Success Stories

My RSI Story

By Vivek Deveshwar

Initial symptoms

I was a morning like any else when I had my first real experience with RSI. It was Monday morning after a 3 day weekend, and I was looking forward to work after being well rested. While enroute to office in my car, I started feeling little uneasy and something did not feel right. When I reached office, I could sense that the middle fingers of right hand felt weak and little numb. When gripping a door knob, the thumb and index finger were doing the most work. The sense of unease was still present.

The next 2 hours were a mixture of denial, anxiety, and frenetic search on internet to find out what my symptoms. I had read much about RSI and related illness, and had never experienced anything similar until now. So I quickly searched for if these symptoms could be related to RSI. Fortunately, I also found a link to an RSI specialist (Dr Sharan) in Bangalore, and took an appointment for the same evening.

After checking my shoulders, neck, and arms, the specialist diagnosed me to be with very early stage of Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS). I had read about it earlier in the day, and was relieved to hear 'very early stage' along with the frightening name of condition. I was advised to have 4-5 therapy sessions and then see the doctor.

Initial Therapy

Interestingly, for the rather frightening symptoms I had the first day, my condition was probably not so bad. The therapists did the usual techniques of physiotherapy on my neck and shoulder areas. I did not feel any unusual pain when they pressed through the skin to find out trigger points. From their point of view, it was probably unusual and I had to explain what my symptoms were.

Symptoms and Warning signs

As I gained more knowledge about RSI symptoms, I realized that warning signs and minor symptoms were present even six months earlier. Around that time, I used to feel a very mild pain in middle finger of right hand. Doing my search on internet, I did not find any medical condition which could explain such kind of symptoms. Had I known then it could be caused by RSI, I could have taken preventive action right then. But my impression of RSI related symptoms was limited to the stories in newspapers, which focused rather heavily on Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Also, they tended to focus more on symptoms on a later stage RSI conditions, than the warning signs which I was experiencing. I also had a sore right shoulder due to using mouse on desk, but the symptom did not seem troublesome to me. For a while, I even switched to using mouse with left hand.

Also, around same time, I had lower back pain which was again unusual experience for me. I switched to sleeping on hard floor for a few days, and that relieved the pain somewhat. For a while, I blamed the sagging bed mattresses for their inability to provide good back support! I also experimented with sleeping on my back which I do not usually. The back pain went away, but as I think now, it was probably due to adjustment of the body to new tensions, than a real recovery.

Recovery

In initial recovery period, I continued working my usual full day work schedule. Though at times I thought that it would have been easier on me to have a reduced day of 6 hours of work. By end of the day, it was quite tiring and I used to wonder what has changed. Only later it dawned on me that probably the recovery of RSI was draining the body of its resources. It also probably explained why in weeks leading to the day when I had a major RSI symptom, I had been feeling relatively tired at end of day. There was something happening in the body but it did not manifest until one fine morning. In first few months, unexplainably I had recurring sore throat several times, which I am susceptible to but not so often. I tend to think it was probably reduced immunity of the body that led to these.

While in recovery, I was doing prescribed stretches for the upper body and neck. Initially, it felt as if the neck to shoulder muscle was in constant tension, and I could not help but stretching it every 10 min or so. After a few days or week, the similar feeling spread to front shoulder (deltoids and pectorals), and I felt the need to often do the stretch where I hold hands behind back and push the arms backwards and upwards. At different times, it felt that one stretch was more useful than others, and in a way the body is smart enough to tell that. But again, I think in recovery stage, it is very important to do all the stretches everyday, even though one may need to do more of some than other. I did stretching at home as well as in office.

Useful Experiences with other recovery techniques

Yoga

I have had some bias against yogasanas and had not tried them earlier. I thought myself to be relatively active and did exercise 2-3 times a week. Also, several years back I had practiced martial arts for about 2 years, and left doing when my initial urge was satisfied, and work pressures were increasing.

Maybe it was my ignorance, since I did Surya Namaskar sometimes and did not realize that it was a combination of several asanas. It felt quite useful since it takes very little time to do, and is a good energizer when I had little time or energy to do full exercise. I still believe that Surya Namaskar was 'invented' by a genius of first order!

My body is not inflexible, so doing asanas was not a problem. I thought it was a good supplement to upper body stretches, which focus on a very specific muscle. Yoga postures tend to stretch several parts of body at once, and the combination of breathing and rhythm tends to energize the whole body rather than just stretching a specific muscle. After a few initial days, I could feel that my standing posture was better than before. I felt more straight and could feel that my heels to back of head were sort of coming in a straight line.

After having recovered, I still do yoga asanas every once in a while, and find them very useful for keeping body flexible and maintaining good posture.

Alexander Technique

While doing my internet (re-)searches on RSI, I came across this technique which promised to get the body rid of its habitually formed tensions. It seemed to offer an interesting possibility to avoid further RSI, since one of the causes of RSI is poor, tension laden working techniques.

I recently had chance to have lessons in Alexander Technique (AT) with experts of the technique. From my experience, it tends to cultivate an attitude in the body so that body can be in a natural, light, and expanding state than get into tension ridden, and constricting state. My initial experience has been quite encouraging. I was having some lower back discomfort for a while, and after a few sessions of AT, it has reduced by 90%. I think it must have improved the way I tend to sit, since nothing else has changed in my work hours or for that matter my chair! AT tends to encourage postures which feel light and movements which feel easier. I can feel it since earlier I was tending to sit with my back pushing the chair back and I still felt there was not good support, but now I can sit straight and light on the same chair.

I still have more lessons and practice to do in AT, so will keep it short for now.

My experience and recovery tips

I found drinking more water necessary, since the recovering muscles seem to take up more than normal supply. For some days in initial recovery, I almost felt as if the upper body muscles were sucking up the water I drank. This was unusual feeling and lasted only few days. I found the middle stage of recovery ( in my case, after 1st month to about 3rd month) to be more uncertain. The pain and other symptoms seem to change their location and intensity in unpredictable way. For example, for 1-2 weeks, I felt pain in right hand but more towards surface than deep in the bones. I tended to ignore it thinking that it is part of recovery than a new symptom, and it most likely was since I am recovered now. Within a few months, my activity level had increased and I was less tired than before at end of a work day. I started playing table tennis, and maybe it is just coincidence, but felt that I needed to spend less time stretching after that. The activity of table tennis seemed to do some of the same work for me that stretching was supposed to. I sometimes work with laptop and found that keyboard is quite constraining. I found that using a wireless keyboard and mouse especially useful with laptop, so it comes to par with a desktop PC in terms of ergonomics. Also, an optical mouse is much more accurate than roller mouse, which tends to increase need for mouse work due to dust and particles caught in roller. It is good to sensitize your workplace and colleagues about RSI. Sending emails and content about RSI prevention is one way of doing so.