could be carpal tunnel. an aspirin or tylenol (or any other anti-inflammatory) before a long day of cadding can do the trick.

stretches are good, but not too much that you might consider 'exercise'. what's happened is that the nerves are swollen. additional movement can add to the swelling. occasional breaks are better.

you can try the cushioned wrist pads, etc, but i've never had much luck with them.

I use a trackball w/ a built in wrist pad. Left handed at home for Vectorworks, right handed at work for AutoCad.

I didn't check your links, but martial arts people can usually show you some good stretches for hands and wrists. I learned some when I was laying adobes.

I usually have my forearm propped up with a small book so that my wrist is never actually on surface of my desk and just hangs slightly off the edge of the book. Works pretty well for me as I never really liked the gel pads.

my masseuse gave me a great trick that i always forget to use: prop a 1" book under your mousepad. alternate days, with and without the book. keeps the height varying so your posture is slightly different. sounds silly but really does make a difference.

also, of course, remember to take breaks, stretch, and drink lots of water [last one for overall health]

i use the Belkin ergoPAD at home, it helps a lot, i have a regular pad in the office and i feel i get the pain there the most, i agree with the occational breaks, i see no other way.

this should be something for all to watch out for, doctors say it only gets worse if propper care is not taken, the swelling later can be irreversible i hear.

i've had over-use trouble attimes. take a break until pain goes (gone for a week or two). then, this seemed to work for me: try to strengthen muscles.

i think standard ergo advice is to keep wrists relaxed and straight.

if it's becoming worse, you HAVE to change your activities.

Got any health plan at work?

be careful of occupational specialists. some of them are quacks like old-time army docs. "the cannon fodder is cured, send him back"

yeah, skip the occupational specialists. i went to a sports medicine doctor. they didn't seem to care that my pain had nothing to do with sports. and they're very aware of both the physical therapies and the meds that will help. usually covered by insurance with no prob.

meanwhile, mousing has hurt my sketching skills and handwriting...

how is that so ? strawbeary

tendonitis has my hand jerky and unsmooth

those are some good pointers - can anyone recommend a favorite ergonomic mouse (besides tracking ball - not not big on those)

strawbeary, hope your hand gets better - -

microsoft intellimouse optic pro works for me

I was diagnosed as full fledged carpel tunnel a couple of years ago. It took years to actually become disabling, but once it started, there was little relief as long as I was using a keyboard. Physical therapy did not help. Here’s what made all the problems go away within a month: First, I bought and use daily Flextend gloves - http://www.stretchnow.com.au/products/flextend.htm or http://www.repetitive-strain.com/index.html ; Second, I bought a Kinesis Professional contoured keyboard - http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/ . I reprogrammed some of the keys so I never have to use my thumbs at all. The embedded numbers keypad is activated with a footswitch. I have the keyboard under my desk on a sliding tray – basically practically sitting on my knees. This has an added bonus of freeing up desk space – I can spread out a plan right in front of me and reach under it for typing and mousing. The beauty of the contoured key layout means my fingers never get off keys the way they used to with a regular keyboard when switching between mouse and keyboad… But the best part of a programmable keyboard is one key stroke Autocad osnaps and many other functions; Third, I bought a programmable Kensington Expert mouse and put it on the left side to free up my writing hand – yes, it’s a trackball, but once you get used it, you’ll never want to go back to a mouse http://www.kensington.com/html/1121.html . CAD is very mouse intensive, which requires excessive griping – with a trackball, you use the light touch of your fingertips, and your hand and fingers are very dynamic, so there isn’t the fatigue of statically holding the mouse. The back part of my palm rests on a gel-pad raised slightly above the track ball and there is never any pressure on my wrists; Lastly, I bought an Infogrip mouse that sits fixed on the right side of my keyboard velcroed to the keyboard tray for right hand mouse clicks - http://www.infogrip.com/ . But I really do mouse clicks with my left foot with a foot switch plugged into the Infogrip mouse. Radio Shack makes a great inexpensive foot switch. Velcro keeps everything, including the keyboard, in place. A hook carpet on the floor grabs the Velcro on the bottom of the footswitch and makes it easy to adjust their positions. I basically have three places to do mouseclicks from.

I keep a regular keyboard and mouse plugged in and handy, so coworkers and TI can use my computer when needed.

Any one of these tools would relieve a lot of your symptoms. I can intensively draft and type for 18 hours straight with no fatigue. Of course, I often still have to use a regular keyboard and mouse, but, fortunately, I’ve haven’t had to use a regular keyboard for more than a couple of days at a time since I started using the Kinesis, and I’m always surprised how fatiguing they are – you start to feel fatigue within a half and hour. All the above items are not cheap, but they are a lot less expensive than physical therapy or being unable to work.

Hope this helps.

use your foot.

i get a lot of them from playing the piano. try to relax your hand.

things i blame this profession for:
tendinitus
back and neck problems
headaches
and the big one-hemoragged(sp?)optic nerve.
many more problems with hand drawing than computer.

beenthere, if you keep your posts shorter, you may also limit the damage :) all that excessive typing, you know

hey this is a great thread... i've been experience pain in my wrists and forearm lately... I hope some of these solutions can work out.

cant type pain...

I am beyond lucky that I haven't had problems. I usually sit slouched in the chair for hours upon hours every day, no breaks, no special mouse, wrist sitting on the stupid sharp edge of my laminate desk. Though sometimes I lose sensation in my right arm for a day due to leaning on the arm rest too long. It took me a while to figure that one out--for a while I was paranoid that I might have MS or brain cancer.

But I've been doing this since I was like 13...maybe my body has adapted to years of abuse? "Your wrist hurts? That means you're not using it enough." Heh, I guess that's probably very BAD advice.

God is going to strike me down now, isn't he.

aml's suggestion of a book under the mousepad on alternate days truly works.

you can always drink at work..seems to take away the pain

try a better mouse....... ihave a large hand (due to pimpin'...haha) so most of the available mice/mouses dont really work for me......i have an intellimouse 4.0 explorer and so far so good.... has 5 buttons and i can easily cruise through cad....

b

I started getting wrist pain from CAD almost 10 years ago. It's been diagnosed as tendonitis - not carpal tunnel - and I gather that tendonitis is more likely if the issue is repeated mouse clicking, carpal tunnel is more likely if the issue is keyboard use. Back then I had a splint, some cortisone shots, and a note from my doctor to stop using CAD for 2 to 3 weeks (so my firm had me do 3 weeks of specifications editing for a roof replacement project - that was fun...)
I haven't had as much trouble in recent years, mostly because once I got into more of a project manager role I spent a lot less time in the office using CAD. What I've found helps is switching the type of mouse frequently (the one that works best for me is the marble mouse, but I don't use any one mouse for more than a few days before switching), and also changing my chair height to slightly different heights from day to day).

Go see a doctor about it right away. If it is carpal tunnel, early detection should mean that they can perscribe stretching, exercises, specific ergonomic keyboards, asprin, advil, or whatever else you need. I wouldn't hire a doctor to make a house, why ask an aechitect for medical advice?

The cramping sensation in your hand means that you have to go on a smoke break.

i would of preferred carpel tunnel vs what i did get 'stress attack' in the form of a seizure.

nonetheless the heals of my wrists are harder now than when i was doing karate, and as was mentioned the only solution was variance. Changing the position of the mouse, height of the laptop, switch to the desktop every now and then, really mix it up