Is Your Computer Mouse Giving You Carpal Tunnel?

I have to smile looking at that image above.  My eyes flit from it to its near twin sitting right beside me. 

The major difference between them is that mine is about six years old and still going strong. These things are light-weight, but sturdy.  It will probably out-live me and become an heirloom for my nearest and dearest.  (They probably wouldn't want my jewelry anyway.)

But over half a decade of having my sweaty paw all over it hasn't half made a change in the coloring. You can tell where my hand sits! 

Yes, I did give it all a good polish before you saw it.  And no, that isn't dust on the edge of my mouse-pad. It's gone a bit frayed with age.  The books are: a Welsh-English dictionary dating from 1922; a dictionary & thesaurus; and a tiny white corner of The Sims 2 Deluxe. 

Back to the mouse. 

After over half a decade of using it, those light grey parts are where my palm and thumb rest.  It's not like the paint comes off on your hand.  That's gradually happened over time, in the same way as an old staircase eventually gets worn in the middle.

But those marks also give the clue to how this mouse works; and why it's so good for your wrist.  It's really comfortable too!

You merely place your whole hand over it.  My palm rests on the long pad.  That never moves at all. 

My thumb and little finger sit over the two wide buttons.  My index and middle fingers are on the trackball.  It moves in every direction, which you can control precisely with your fingertips. 

This makes it a fantastic mouse for a gamer.  You can twitch play with this far, far more easily than you can with ordinary computer mice. 

The only part of my hand regularly moving are those digits on the trackball.  I can even be lazy about it and just use my index finger.  Not so precise, but perfectly adequate for randomly clicking on Reddit links.

Please ignore the angle of that last image.  My wrist isn't usually so twisted.  I had to turn the mouse so that you could see where my little finger is placed. 

In normal, day to day use, my arm, wrist and hand are in beautiful alignment.  No strain, no stress, and no risk of the dreaded carpal tunnel.

Which leads me nicely onto why I was given this gift; and how I believe it's led to me dodging a bullet here.

A few weeks ago, I started to get a pins and needles sensation in my wrist.  It began right at the base of my thumb and continued down.

I naturally ignored it.

Over the course of several days, the tingling spread up through my index finger and down towards my elbow. It remained centered on my wrist and seemed worse in the mornings.

With the morbid half-panic of someone just weeks away from her fortieth birthday, I decided that I was having a heart-attack, or a stroke, or something equally horrific. 

I finally had it checked out; and the diagnosis was one which would have had my old work colleague shrieking, "I told you so!"

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is basically wear and tear on the innards of your wrist. You'll need to check with someone more medically qualified than myself for the fine detail. It's caused by repeatedly performing the same action over and over again.

Like typing, or moving a mouse, or anything else that us gamer, geek, freelance writing types do all day, every day.  Contributory negligence then.

So how did the Kensington Trackball mouse prevent this, if a doctor said that I have it?  My carpal tunnel is only in one wrist.  The left side is screaming out for relief.  The right side is sitting pretty on the mouse and hasn't given me so much as a twinge.

I wouldn't do without my trackball mouse now.  It's not even the carpal tunnel thing.  I'm not that sensible.  If I could get an edge in gaming with another mouse, I'd just invest in two wrist supports instead.

It's the comfort, speed and precision that I love.

I've taken the ball out, so you can see how it all works. The optical sensors mean that the trackball never sticks. It glides in its socket wherever my finger-tips want the cursor to go.  Which is bad news for the bosses, who meet me in my games.

Luckily for me, it's also beneficial for my health.  If my left wrist nearly fell to carpal tunnel just typing, then imagine what state my right one could have been in!  The mouse is notorious for causing repetitive strain!

I could just swop sides.  Both the Kensington Trackball and I are ambidextrous.  Unlike most computer mice, you don't have to use it with your right hand. The trackball is in the center.

On the off-chance that my mouse should ever fall into disrepair, I will buy another one. It's now an essential computing accessory for me.