TABLET SAVES MAN'S WRIST (MAYBE)

For quite some time now, I've been trying different ways of relieving wrist pain from mousing all day long. Special "floating" wrist supports that move with the mouse as well as bandaging up my hand and wrist so they don't move relative to each other may be helping, but aren't totally relieving the situation.

As far as I know, I don't suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome. My doctor looked at it, said "ganglia", then quickly changed the subject. It's a small bump at the base of my thumb, where the wrist starts, that supposedly contains bundled nerves. Presumably, I pushed them all there by leaning on it continuously while mousing. Thanks,doc.

Most people would say "Change jobs", but as a technical writer and photographer, tearing me away from FrameMaker and Photoshop are not options. The pain from this condition is quite distracting. I feel like Hercules after a haircut; with grip comes pain, so I've effectively lost strength in my right hand.

I had a V8 moment recently. The bonk on the forehead came when I read a product announcement in a photography magazine about pen and touch tablets. Due to my finely-honed reasoning powers, I went "Hey - I'm left handed. If this tablet thingy replaces a mouse, I can give my right hand a rest".

They're not expensive, so this weekend, I trotted out and bought one. While every new device requires some adaptation time, I'm loving the concept. With the supplied pen (or stylus), I can navigate menus and precisely touch up photos. I don't use the touch feature (like the glide pad on laptops) as much, but do find it handier than the pen for scrolling through documents.

It's early days yet, but it certainly feels good not to be leaning continuously on my "bump". Will it allow my hand pain to cure on its own? Maybe not, but I'm willing to look into exercises that will.

I just wish I had thought of it sooner.