January 25th, 2007
two things
1) My doctor gave me a wrist splint today. I think I will use it at home and when I am working outside of class. It makes typing too slow for class, though. I don’t type accurately enough while taking notes to be able to correct what I’ve typed and keep up with my train of thought with the splint. Also, it makes me look silly. But if it helps my wrist stop hurting, I am all for it when it is appropriate. Which, actually, is not in class, but is when I am spending copious hours on the computer, using my touchpad (yeah, back to the external mouse) and clicking on webpages. I swear, I am usually doing those things while I am doing research, not while I am blogging. My new superhero name? RSI Girl. Her superpower? NOT getting a repetitive stress injury from things like typing and surfing the internet. Rock on.
2) Please don’t tell me about Grey’s Anatomy yet. I haven’t watched it. See, I had class tonight. Then a party thrown by some friends I never see. And tomorrow I have LOTS of work to do. So if you plan to blog about Grey’s Anatomy, use spoiler tags. And if you plan to talk about it, make sure everyone in the room has either seen it or doesn’t watch it.
comments
I had a similar problem my first year: my wrist couldn’t handle all that typing. Like you, I was given a splint. It didn’t work. I eventually solved the problem between my first and second years by converting to the Dvorak keyboard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvorak_Simplified_Keyboard).
It took me about a week of using it exclusively at my summer job before I caught up on my previous typing speed, and before too long I was typing faster than before and pain free to boot. Now I’m a total convert–it’s just easier. The first three or four days were a struggle, though.
Your semester seems particularly busy, so I’m not sure you’ll want to dive into it. It worked wonders for me, though, and wasn’t hard to learn once I got past the first part.
Good luct on finding something that works.
I hope you feel better.