Thread: RSI, please don’t give me that crap

Well... ahem... I had CPL or as its now also known as RSI back before it was termed either! And it wasnt from a computer or desk job... at the time Id been workin at a brick yard on the carosel thats a thing that goes round and round and you along with a bunch of other twits on peice work go like buggary lifting 6 bricks at a time turning and putting them down on pallets to be moved to the holding yard... now the movement was hands either side of the stack of 6 bricks pick up stack turn put down stack and so on... the more you did the more you earnt

Id been doing this work for near on 2 years when pain began in my wrists just behind my thumbs... over a period of a few days the pain increased to such a level I literally couldnt move my hand or fingers without severe pain and I do mean SEVERE PAIN!

Okay so compo see quacks see more quacks have arguments with said quacks and insurance company forced back to work cant work forced back onto compo back to quacks see even more bloody quacks till finally one sends me for the new fangled and expensive MRI scan "ahha!" said said quack who prompty set me into a hospital bed sliced my carpel tunnels or whatever the blazes they do and I was wrapped up by the mits for over a week... then the regimen of physio and barrage of visits to various quacks and super duper quacks started all over again! all said quacks super quacks and physios recommended doing NOTHING!! wearing a bloody fibreglass support that held my wrists straight and thumbs in an upright position! ... but to do nothing if I get pain do nothing stop doing nothing cause that sort of nothing is obviously not doing the job its ment to do so do another form of bloody nothing!!

End of story was that I wasnt wearing the damned brace thing I was excersizing the hand wrist and thumb contrary to all advice back then and I was going into the pain marginally every time a bit more every time it got a bit better... till I finally got the clearance cert to return to work... if I had of have done what those idiots said I had to do which was essentially imobilize the hand and thumb Id still be buggared!! Instead I went against their methods and fixed the problem!... Im not saying I took the brace of and started lifting weights I didnt but when it hurt more than I thought I could tolerate I went just a tad further what this did that the bloody quacks super quacks and physios couldnt see was to slowly and gently strengthen the wrists and thumbs

While some do scam the compo system its not as prevelant as you appear to think... mmm I think I can feel a bit of a rant type thread coming up from inside?? mmmm

RSI and CTS are real they do friggin hurt like buggary and they dont necessarily happen just to typists or office johnnies either!

Originally Posted by Wild Dingo

RSI and CTS are real they do friggin hurt like buggary and they dont necessarily happen just to typists or office johnnies either!

I will second that.

Hello Wongo,I noticed your thread about RSI or whatever and it caught my attention.

I've been laying bricks for a long time now(37years)and every now and then (at the moment actually,hence the interest)I get a bout of tennis elbow,usually after laying blocks too high.We had to lay concrete blocks 10 courses high recently and that really ripped both my elbows pretty well.If the other people who get this problem feel like I do at the moment then I feel sorry for them as it is extremely painful and won't go away for me until I get a shot of cortisone.I can't imagine putting up with it for long periods if it didn't go away as it is just too painful and you just don't have the necessary strength to operate normally.You mentioned that it might be more likely to affect people who are unfit but I haven't found that theory to be right as I still am pretty active and coach boxing at the local PCYC four nights a week as well as laying bricks all day so maybe the problem doesn't discriminate in that way.Anyway,it is a nasty problem to encounter and wouldn't like it to happen too often and heres hoping the cortisone works this time.Regards Terry

Glucosamine Terry, glucosamine.

I used to get the same pains in my elbows too, made me almost cry each night from pain.
Then I discovered glucosamine , then as if by magic the pain went, and stayed away.

It took 6 months for the pain to go and I still take glucosamine each day.
I dont take the tablets, I buy the stuff in powder form in kilo tubs.

I havent had the pains for over 6 or more years now.
All I get now is the odd pain in the back.

This has been Doctor Al

G/day Al,Thanks for the tip,I'll start on that stuff next week My wife actually uses the tablets but I'll get the powder form you are recommending and have a crack at that.We were only helping another gang out for a few days when this happened as they insisted that they always went ten courses and we didn't need a "hop up".Of course as soon as we finished the eighth course the other two blokes with us had to go and set up another wall and we (son and I)were left to it.My elbows had been sore since coming back from Perth recently as we were laying alot of over sized bricks over there some of which were 150mm wide and hard on your arms up high.So we had to lift the blocks up with both hands on the front web of the block and lift them over the line (two metres high)This finished my elbows off pretty well and after topping a couple of walls like that I told them to "jam it"and we went back to nine courses,but the damage was done.And people tell you they would love to be brickies Al and rake in the money.Ha ha.Regards Terry

Originally Posted by Wongo

Dazzler

No I am sure they are not lying. Maybe they are just physically unfit.

Oh my back is sore, it is the chair. I can’t sit down for longer than 10 minutes. Give me a bed.

Even fit people can develop back problems later in life.

Originally Posted by ozwinner

It took 6 months for the pain to go and I still take glucosamine each day.
I dont take the tablets, I buy the stuff in powder form in kilo tubs.

I'm taking glucosamine as well.....4000mg a day plus good old fish oil tablets (5000mg/day). Like Al says the glucosamine does work and often the change is quite amazing.

A study was done recently on a group of elderly tennis players in Adelaide. They were put on high dosages of fish oil (15000mg/day I think) and results were very impressive.

Hi all, new to this here forum so please be gentle.

I'm teaching an over 50's group how to use PC's down at the local Community Centre.
The first thing I sorted out when the administrator showed me the computer area was the mouse rest, there wasn't one.

When I started on computers for the first time around 8 years ago, did genuinely suffer from what was apparently RSI in the right, mouse arm.
Here at home I have an elbow rest so my arm below the elbow is fully supported and its a godsend.
They had their mouse pads sitting right on the edge of the cabinets where all that is touching the surface is the hand and a few inches of your lower arm.
I had a go and had to get off it around 10 minutes in. It hurt like hell.
So organized some laminated planks, drilled a few holes and had a swivelling lower arm support for mouse use.

Oh, and by the way, 30 odd years ago I loaded 60lb projectiles into a gun turrets cradle in the Royal Australian Navy, post RAN was into many lines of work involving heavy lifting and labour, such as builderers labourer, demolitions, brickies and plasterers labourer, and played Aussie Rules Football for more than 15 years.
The pain I copped in the first few months of using a PC mouse, without exaggeration was much like a huge rusty old nail driven into my arm below the elbow and had not experienced this agony before.
Also started on the Glucosamine & Fish Oil stuff, heard its dynamite for osteo-arthritis in the old back as well.