Trouble ahead, I’m afraid.
The pinky finger on my left hand has been aching for the past few days. It started during the intensive debugging sessions I had at the office lately, and now it shoots pain every single time it reaches for the left Shift key. In the picture above, you can see that the marking of the “A” key is almost gone. Also notice how far the finger has to travel to reach the Shift key.
I will see if it improves over the next few days with more frequent breaks and control over my typing speed — fingers on home keys; one finger off the home keys at a time; active finger returns to home key before next finger move; and so on — and if the pain gets worse, I will have to consider a specialist.
One thing I noticed in the picture: the Shift key on a US keyboard is wider. It has the same width as the Shift key and the backslash key (from the picture) combined.
I usually get relief from the combination of anti-inflammatory pills and a visit to my massage therapist. I feel so much better after she has treated my forearms.
Yeah, I attribute part of the problem to the shorter Shift key. Hopefully, use of the Dvorak keyboard will reduce the load on the pinky finger.
How hard is it to get use to another keyboard layout? As for me, I wish I’ve learned how to use my right Shift and CTRL keys more often. I guess, I’ll have to force myself to do it, even if I have to slow down my pace at the beginning.
I have been using an ergonomic keyboard at home for years, starting with my first Windows PC (remember it ? ). I am starting to thing that regardless how ergonomic one’s keyboard is, like you said, like you said, RSI eventually catches up. The only solution is frequent break and regular “keyboardless” days. I felt so much better after my last vacation, because I was rarely touching a computer.
Of course, we are getting old. Our bodies don’t heal as fast as they used to when we were 20 :-)
It is very hard, that I can assure you. And, yes, muscle memory is hard to get rid of. I’ve been training on Dvorak for two days now, going cold turkey, and I’ve attained a typing speed of only about 20 words per minute.
I have also had pinky RSI, although in my case it’s the right pinky. I have a pinky RSI page that documents my case.
Thanks for the link, Greg. Actually, I’ve viewed this exact same page while looking for tips to manage with the discomfort.
I’ve now switched to a MS Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 and the Dvorak layout. Ironically, the pain has switched from the left pinky to the right one!
I guess there is no better remedy than frequent breaks!
Eddy
I don’t completely agree. I agree that you should take breaks,
but at least in my case, prudent remapping made a much bigger difference.
My breaks don’t eat into my work time all that much.
Greg,
I appreciate your view about remapping keys. Too often, character sequences require using the pinky in quick successions, especially when typing code — the opening and closing curly brackets follow each other closely. In fact, even this previous sentence puts a lot of strain on the right pinky on a Dvorak keyboard (the two s’s in “successions” and the two l’s in “especially”).
Luckily, for coding a good IDE that automatically closes opening brackets and parentheses lessens the problem.
— Eddy
It may not help with programming much, but voice recognition software is definitely part of the solution.