Romantic Robot » wacom

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Mark — Tue, 03 May 2011 15:23:20 +0000

I’ve had rsi for a while now and I know what makes it worse – not wearing a splint at night, working fast and not talking proper time away from the computer. The wacom tablet helps but not as much as it did and that is because it moved the problem.
The main original pain was shooting pains in the wrist/arm, swollen and super-sensitive finger pads and initially the tablet worked well. It was a new set of muscles and the work was moved away from the mouse finger. I did use a full mac keyboard – the one with the number pad on the right. That meant the wacom sat quite a way right so I would twist from the elbow – result was less wrist pain but more forearm and upper arm pain. So I got the little mac kb and the wacom sits closer – but it’s still a twist in the arm. Of course it doesn’t have to be but making major muscle movements when smaller ones are ingrained is hard work. I’ve tried the tablet sitting just before the kb but my arms need to stretch just that little bit too far. Instead of my elbow angle being close to 90° it’s close to 120° and that can’t be good. It does make me sit up straighter though. But using my right hand has to stop or at least be massively reduced. The main focus of the pain now is the upper arm, forearm, the hand and main knuckle area but a new splint is helping there. The pain in the arm is losing me sleep too. Not good. Painkillers are not an option. They do work very well but then you just keep on damaging that which is already damaged. So I’ve stuck the wacom tablet on the left.
This of course solves just the immediate pain – I moved it yesterday and pain has reduced. But I now need to work out how to hold the pen, change my posture, not just twist my arm to use the pen. That’s quite a lot of work. And learn more shortcuts. The hardest part of this so far – and which I know will irritate – is doing things so much slower. I don’t like slow.

Painful fingers

Mark — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 22:11:47 +0000

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.

Vertical bamboo?

Mark — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 23:25:29 +0000

All the sleep weirdness has finally caught up – I feel really ill. Felt roughish for the day but in the last few hours it’s got a whole heap worse.

I think I have found the OS X program I have been looking for. It could just be perfect but I’m doing the full demo experience first. I will be really happy if it pays off.

And I can’t get the Bamboo tablet to work with a vertical monitor which is a bit of a downer. I’ve edited the prefs files but no joy. I’m waiting on an email / forum answer at wacom but from searching around my hopes are low. Still, at least I have no hand pain.