I just tried to show the number 2 with my right hand. Normally I do this by trapping my pinky and ring with my thumb. I was stunned to realize I couldn’t do it. Now, I don’t know when the last time I made a 2 with my hand was (not any time recently), but I do know I used to be able to do it. I can do it just fine with my left hand. But all of a sudden, I can’t do it with my right. Hard to explain, except that my first two fingers simply don’t want to move, and won’t extend beyond maybe 60 degrees.
Odd. It doesn’t hurt, and for all I know it’s been this way forever. The only thing I can figure is all these years spent in front of a computer for and for play, with a mouse in hand has affected the shape of my hand?
Anyway, that’s my weird and pointless thought for the day. I have mouse hand.
I don’t have the exact problem you have, but I’ve found that after working on a lap top with little red mouse button, my hand, from the ring finger to the pinky and up to almost my wrist, is numb a lot of the time. I hate that. I’m not sure if I’m doing permanent damage, but it’s sure annoying the hell out of me right now.
Numbness after repeated small motions is the classic symptom of RMI (Repetitive Motion Injury, formerly know as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome)
Call or better yet see a doctor. The damage to the nerve(s) becomes permanent over time, and you **don’t **want to have to have surgery.
If you’re working with the laptop on top of a desk or table, chances are it’s too high, and the angle of your wrist is a strained one. Adjusting that might help prevent further injury. Personally, I think it’s worth getting an external keyboard and mouse if you’re working on a laptop for extended periods of time.
When I have Mouse Hand, it’s usually in the winter, and the symptoms are that my right hand is cold! Brrr … chilly cold mouse hand, all stuck up there away from the rest of the warm body.
That’s what I have always called Mouse Hand.
But, sorry for your troubles. Better check into it.
And stop using a mouse forthwith! Hie thee to your local computer shop - after seeing the doctor - and try some of the alternative input devices. Two to look out for are a pen and tablet and a device which looks like a joystick but is in fact a pointing device. Some people like rollerballs but I found them inferior.
Pen and tablet can be just as bad as regular mouse for some RSI. For now, switch mousing to your left hand to give your right a break. You might also look into a Vertically aligned mouse – it looks somewhat like a joystick but doesn’t rotate on its base. You grip it and move it using mainly your bicep, instead of the small muscles in your hand. I can’t remember the exact name, but it’s made by 3M. Search “3M ergonomic mouse” and you’ll find it.
You might also download the useful and free utility called Activeclick. It clicks for you based on certain parameters you set. Takes some practice but its actually kind of nifty once you have the hang of it.
I started getting “mouse hand” early on in my computer use, and switched to a trackball. I recommend Logitech TrackMan with the marble wheel. There are several designs; I find the best one to be where you operate the ball with your thumb and rest your index and middle fingers on the left and right click buttons. After getting used to it, I stopped getting that pain in the back of my hand. Now I find a regular mouse clumsy and difficult to operate.
I have one of these and I love it so much that I had my workplace get me one for work. (Oh bad thought! I’m switching jobs and the new one is bound to have a normal mouse!) I also have a shoulder problem that makes my hands and arms go numb and cold regardless of what I am doing. Basically, my arms were coming out of the shoulder socket enough to compress the nerves and veins and arteries in my shoulders. Physical therapy wasn’t fun, but now I have better shoulders than 80 percent of you all. And my hands don’t turn blue anymore.
I had problems with my right elbow a while back and switched to using my mouse with my left hand. Helped immensely. I also second the advice of making sure your workspace is set up correctly. And the part about seeing a doctor…
Thirding the suggestion for looking into the Logitech TrackMan. I’ve got the exact same mouse, and it’s wonderful. At 21 I’ve got injuries in my wrist to the point where using a normal mouse for anything more than half an hour or so continuously makes the tendons and joints in my right hand ache deplorably. But since I’ve gotten my TrackMan, it’s been wonderful. The ball is more sensitive than a normal mouse, so less range of motion is needed to get across the page, and the aching doesn’t set in… I won’t say at all, but i haven’t had as much problem with aching or sharp pains since I’ve started using it. Now I just need a doctor’s recommendation, so I can make them get me one for work.
I can’t deal without a scroll wheel. About 50% of the mouses at work don’t have them, so if I end up on a desk without one (we hotdesk), I’ll go and steal one from someone else’s desk.
It would be much easier if I could get work to get me a trackman.
I’ve got to go to the doctor and actually get it in writing that I need one, just saying it isn’t enough.
So I’ve been to the doc, but the xrays turned up no visible damage, so before I can get the letter saying I need one, I need to go to a neurologist and have a nerve induction study done to prove that it’s injured my hand to the extent that I say it has. And I’ve not had many weekdays off recently, so I haven’t been able to get there yet.
That’s nuts. My worked required a doctor’s note too but they accepted one from my GP that simply indicated I had tendonitis and needed “ergonomic adjustments” to my workstation. I even got an Occupational Therpist who rearranged my entire cube, bought me my ergo-mouse, got a “broken/natural” keyboard, got permission to download Activeclick, and ordered me a special (shorter than the standard ones) chair.
The key, I think, is that I did not work through my manager or HR. I contacted “Loss Prevention” which, in addition to managing shoplifting and such, also concerns itself with workplace-related injury. As soon as they heard my injury was aggravated by typing and mousing, they were on it like white on rice.
As much as I like to diss my old employer, this is one area where they really treated me well.
I’ve got the congenital equivalent of mouse hand. Either hand, I can’t hold up three fingers by trapping my pinkie under my thumb. The two just don’t connect, and never have. I can bend them sos they’re parallel, but I can’t make them cross. It’s a lucky thing I don’t have to count on my fingers.
I get mouse hand (carpal tunnel syndrome) after I’ve been typing or clicking around for a long while–I just go downstairs and play the piano for a while, or ice the wrist if I can.
I think there are special mousepads and keyboard pads out there that give your wrists support and reduce the mouse hand syndrome…