[Gllug] OT Spinal injuries and computer working positions

[Ben Whyte]

On Wed, April 19, 2006 14:37, M.Blackmore wrote:
> Anyone else got rather bad spinal injuries? I damaged spinal bones in
> two places in my late teens (building site mishap) and then was well and
> truly whiplashed (ooh err, but not like that, alas).
>
> Now, at 50, I have a lot of trouble indeed with scar tissue and fibrotic
> muscles and trapped nerves. Painful and debilitating, sleep disruptive, and
> make sitting at a normal desk for any time difficult. There are only so
> many painkillers one can take a day and one has to take days off (I'm on
> opiates pretty well on demand) to avoid addiction.
>
> Acupunture and professional therapy massage help but only so much money
> available now I'm unable to earn an income :-(
>
> To try and get going again, I've been thinking of ideas ranging from
> going "Japanese" on the floor with cushions (cross legged relieves the
> muscle tension for a while but has its own problems) or a form of
> reclining chair.
>
> The problem with both is how to position a screen and get some sort of
> an input device into the right place to use (I'm a fast touchtypist).
>
> What sort of solutions have people come up with or seen others do?
>
>
> This is getting to be a truly disabling problem and I'm unable to do
> much nowadays :-( except for bursts of about 15 minutes at a time once or
> so an hour.
>
> Nasty.
>
>
> Perhaps we should form a sub-species - Brokeback Penguins. Or perhaps
> that could be misinterpreted... not that I've any problem with anyone's
> proclivities of course, but we don't want to leave any hostages to
> Microsoft FUD do we? Perhaps I'd better stop this politically incorrect
> drift right here...
>
> See y'all
>
>
> Malcolm
> --


Malcolm

Sorry to hear about the damage to the back, I am almost recovered now from
serious lower back problems caused by a car accident.  So I sympathise and
I only had to put up with it for 2 years.

Have you seen and or tried the chairs which you kneel on, similar to some
of the designs here http://www.beautelle.co.uk/water/egonomic stools.htm .

I have seen them used and they are remarkably comfortable although i only
tried it for a short while.

The other thing would be to use speech recognition technology.  I cant
remember what the project was called but a friend of mine at university
5-6 years ago was driving linux using voice recognition and it was working
well including using emacs as her editor of choice.

This would allow you to move around more and possibly to addopt better
seating positions as you wouldnt need the input devices.

Ben

-- 
Ben Whyte

If its tourist season why cant we shoot 'em

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