Strain Injuries, one of the stretches in there gave me immediate relief. I then knew that this was all about tension in the muscles - deep chronic tension. It took awhile to completely recover, but I was no longer scared and I knew that surgery and drugs were not the answer. This is actually a very simple problem to solve.

Basically it is all about stretching, strengthening and bodywork (massage). Sharon Butler's book is all about gentle stretching. Here it is on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1572240393/
you can get used copies pretty cheap. You might also find examples of all kinds of stretches online for hands, wrists, forearms. Just find ways to stretch and keep doing it. Wrist curls have been suggested. So all you need is a light dumbbell for that. Or something like a soup can, or a broomstick, or a broomstick with some weight attached. But what might be most effective is massage. And you can do this to yourself. There are devices to help with this, such as the Armaid or the Rolflex. But you can massage one forearm with your other hand. Just dig in deep. Muscles can become tense over time and this tension can become chronic - no so easy to just relax it. You have to work deeply. It may seem painful - but it is a different kind of "pain" - a release of tension. Same concept as pressure points or trigger points.

Resting is not the answer. You may need to avoid for a while things that cause pain. But just resting will not remove the tension, which is the cause of the condition. Surgery is not the answer. There is nothing wrong with your anatomy that caused this. Drugs will not help, except to temporarily ease pain. And Sarno's TMS concept seems quite wacky to me (although many people have found this helpful).

Another part of this is that muscles can get "glued together". As muscles become chronically tense, they stop moving like they are designed to. All muscles are surrounded by fascia. Fascia can thicken and it can glue to itself. So you can have muscles or tendons that are supposed to slide against each other which have become stuck together. They can become unglued by massage and by stretching and strengthening.

There are many types of RSI of the hand and arm. The principles are the same. Stretch, strengthen, massage.

I put up a web page long ago with some of my story and some resources: http://www.terryslade.com/hands.htm
maybe a bit out of date, but maybe some helpful stuff there.

It might take a while and it might be gradual, but you can totally fix this.Some books, tools, therapists might be useful, but you can do this without spending any money. Once you understand the concepts, it is just a matter of putting in time on self-therapy and being patient.

Also - everything in your body is interconnected. So if you are having hand issues, you can't just focus on your hands. You need to apply stretching, strengthening and massage to your whole body. Upper arms, shoulders, back, chest, abs, legs, etc. It can actually be a lifelong process for most us to keep getting better.

Have faith. You can heal yourself!


u/alfaalex101 · 1 pointr/Guitar

Let me ask you - HOW are you doing your stretches? I learned a new way of stretching where you have to first feel the slightest bit of tension then wait 10-15s for it to go away (if it does go away. If not repeat the day after) then go ahead and start further extending the stretch. A single stretch can take up to 15 minutes like this and way longer (weeks) to full do the stretch but it pays off A LOT. If you just go ahead and do the stretch all the way with lots of tension then you actually make things WORSE which blew my mind. You also have to do multiple types of stretches, every other day so it has to be consistent (that's a big thing, it can take a week or two for me to fully get rid of a flare up. If I just do it every now and then it won't do too much). Another thing you should consider is isometric exercises that will toughen you ligaments and tendons. If you do any heavy weight lifting, you need to rethink that also. Your muscles may be ready for the job but not the rest of the body so switch to body weight exercises and master them before moving on. Another thing that helped A LOT is a lacrosse ball that I roll around on my forearm focusing on tense/semi-painful spots (myofascial release) for 15m. It made a world of difference. I've attached the resources that really helped me out. Things that only helped a but not as much as the above were playing in the classical position and trying to pick NOT parallel to the strings but perpendicular ala Michael Angelo Batio.

https://www.amazon.ca/Conquering-Carpal-Syndrome-Repetitive-Injuries/dp/1572240393/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505499105&sr=1-3&keywords=carpal+tunnel

https://www.amazon.ca/Becoming-Supple-Leopard-2nd-Performance/dp/1628600837/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505499312&sr=8-1&keywords=supple+leopard

https://www.amazon.ca/Convict-Conditioning-Weakness-Using-Survival-Strength-ebook/dp/B004XIZN5M/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505499327&sr=1-1&keywords=convict+conditioning

I'll tell you right now, that not only have I greatly reduced pain from tendonitis (which has been with me since my teens) but also carpal tunnel syndrome, cubital tunnel syndrome but I've also been making measurable gains in high speed soloing. The worst thing you can do is take some NSAIDs and "wait it out". It took a year and a half of waiting with a tonne of desperation that lead me to dedicating my mornings to my overall health. Oh and forget about just guitar man...you'll need to take care of this if you want to be able to even work a desk job.

u/burning-ape · 1 pointr/RSI

So you've had RSI for the last 7 years!? Props to you for keeping going! Typing out that post must have been a painful process. IANA doctor, so take this all with a grain of salt as you should anything on the internet.

First thing is to find out if you've done any serious damage to your wrists. Is it at all possible for you to have a scan or something similar done? That would be a great start.

