Success Stories

My experiences with RSI

By Vishal Sharma

I am 30 yrs. old and I have been using computers for almost 10 years now, quiet extensively in the last 7 years (once I left college and joined the IT industry), typing/mousing for an average of 8 hours everyday (max. of 20 hours at a stretch). I recount below my experiences with RSI injury (back pain) and how I recovered from it.

It started quite innocently with a little pain in the lower back in July, 2003. I applied some Iodex/Moov, and expected it to go away. When it became quite severe, after about 2 weeks I visited a orthopedician in Indiranagar. He diagnosed it as work-related (read computer work related) pain, told me to take some breaks while working, correct sitting posture and recommended walks and some exercises. Of course, painkillers were given to help deal with the pain, and a week of ultrasound physiotherapy to relax the back muscles. Though it seemed to be working initially, the pain came back in a big way 2 weeks later. I went back to the same doctor, and he was surprised that my pain had not gone away. Some blood tests and an X-ray later (which did not show any problems) , he more-or-less told me to live with it.... Try to correct posture, and continue with exercises..... I bought a new, supposedly ergonomic chair at my home and workplace, and couldn't really sit anywhere else. The chair helped, as it had some lower-back support. Visits to restaurants became painful, as most places have really poor chairs, as far as supporting lower-back is concerned.

My whole life changed. I was scared of picking my son (2 yr. old) for long periods, as my pain would increase. Lifting loads, walking up the stairs, playing games (I used to be an active cricketer/badminton player), jumping around was totally out. I searched on the web for RSI/lower-back pages, and got tonnes of material. Tried to sit correctly, took breaks (even installed a software on my PC, which advised me to take regular breaks depending on my keyboard/mouse activity), took lots of precautions. But the damn pain wont go away completely. It would keep going up and down in severity, but never leave me.

Then one day I came to know about Dr.Deepak Sharan (through one of my friends) and his special CRI treatments. Not sure, but with "what's there to lose" attitude, I paid him a visit. Dr.Deepak Sharan was very impressive. He seemed so sure about the cause (and more importantly, the treatment) of my problem... And he had lots of data (of earlier patients) to back-up his confidence. Dr.Deepak Sharan diagnosed me as a stage-3 CRI patient. He recommended some physiotherapy sessions (Trigger Point Therapy), coupled with hot water packs (and massage). I had to go for physiotherapy for about 3 weeks, which was not easy (considering the Bangalore traffic in the evening, and the fact that everyday I had to leave office at about 5:30pm). My manager was very supportive about this. And finally after all this treatment (coupled with regular stretch exercises advised), my back pain subsided drastically. It did not go away completely, but it was very very less. This was in Feb. 2004. So, after about 8 months of stuggle, my back pain became ok. Then to strengthen the back muscles, I started doing yoga exercises. These helped a lot, and for sometime the pain miraculously went away completely. Now I do yoga daily in the morning for about 30 min, try to sit with correct posture in office, and take small, frequent breaks from work. All this coupled with walks (whenever I get time) has helped me a lot, and the back pain is very much in control.

I would like to thank Dr.Deepak Sharan for having shown me the correct path to redemption, and also to my friend who advised me to go to Dr.Deepak Sharan in the first place. To all the guys suffering from RSI, I would like to say this: Be positive. Do not feel frustrated. If I can become ok, so can you (at one point, I had also given up). The important thing is to get correct advise and then follow it religiously. To all the guys out there having some problem early symptoms of RSI: Please don't take any pain casually. Try to catch the problem earlier, and it will be easy to solve. To give an IT-industry analogy, a problem caught earlier in the design cycle is much easier to fix! Take some proper, professional help, and don't take it easy. You may feel that you have some important project to complete, but you must remember this: if your body stops working, how will you live (let alone do a project). Listen to your body signals, and respond to them in time. And to all those guys who work with computers all the time, but don't have any problem: Be careful, and learn from others' (people like me) mistakes. It is much better not to let any kind of RSI injury happen at all.

Vishal Sharma (vis_hal_74@yahoo.com)