"Pressures in the canal at the base of the palmincrease dramatically by moving your wrists to theextreme," says Simmons, who is the author of theleading book on work-related injuries in the upperextremities. "You want your wrist neutral orstraight ahead."
Bhan's self-prescribed remedy of a new keyboardincluding a wrist rest, which matches doctors'recommendations, seems to have worked.
"It's made a tremendous difference," Bhan says."The pain is much reduced now. If I'm on thecomputer a lot, say writing a paper after workingon the computer all day. I might start noticing.But it's nowhere near as bad as it used to be."
Many cheap measures are just as effective asthe more elaborate and expensive ones, saysCurtin. Telephone books, for example, can adjustthe height of one's feet for comfort just as wellas commercial foot rests, which can cost as muchas $50.
Injuries sustained during improper keyboard useare not limited to the wrist and hands. Simmonsstresses the importance of not keeping the elbowsflexed much more than 70 degrees in order to avoidundue pressure on nerves in the elbow. This canprevent discomfort from extending up the arm tothe neck and shoulder.
Dr. David S. Rosenthal '95, director of UHS,suggests that students should avoid keeping theirhands in unusual or even the same positions fortoo long. When typing or even reading, studentstend to find a comfortable position, remain it infor an hour or more, and then get up to findthemselves suffering discomfort.
"For typing and reading, good advice is thatevery half hour or 45 minutes, people should getup and change their position," Rosenthal says. "Nomatter what position one is in, one should movesas often as possible."
"The incidence of tendonitis and carpal tunnelsyndrome goes up exponentially for those who workmore than an hour or an hour and a half non-stop."says Skoff. "The most important behaviormodification [for prevention] is to take a breakevery hour of so."
Simmons agrees, recommending the use of"auto-save" features available on many programs tosignal "stop and rest."
Whatever measures students take, flexibility isa key issue. for example, Curtin recommends thatcomputer keyboards and monitors each be placed onindependently adjustable surfaces.
The University is also taking a closer look atthe incidence and prevention of injuries in theworkplace. Formed this January, the UniversityErgonomics Committee is charged with studyingpossible solutions to the problem of suchinjuries, according to Curtin. The committee isco-chaired by Robert E. Wheaton, EHS manager ofgraduate schools and technical services, andSheila M. Sheridan director of facilities andadministrative services at the Kennedy School ofGovernment.
If pain or discomfort does occur,suggests Katz, students shouldtake a break, and take some over-the-counter painmedicine. But Simmons warns that chronicdiscomfort should not be ignored. Repeatedproblems may call for using wrist splints whentyping.
"If you have a long weekend, does your pain goaway?" Simmons tells sufferers to ask themselves."Does it get worse at the week goes on?"
If either of these is the case, the disorder isstill in its early stages, and might be helped byaltering the work environment or by visitingtherapist. "You want to be very wary of ansurgical procedure," Simmons warns.
Therapists may instruct patients or improvedwork environments or utilize ice and heattreatments to reduce the pain. Roach was referredto Brigham and Women's Hospital, which runs aspecial therapy program for musicians who comedown with the disorders. Davis, who wears a bracefor his thumb began physical therapy andultrasound treatment yesterday.
Katz says therapists try to think of theirpatients' upper extremities in the same way thatrunners might think of their lower bodies: "Youwouldn't walk around with a serious ankle painfor a while ."
"When everyone started running, we saw lots ofknee and shin injuries," he says. "That doesn'tmean that running is a dangerous sport. Having areal awareness is the issue."