Back in 2007 my mouse hand became increasingly painful. Even with the most painkillers I could have it was still very painful to use – and at that time I got a wacom bamboo tablet. Lovely piece of kit, totally recommended (except don’t upgrade the drivers. Every time I have it fails to see the usb tablet so I have to reinstall the old one). I have been free of hand pain since then. But my hand pain is returning albeit differently. I think there are 2 distinct causes:
1. First is that I’m not taking enough breaks. This isn’t that I work work work. It’s because if I’m not working I am still moving the tablet pen in the same way while uploading files, reading, followling links etc. So by break I mean get up, walk away from the desk.
2. Is put the pen down. If you are writing and need to type you probably hold the pen through your fingers – you flip it along them. That’s what I do but lots of that plus lots of typing means lots of extra impacts.
So to test and hopefully cure I just need to get up more and put the pen don more. Easy.

The new regime of getting up at 7:30am – I had a lie-in yesterday. Didn’t get up until 8:30am! – means I can build in a couple of deliberate breaks. So that’s looking good too.