UKC

I wonder if any UKC wisdom can advise...

When typing (especially for longer periods) I get a lot of pain in my left thumb. This generally gets no use when I type so it's always just kind og floating doing nothing.

The pain is a dull ache and seems to be in the muscles between my thumb and index finger. It is painful to squeeze (much more so than my right hand).

I had a typed 3.5 hour exam in January and it was horrible - I had to get up many times due to the pain and resorted to only using my index fingers to type with the rest of my hand in a kind of fist. This vaguely helped.

Now my next exam is in 2 weeks and I have been getting a lot of pain again recently and I'm dreading the typing I will have to do as I know it's going to be very painful again.

So, three questions:

1) Any idea what might be causing this?
2) Is there anything to do that might make it better?
3) Would it be a physio who I would see to get a qualified opinion?

I'm going to contact the exam board on Monday and see if it's possible to write the exam instead but it would be good to have an idea of what it may be before this.

Thanks,
James

In reply to James Malloch:

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Carpal-tunnel-syndrome/Pages/Whatisit.aspx maybe?

In reply to James Malloch:

I've had a number of issues over the years, due to sitting using a computer all day. Essentially down to bad posture. An assessment of my posture, workstation, and a split keyboard and joystick mouse fixed them although I'm now experiencing some different problems due to the mouse...

Sitting badly at a desk is dangerous, and I've had words with our H&S rep about our graduate intake, and their tendency to slump in their chairs...

Not sure if this s your problem, but it's worth thinking about.

In reply to James Malloch:

Jez....try having a manual job for the last 20 years.
I struggle to get dressed in the morning.
Give it a rub youth