[Gllug] OT Spinal injuries and computer working positions

[Branden Faulls]

On Wed, Apr 19, 2006 at 02:37:10PM +0100, 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).

Sorry to hear that you're suffering. I had a stress fracture in my
sacruum (bottom of your spine/part of your pelvis) a few years back
and used my recovery time to learn web development and Linux in
general.  

> 
> 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.
> 

In my experience, pain killers give you back your humanity by removing
the pain, but mask some causes of pain in the first place and end up
perpetuating some of the problem.

> Acupunture and professional therapy massage help but only so much money
> available now I'm unable to earn an income :-(

Sorry to hear it.  I used one-on-one pilates training as a means to learn how to stand and
sit again.  Unfortunately this was really expensive, but essential to
geting me back onstage (my profession was performing artist at the time).

> 
> 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).

I too am a fast touch typist, so it took me a bit to figure out what
worked. Variety is really important.  

> 
> What sort of solutions have people come up with or seen others do?
> 

Here's what worked for me:

* Kneeling chair for as long as I could stand it. Then conventional
chair when I got fatigued.  This was fifteen minutes of each at first
then I had to go lay down.  
* A split keyboard helped me to find a good balance with arm position
and since my kbd was a 2 piece job I could get a lot of variety of
position.
* I tweaked my monitor height until it was just right.
* I use a trackball, as regular mice make my shoulders imbalanced and
my hands numb and cold. 
* Later I included a yoga/swiss/pilates/pregnancy/exercise ball into my
seating rotation.  This is really tiring but builds strength.

The most important thing that worked in my experiments was to
introduce variety and breaks into my seating and working positions.
This prevented stationary positions (bad) and slowly built strength
(good).  Stomach and pelvic strength is your biggest ally in dealing
with back problems.


> 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.

15 minutes a day was all I could manage for the first 6 weeks of my
recovery.  Build up slooooooowly. 

> 
> Nasty.
> 

Don't get discouraged and find something that works for you.  I
eventually got back on stage and since my injury, have run a marathon,
done some serious mountaineering and even survived an avalanche
recently.  

Pursue your wellbeing and don't let anyone bully you into something
that is counterproductive for your painlevels/peace-of-mind.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

Branden
-- 
Branden Faulls

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