Rest and gentle stretches seem to be the way for most people, tendons can heal but they heal a lot more slowly than muscles do. There are many things on the internet, but a really good book I bought (one of 3) is It's Not Carpal Tunnel Syndome. It says it's for computer professionals, but it's for anyone really. I also read through this book and it seemed to have some good advice.

But honestly, what got me through was a thing called TMS. It's hard to grasp, that something like RSI (especially as severe as you have it, it seems) can be caused by your mind but it worked for me. It sounds really, really insane, but I was at the point where I was giving up and just thought 'screw it'. There's a pretty recently made program that could be a starting point, but I recovered by reading through this book and putting in to practice some of the exercises he goes through in the final chapters. It genuinely sounds like a shill from the outside, like someone trying to make money off of the suffering of others, but you don't have to spend any money on it.

Good luck with whatever you choose, /u/TexturedMango. There's a facebook group that will give you excellent advice too if you want the link to that.

u/callmejay · 1 pointr/AdvancedFitness

I'm really sorry you're going through that. I spent a few years with some pain myself that I thought was going to be permanent. Hope you get it figured out.

Three things that helped me were physical therapy, mindfulness (both as in meditation and as in mindful REALLY REALLY gentle stretching -- e.g. as in this book) and active-isolated stretching. That was a long time ago and now I'm all about SMR (foam roller, lacrosse ball, etc.) but I just use that for little aches and pains, nothing serious.

I'd really consider trying more therapy too.

u/tonetonitony · 1 pointr/Guitar

If you're serious about stretching I recommend this book, especially if you're feeling RSI symptoms:

https://www.amazon.com/Conquering-Carpal-Syndrome-Repetitive-Injuries/dp/1572240393

The book covers stretches across your full body since tension in other areas can affect your hands and arms. This book has so many stretches to choose from that you can really tailor a warm-up to suit your needs. After you try a bunch, you'll be able to see which stretches are the most helpful. I've narrowed it down to about 10 stretches that I do each night before bed and when I'll be playing for extended hours. Only takes about 5 minutes and I really feel a difference compared to when I slack off and don't do the stretches.

u/snackematician · 1 pointr/emacs

I switched to evil/spacemacs a few years ago when my RSI was worsening to see if it helped. It helped for a short time but then my RSI started coming back. Vim keybindings can also cause RSI.

​

However I don't regret learning evil. I really enjoy modal editing. Also, trying out spacemacs exposed me to lots of cool packages I didn't know about before. Though I'm using my own config these days, whenever I'm trying out a new language I usually check the spacemacs config to see what packages are installed there.

​

Over the years I've tried various things that have been more or less helpful for RSI:

- Conquering carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive stress injuries

- http://www.workrave.org/

- Voice coding (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SkdfdXWYaI, https://github.com/dictation-toolbox/aenea)

- Mind-body prescription (it's a bit wacky, I don't agree with all of it, but I think there's something to it & a lot of people seem to find it helpful)

- Standing desk

- Back massage (https://www.amazon.com/Tiger-Tail-Ball-Roller-Corded/dp/B0078PX01G/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=ball+rope+back+massage&qid=1558366141&s=gateway&sr=8-4)

- Exercise

u/WalterSear · 1 pointr/AskReddit

I have been diagnosed with chronic pain syndrome. I barely register injury on EMG tests (unilaterally, and not correlative with the bilateral pain: it's incidental injury).

I'm afraid I haven't found a 'cure': there isn't one yet. Furthermore, don't be surprised if you >never< meet anyone with your specific set of symptoms, so you will need to tailor your treatment regimen according to how well it is helping you.

Avoid stress as much as possible, try and get your body into peak physical condition otherwise. Contrast baths and trigger point massage are the quickest way to pain relief for me. Make sure you are getting an appropriate amount of good quality sleep. I recently started taking melatonin an hour or so before bed, along with magnesium, calcium and zinc at bed time, and the difference in my energy levels (chronic pain syndrome usually comes with fatigue and concentration issues) is night and day.

The good/bad news: I had this once when I was your age, and managed to get rid of it for 10+ years. Now, I'm facing my second bout, it's much harder this time, it may be my lot in life.

Books you need:

http://www.amazon.com/Conquering-Carpal-Tunnel-Syndrome-Repetitive/dp/1572240393/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

http://www.amazon.com/Trigger-Point-Therapy-Workbook-Self-Treatment/dp/1572243759/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266788199&sr=8-1

That second one, will only be of benefit if you can find a good trigger point massage specialist. If you are near San Francisco I can recomend one. Good luck.

u/MarkCurtiss · 1 pointr/programming

I have a Kinesis keyboard but was still suffering some wrist pain (presumably due to all the gaming/drumming I do outside of coding at work) and found the stretches in this book helped quite a bit:

http://www.amazon.com/Conquering-Carpal-Tunnel-Syndrome-Repetitive/dp/1572240393/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/002-8075426-2858431?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1181978967&sr=8-3

u/vtatai · 1 pointr/Guitar

I was diagnosed with early Tendonitis last year. Went to the doctor, he just prescribed me some anti-inflammatory, and absolute no guitar playing. The no guitar playing for almost a month drove me nuts. I also used (on my own) this book which I believe helped - I still use many of the stretches in there daily.