As I continue down the road of Physical Therapy I’m getting better at managing my injury. Because of my exercises, stretches and a restructuring of my computer setup (including a new keyboard, mouse, touch-pad, office chair & lumbar support), my hand only acts up when I do too much computer work. My Occupational Therapist says that one of the reasons could be that because my hands are much bigger than the mouse, I am using more muscles (than the average person) to control it. And because of my frequent use, I’m essentially overusing my right hand day after day. This overuse leaves certain muscles in my hand more tired than others.

Sometimes holding the newspaper or picking up a coffee cup feels weird. Most of the time this doesn’t affect my guitar playing, but sometimes it does.

—-

I had a rough week last week and I had to cool down my computer activity so that I would be able to play a four-hour gig on Friday. The gig went fine. My hands were fine. It was almost like they were built for playing guitar. Saturday went well, but then today I started working on the computer, and Bam!, within 5 minutes my hand was numb.

I usually get frustrated when my hand gets numb, but this time I was furious. I was tired of managing my pain with withdraw. So I sat up, took note of my posture and then watched my hand as it worked the mouse. My hand was relatively stable. Most of the work was with my index & middle finger. I couldn’t understand why my ring & pinky were going numb. Then, I noticed where I was resting my wrist. I was pivoting my right wrist off the bottom right corner, and if you look at the illustration above, guess what nerve runs down that way? I looked at the bottom part of my hand and for the first time, I noticed a callous on that area. I’ve worked that area so hard that I’ve hardened the skin. What a fool am I.

After some ice packs and a couple of hours to mentally cool down, I am feeling good about my situation. Hopefully this is the last piece of my nervous system breakdown puzzle.

Right now I’m using a cushion to rest my wrist on as I type & use the mouse. I’ve got a PT appointment tomorrow. We’ll see what my OT says….