Repetitive strain injury/tendonitis

Jenna1406

Jenna1406

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I have been diagnosed with Repetitive strain injury/tendonitis in my wrist, now I am a medical secretary and my main job is audio typing and i am finding it really
hard and very sore. I have a strap on my wrist and a rest that goes in front of my keyboard but I dont think this is helping. Also, I find that the pain is
running up my left arm as well. *sore whilst typing this* :(

Does anyone else have this and how do you manage it??
 
This sort of pain is not always localised to the actual wrist and can be caused by nerve problems further up in the neck/shoulder area. Find yourself a decent physio who knows rsi injuries and get them to look at you properly. Working to free the jammed up areas and gentle nerve stretches (under advisement) can work wonders if that is the problem. If you do have localised inflammation to the wrist then its a matter of reducing the strain and letting it heal, look at your typing position, something as simple as changing chair height can really help but again a good physio and an occupational therapist to assess working position should be able to help. Alternatively just jack in the job and do something different, that's what I did and now have totally different career!

Jenna1406 said:
I have been diagnosed with Repetitive strain injury/tendonitis in my wrist, now I am a medical secretary and my main job is audio typing and i am finding it really
hard and very sore. I have a strap on my wrist and a rest that goes in front of my keyboard but I dont think this is helping. Also, I find that the pain is
running up my left arm as well. *sore whilst typing this* :(

Does anyone else have this and how do you manage it??
Click to expand...
 
I got it from bashing away at work on manual typewriter - the office secretary decided she didnt have enough time to do it. Obviously took up too much of her applying make up time. She was old school, did her required hours and absolutely no more. It got to the point that I couldn't hold a pen and write for more than a couple of minutes so I taught myself to write left-handed and carried on. I had nerve conduction tests and they decided my ulnar nerve was chafing at the elbow so I had surgery to move it a bit and lash it down. It didn't get rid of all the symptoms (I still get them 20 years later) so they looked again and decided I had Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and had my top rib removed but that didn't help all that much either so here I am still writing left handed (although I can manage a bit more with my right hand these days). I still can't do breast-stroke for more than 2 lengths of the swimming pool, my piano playing days are long gone :( and prolonged use of my desk-top mouse really aggravates it.

Take it seriously and keep insisting that you are taken seriously. I hate all the experts who decided that RSI was a fake problem only to be found in weak-willed, pathetic individuals. One doctor said to me "if I was you, I would just live with it" I told him that was easy for him to say because he didn't have to.
 
lara b said:
This sort of pain is not always localised to the actual wrist and can be caused by nerve problems further up in the neck/shoulder area. Find yourself a decent physio who knows rsi injuries and get them to look at you properly. Working to free the jammed up areas and gentle nerve stretches (under advisement) can work wonders if that is the problem. If you do have localised inflammation to the wrist then its a matter of reducing the strain and letting it heal, look at your typing position, something as simple as changing chair height can really help but again a good physio and an occupational therapist to assess working position should be able to help. Alternatively just jack in the job and do something different, that's what I did and now have totally different career!
Click to expand...

I have done a self referral to the physio at work (I work in the hospital) - so will hopefully hear about that soon. I cant weight bare on my wrist, and my arm gets really sore when typing. I dont tend to get any swelling which is the strange thing, someone mentioned carpol tunnel OMG! Will wait and see what the physio says

fatpiggy said:
I got it from bashing away at work on manual typewriter - the office secretary decided she didnt have enough time to do it. Obviously took up too much of her applying make up time. She was old school, did her required hours and absolutely no more. It got to the point that I couldn't hold a pen and write for more than a couple of minutes so I taught myself to write left-handed and carried on. I had nerve conduction tests and they decided my ulnar nerve was chafing at the elbow so I had surgery to move it a bit and lash it down. It didn't get rid of all the symptoms (I still get them 20 years later) so they looked again and decided I had Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and had my top rib removed but that didn't help all that much either so here I am still writing left handed (although I can manage a bit more with my right hand these days). I still can't do breast-stroke for more than 2 lengths of the swimming pool, my piano playing days are long gone :( and prolonged use of my desk-top mouse really aggravates it.

Take it seriously and keep insisting that you are taken seriously. I hate all the experts who decided that RSI was a fake problem only to be found in weak-willed, pathetic individuals. One doctor said to me "if I was you, I would just live with it" I told him that was easy for him to say because he didn't have to.
Click to expand...


Yes, the GP that I seen when I went in with it was just like pain killers and rest. Now that is all very well when I type everyday etc. She didnt seem to care that much that it was affecting my work. We move large notes about and my grip is sometimes tested.

Thanks for your replies
 
I used to work in a very pressured environment for the constabulary and it got to the stage where I couldn't hold a cup of coffee without being in agony.

Eventually I was medically retired; and re-trained as a dance & movement facilitator as I'd found this useful in my recovery.

Its important that you keep your occupational health dept aware and fully appraised of your medical situation; you might need their support in the future if you ever had to either medically retire or re-deploy or re-train or whatever.

You may find some gentle exercises like Pilates helps too....... but make sure your instructor is properly qualified to at least REP Level 2 or above (ideally a Level 3 for remedial purposes). Swimming or aqua-aerobics is good too. So is Alexander Technique if you can find a teacher anywhere.

Be careful if you get recommended for various "op's" like Carpal Tunnel, Thoracic Outlet etc. Always ask for a second opinion and don't be bullied into having anything done to YOUR body that you're not happy with. Ultimately, rest and gentle stretching is the only thing that will do any lasting good, not chopping your body around. Pain is there to warn you, to tell you you're not doing the right thing, and needs to be heeded.

Hate to say this, but you MIGHT need to think about a career change. Its frightening and unsettling when you're not able to do your job anymore because of pain, but sometimes having to make a career change can come as a blessing in disguise. It might be an idea if you were to (confidentially) look into other careers which might suit you and have a think about what you might like to do.

Also........ IF your RSI has been caused by your employment, you might be eligible for compensation. So it might be worth having a word with a personal injury solicitor (if you're not a member of a trade union). Also, it wouldn't hurt to look into what benefits might be available to you if you are no longer able to work (Cits Advice or Benefits Agency),

Hope all goes well for you. Its awful being at the stage where you are at, I feel for you.
 
I've had trouble like this in the past - I was diagnosed with Dequevain's Tenosynovitis. 5 months of physio and ultrasound together with wearing splints at night and a steroid injection sorted me out. I still get trouble occasionally and have to be very careful to take my breaks when I have a lot of typing to do, but it is possible to get better. I did have quite a long period as well where I wasn't even allowed near a keyboard and was actually signed off work to make sure I wasn't tempted. The consultant that I saw (a rheumatologist) also put a ban on me lifting files from cabinets and anything that meant I had to pinch with my thumb as it would strain the injured tendon and I needed to give it a chance to heal which it wasn't getting at the time (filing was the job they gave me instead of typing - what a mistake to make!). I now have one of those bendy ergonomic keyboards, which helps enormously so I'd thoroughly recommend one if you do decide to keep on with your secretarial career.

Hang on in there OP and make sure you chase up every avenue for treatment open to you. Big hugs and hope that you start to get better really soon.
 
Thanks for your replies.

I went to the physio yesterday and it now looks as though there is more going on than tendonitis. The physio (who happens to be my horses physio as well) said that there is some issues with the nerve in my arm and I have very tight muscles in my arm and also some muscle wastage from probably compenstating.

So now I have 2 weeks of trying to loosen of my muscles before we start anything else, if the pain persists, then she has mentioned a short course of amytriptyline for the nerve pain EEK!

So better get on with my stretches :D
 
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