"My Wrist Hurts from
playing games that use my MOUSE!!".
By: [TiC]EVIL.
2 June, 2004
(also see other gaming tips at
www.ticclan.com)
DISCLAIMER
- See a Doctor if you are hurt.
Do NOT get medical advice from a gaming web site. ;-)
This info here is simply that, "info", so make your
decisions accordingly.
After spending hours and hours playing games the first month
I got on my first personal computer back in 1998, I noticed
that my right wrist started to hurt and get sore. The more I
played, the worst it got. I figured out that with me, that
the pain was being caused because my wrist was staying
"bent" and being moved for hours as I used the mouse with
that hand to play the PC games. Unwilling to stop playing
the PC games ;-), I had to figure out what was causing the
soreness and how to prevent it. I figured out pretty quickly
that the soreness (in my case) was caused by improper
alignment of my arm to my hand at my wrist and the fact that
I was moving my wrist being bent in that position for hours
at a time. I was laying my arm on my desk and had to bend my
wrist (at a pretty good angle) to hold and move the mouse
rapidly as the game demanded for hours.
The solution to my problem was to "elevate my wrist to the
proper height" so that my wrist was not being bent so much.
I needed to set my wrist on something, so what I did was
simply rest my wrist on another unused mouse and it worked
GREAT! The second mouse is about the same height as the one
connected to my computer. If you don't have a second mouse,
or an old junk mouse, you could probably use anything that
is close to the same height as your mouse. The local
computer stores sales little soft "gel wrist pads" for this
purpose, but they smell pretty bad (I guess the chemicals in
them must be pretty bad). After trying a gel pad for a few
hours, my hand stunk like the pad. If you could find a good
"non-stinking" gel pad, I guess that would be the best fix
for this problem, but I have yet to find one. On the lighter
side, in a pinch, I have even used a mostly gone toilet
paper roll to rest my wrist on (I stuff the center of the
roll with paper so it doesn't collapse). hey it's better
than a sore wrist, I wouldn't do this at work though ;-).
Also, for me I had to stop playing PC games all together for
almost a week for the soreness to completely stop. After
that it was ok to play games as long as I always used the
second mouse to elevate my wrist. I guess the soreness is
caused by the beginnings of "carpal tunnel syndrome". I had
a sister that was a typist and had had "carpal tunnel
syndrome" so bad, she had needed surgery to correct it.
Don't let it get to that stage. If it just won't stop
hurting, you might need to see a Doctor.
In this diagram the wrist resting incorrectly directly on
the table as it grabs the mouse:
(Notice the excessive angle the
wrist is bent.)
In this diagram the person's wrist is
resting on the second mouse to better elevate wrist:
Sorry, for the quality of the drawings, I am not an artist.
;-)
Hope this helps you.
Happy gaming to all!
And remember, gaming shouldn't kill you!!
;-)
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