Using touch screen gadgets and pain

[Rocky1]

Hi, im starting to wonder whether using touchscreen gadgets is naking my wrist pain worse because of the swiping movements. Am considering stopping using these items to see if it helps.

[Hidden]

Hello

In the past when using a keyboard we used to get repetitive strain injury, it was caused by the way we hold our hands and fingers when typing and using the keyboard.

Sorry I am not sure of this problem now, I still use a keyboard and do not have a touch screen. Possible when you hold the computer and rub your had across the screen it may put stresses on your fingers and wrists.

When I was at work I was a Telegraph Engineer for a time and use to suffer tiredness with fingers and wrists when using a mechanical keyboard I just used too rest and do something else

Have words with the GP, may have an idea of repetitive strain injury in today's world

Good Luck

BOB

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Hello All,

I know this is an old post, but thought some info from my hospital specialist might be of interest to anyone coming across the subject of pain related to use of tablet computers and touchscreens.

According to my hospital specialist, ever since the invention of touchscreen smartphones and tablet computers, there has been a massive upsurge in cervical spine injuries -- in particular, C5-C6 Cervical Herniated Discs -- which is like a slipped disc in the neck.

This traps (or squeezes) the nerves that control your hands and arms where they enter the spine between the C5 and C6 vertebrae, and causes hand pain or loss of feeling.

The cause is that when you're using a tablet or smartphone, you may be tilting your head forwards. Your neck, especially the cervical spine, isn't designed to support the very great weight of the human head if constantly tilted forwards (as versus the normal upright position) which causes too great a pressure on the squidgy discs between the vertebrae, and the squidgy stuff (medical term) gets squeezed out ; i.e. a slipped disc and trapped nerves.

So, if you're using a tablet computer or smartphone, do be sure to hold it at normal eye level -- never looking down -- when you're using it, especially when using the touchscreen keyboard.

John

[earthwitch]

It could be, but I would think the problems would be more related to how much you were using these devices, and how vigorously you were swiping. if you are doing any action at all repeatedly you will have problems with overuse strain, so it might just be a case of limiting your use of touch screens to a sensible amount, and not sitting using one for more than a few minutes at a time. As Bob says, keyboard use has its own problems if you overdo it.

[Rocky1]

Thanks for your answers, I guess I am desperate to find reasons for all my pain and think about all the things I do but nothing has helped.

[teadrinker]

Well that's one thing that won't be causing pain for me - I am rubbish at using touch screens!

It doesn't take much to set off the pain in my fingers. I did a lot of knitting recently and I had big problems but it's all so much better now that I am not knitting! I'm sure that holding my hands in that position was causing it but I wasn't going to stop doing something I wanted to.

I also get pain when I've done 2 days consecutively at work & done a lit of typing. I am trying to use my wrist rests.

As for you thinking about what might be causing your pain, that's completely natural. I was like that when my pain was really awful - in fact I still am a bit if I get a flare up. I think that in the dark days when it was all bad for me my pain system and my brain was so over-sensitive that everything put it into overdrive. It took a long time of chipping away at it and trying all sorts of things to make it better to wrestle it into something that is -for the moment- easy to deal with. It's often not one single thing that causes the pain, and not one single thing that sorts it out.

[earthwitch]

Have you ever seen an occupational therapist about finding different ways of doing things with your hands? Normally you'd think it would be a physio, but actually OTs are really good at finding solutions and options if things you are doing are causing pain. It might be as simple as having a gel wrist rest, or a working wrist splint, which the OT can also supply. Some places you can self refer, so worth phoning up and saying you are having problems doing certain things with your hands and want some help with finding different ways.